Many things can happen in a short amount of time ..

So, we're here & we have a new little person in the family!  All is well here, and we're having so much fun after a day and a half here in Addis.

We left London on Sunday night at 9 pm after 1) a an angry, tearful scene at the check-in counter at Ethiopian Airlines (in spite of the tears, we ended up paying close to $200 in baggage fees), and 2) almost missing our flight despite checking in over 2 hours before it took off due to our collective lack of time-pieces and all of the distractions of Heathrow Airport.  The flight was fine, but neither me nor Matt was able to sleep at all the whole night.  We arrived at 8 am, disembarked, and then spent the next two hours in lines to achieve various things, such as getting visas, going through customs, etc.  The kids were completely spent, as were we, and the airport scene put us all over the edge.  By the time we met Travis from Gladney, I felt slightly hysterical and insane, and then he informed us that he would be bringing Ruby to our guesthouse in an hour!  I would love to say that I was overjoyed and immediately revived by this great news, but in reality I almost passed out and was on the verge of tears.  I had thought we would be meeting her late that afternoon, so we would have most of the day to rest and regroup.  Of course, being me, I had imagined the first meeting in a very specific way, and being strung out was not part of the dream.  However, Kate and Matt seemed game, and it was what we had come for after all, so I did my best to rally.

After a quick shower and rest at the lovely Bejoe Guest House (more on that later), we got word that Travis was bringing Ruby and two other babies over in 10 minutes!  We got all ready, grabbed the cameras and went out to the lawn to wait.  Emotionally, it was very strange.  There are so few moments in life where you are experiencing a thing for the first time where you have absolutely no emotional context for it.  I remember that about 10 minutes before I walked down the aisle to get married I realized that I couldn't even put into words what I was experiencing, because it was an emotion that I had never had before - some combination of excitement, anxiety, change, happiness and finality that I couldn't put a finger on.  Anyway, it was the same feeling with this.  Just very strange. 

Travis brought one of the other babies out first - beautiful Bereket - and we took pictures of her meeting her parents for the first time.  And then he brought out this chubby, sleeping baby and handed her to us!  We could not believe this was the same child who had weighed 11 pounds when she came to Gladney at 9 months old.  She was adorable, of course, but sound asleep, so we just marvelled at her heft and sat and admired her.  After a while, we decided that we might as well take advantage of her sleeping, so we all went to bed for a while.

When she woke up a little later, we took her to meet the boys (they had been sleeping when she first arrived), and we all had fun trying (unsuccessfully) to make her smile.  Not only did she not smile, she did not make a single noise, even to cry.  She just took us all in with her enormous eyes and let us make funny noises at her and pass her from person to person for hugs.  At some point I started to wonder if she might be mute, she was so quiet.

We were all so tired that night that we were in bed by about 7:30, so we weren't surprised when we all woke up around 5 am.  We got up, played with Ruby, ate some snacks, before one of us realized that we had gotten the time from Matt's cell phone which was still on US time.  So that was 5 pm, not 5 am, which meant it was about 1 am when we got up.  Crazy.  We finally got back to sleep and slept in till 9 or so, at which point Gus woke up with a bad stomach ache.  He proceeded to vomit all morning, but by dinner time was back to his old self and even ate a huge amount of spicy Indian food.  I am always surprised that Gus doesn't get sick more than he actually does, since he is always on the floor in public places, sticking his hands in gross places, and is generally a filthy child, but his quick recovery is evidence of his hearty little immune system. 

We really just spent most of the day playing with Ruby here at the house and hanging out with the other families here.  The boys are having so much fun with her, and she seems to like to play little games with them.  Finn is being very responsible, and Gus loves that she seems to like goldfish as much as he does.  She is smiling a little now, and Matt got her laughing, and she has said a few words (that we don't understand, but we're just encouraged by the sounds).  In the late afternoon, we took the boys to the Lion Zoo (no further explanation needed), and did a little shopping.  We had dinner at a nearby Indian restaurant - delicious & cheap, as all the food has been so far.  Tomorrow we will go to the foster care center where Ruby has been for the past 6 months and meet her "special mother."  Now to bed, and hopefully for the night!