Monday, May 13, 2013

2nd visit with Zeri-Ethiopia Trip Part #3

On Saturday morning we woke up early and headed to the Thomas Center around 9:45a.m. They brought Zeri down to us. The head nurse wasn't there and the nurse this day didn't speak great English. As soon as she handed Zeri to us he lost it. We tried calming him down but nothing worked. Two nannies came and comforted him and he was fine. Then they got him up and walked him around. He was fine until they had Jeremiah walk him around. Bless his heart...he hated it. Jeremiah is an AMAZING and calm Daddy. I picked Zeri up and we took him outside. We showed him around the yard. We were able to get him to calm down for about 2 minutes and then the crying began again. Jeremiah took him and walked him around. Jeremiah was singing to our boy and our Zeri didn't stop crying. Jeremiah was so patient. They had Jer feed him a bottle, but Z didn't want it. He was just so scared. I had been asking the nurse if we could go upstairs because he was comfortable up there the day before. She couldn't really understand me. Finally, after literally an hour of crying I basically told her we had to go upstairs.

They put a mat down and little Z just kept crying. The nurse brought in a bottle and I gave it to him. I rocked him in my arms, sang him the same song I used to sing to Livi, and fed him. He fell asleep drinking his bottle. When he woke up he looked at me and smiled. He was a TOTALLY different child! He was fine!!!!! He let me cuddle him and just love all over him. I just kept praising God!!! As I'm typing this now, I have tears in my eyes as I remember how joyful this moment was for Jeremiah and me.

I held on to Zeri for a bit, hugged him, played with his little curls, and kissed all over him. He was just content being with his mommy. Then I put him on the ground and we just played for over an hour with him. It was perfect. We made him laugh and smile numerous times. He loved watching Daddy stack balls and act goofy. He tried to imitate Jer stacking and even put the ball on his head like Jer did. Zeri let me lay next to him and just his side while he played. I also made him laugh when I blew on his belly and tickled him.

Jeremiah showed Zeri the video of Olivia talking to him. Zeri smiles, tried to talk a bit, and waved his arms up and down with excitement. He already loves his sister! We had THE BEST TIME with Zeri this day. We both were just loving on Zeri and could not stop smiling. Zeri warmed up to us and it was then that we knew everything would be okay. We heard Zeri babble, laugh, and try to communicate with others. He was just a doll. I can't describe how adorable he is and we are just so thankful that we get to be his parents!!!

Our hearts were full as we left that day. We DID NOT want to leave our boy and especially didn't want to leave because he was sooooo happy. He crawled after us and sat up on his mat while we packed up. We gave him lots of kisses and then said goodbye. We had an amazing hour with our boy and felt hope that he will gro to love us. I can't describe how much love we felt when we made Zeri laugh and he wanted to be near us. We left his room with huge smiles on our faces.

Then we went downstairs and played with the older kids. They craved our attention. We played soccer and basketball with him. Around 12:30 they went inside to eat and we followed them. A sweet little boy was refusing to eat and just stood up at his seat. The nanny said that the little boy was refusing to eat because he wanted to play soccer with me. Sweet little kid!! We left because we wanted them to eat.

We went back to the Guest House and then went to a yummy restaurant called Antica. Jeremiah woke up feeling pretty crummy and had awful stomach issues this day. He was a trooper and still went out to lunch with me. We saw outside and just enjoyed the perfect weather.

After lunch we went to Trinity Church and took a tour. Our tour guide was pumped to show us this church and again, it was nice to learn about the Ethiopian culture. After that we visited the Sole Rebel store.

We drove through different parts of the city and then just went back to our Guest House. It was a long, but amazing day visiting our Z and seeing the city.

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