Today we woke up excited, but extremely nervous about the day. When we saw Zeri in April he cried most of the time we were with him. We were prepared for him to do the same thing today. Honestly, we had the lowest expectations possible based on our visit last time. Jeremiah and I hung out at our guest house all morning and then around 11:45 our driver picked us up to take us to the Thomas Center. We thought we were just going to meet with the doctor to Ali about Zeri's health. When we walked in the head nurse brought down 2 bouquets of flowers for Erika (mom from Indy) and me. Then a few of the other nurses walked down the stairs chanting and clapping while holding our boys (the boys were wearing matching outfits!). Zeri started crying immediately, but little Bereket did not. The nurse handed Z off to me and he screamed for about 20 min. But....then he stopped!!! He grabbed ahold of me tightly and just snuggled up with me. It's was definitely an answer to my prayers. I held him for about an hour and then they came to get us for the doctor visit. The docot said that Z is perfect and the nannies said that Z is hilarious and loves to joke around. After the visit we took him into his room for a nap.
Erika, Kirk, Jeremiah, and I went went out to lunch and then we went back to the Thomas Center for their goodbye party. The nurses brought Z down and he cried for a few minutes. Then the older kids came in dressed in their traditional Ethiopian clothing and they started singing sings for us. They sang for about 30 minutes and then Abdissa (pastor) came in and gave a brief message to all of us. Gather that we were given coffee and some treats. We ate and the older kids sang a few more songs. Then Abdissa ave us a traditional outfit for Zeri and just thanked us for allowing Zeri to be a part of our family.
During the coffee ceremony Zeri sniffles and cried off and on, but eventually he just laid his head on my shoulder and almost fell asleep. Jeremiah and I went up with a nanny to change Z's diaper and then she handed him back to me. HE DID NOT CRY!!! Yay! This was huge! When we returned he was calm for the rest of the ceromony!
When we left the Thomas Center it was very e optional for the nannies and us. They kept kissing Zeri and hugging him. Some of them had tears in their eyes. They truly loved our little boy and he loved them. I forgot to add that during the ceremony Abdissa gave us a time to talk and we were able to talk to the nannies and tell them how wonderful they are and how much we appreciate them.
As we drove back to the guest house Zeri just looked around and he even tried to grab some of the cars. Zeri ended up falling asleep on me and it was heavenly.
When we got back to the guest house we gave Z his first bath and he loved it. Then we fed him dinner, played for a few minutes, and then we gave him a bottle. We also had a poopy diaper that got all over his pj's and our blaket....but that was the worst thing that happened today, so we are good. Jeremiah sang Zeri a song and then we laid Z down for bed. He went right to sleep. What a good boy!!!
We love our little boy so incredibly much! Please pray that our trip continues to go smoothly and that tomorrow he will be just as calm!
Also, we were able to FaceTime Olivia and it made us cry to see her reaction to Zeri!,, she had th biggest grin on her face. We miss our sweet girl! She's having a great time with her Gee gee's house.
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I just found your blog and I enjoyed reading through your stories about Zeri. Congratulations on finally getting to pick up your son! Maybe I will run into you around town sometime.
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