Day Two in Ethiopia

We had another busy but great day in Ethiopia!  We went to the care center first thing this morning and saw this as we entered the gates.

As Matt zoomed in to take a picture, he realized it was our girl and her nanny.  So cute!

This nanny loves our girl so much.  She dotes on her constantly.  I cannot imagine how difficult it will be for her to say goodbye.  She has also been so sweet trying to help Liremet be comfortable around us.  She let me try to feed her this morning.  I say try because it didn’t go so well.   I made a complete mess of the poor girl and there was cereal everywhere because she was so fidgety.  The nanny took over to show me how to do it properly.  She tucks one of Liremet’s arms behind her and holds on to the other one so that she is pretty much restrained.  Liremet completely relaxed in this position and ate the rest of her meal pretty much mess-free. You would not believe how fast they feed the babies here.  They have lots of babies to feed, so they certainly don’t waste any time.

We got to spend quite a bit of time with her this morning.  I think she warmed up to us quite a bit today.  There was a definite difference in the way she interacted with us today vs. yesterday.  Perhaps it was just her mood, but I like to think that maybe she was a bit more comfortable with us this time around.  And of course we have a few more pictures to share.  We even managed to catch a smile on camera.  Melts my heart.

We spent the afternoon at the National Museum of Ethiopia and St. George’s church and museum.  It was very interesting.  We also saw quite a bit of the city.  Matt took some really great photos, but I’ll save those for another post.  We have an early morning.  We’re going to churh in the morning and then heading down south of Addis to the area where Liremet was born.  We hope to be able to learn more of her story.  It’s going to be a long trip though.  The last group that made the trip said it took 7 hours to drive 125 miles.  We’re also spending the night and have been told to expect our hotel to be more like camping than a real hotel.  I’m really excited about making the trip, but I really think it will be an emotional one.  We’ll be back on Monday and then we get to take custody of Liremet.  So excited about this!