We’re Home!

We’re back home and settling in as a little family of three (or four if you count Dolly, which we do).  We have been completely overwhelmed by the love and support and encouragement and prayers of all of you following along on our journey.  Thank you so, so much!  There are no words to describe how amazing the last couple of weeks have been.  We fell in love with the people and culture and country of Ethiopia and cannot wait until our girl is old enough for us to share more about her birth country with her.  We were so blessed to get to experience this week with 6 other families that were incredible and we made wonderful friends amongst this group.  And of course, we came home with the most amazing blessing and gift of all.  I am so humbled that God (and the people of Ethiopia) have entrusted us with this precious little life.

I’m not going to lie, the trip home was quite brutal.  For starters, it took over 30 hours.  I’m not really sure that there is any way for that to be pleasant under any circumstances.  But on top of it, our little mellow baby decided that the moment we settled into our seats for the flight out of Addis would be a great time to show us just how loudly she can scream.  And then she proceeded to do that off and on for the next 30 hours.  We thought she was just teething (which I still think she has just started given the sudden increase in drool output and non-stop gnawing on fingers) but after a trip to urgent care yesterday because of what we thought was some sort of respiratory infection it turns out she has an ear infection.  We knew she was completely miserable on the way home and now we know why.  Poor baby.  There was one low point for me early in to our flight from Amsterdam to Memphis where I had just changed her first blow-out diaper while she screamed like a cat the entire time and as I returned to our seats to hand her to Matt she projectile vomited all over herself for the entire cabin to see.  Nice, eh?  With the help of a little antibiotics and Tylenol, we’re on the mend I think.  She slept almost twelve hours last night, only waking up twice, and we actually just had to wake her to get her ready for church this morning.

For those of you traveling soon, there were two things that helped a lot that I highly recommend.  I’m sure I can think of others, and as I think of them I’ll let you know.  We could not have done it without her baby carrier (I used a Peanut Shell sling – she and I both love it).  Secondly, the Amsterdam airport has the most incredible (free) baby care lounge.  It is gorgeous and relaxing and has private little pods with cribs and seats for parents.  We had a 7-hour layover and I’m not sure that any of us would have survived the last legs of our trip if we had not been able to hang out there.  Oh, and KLM was amazing.  They have the most incredible flight attendants I have ever encountered.  And the stop in Khartoum – no big deal at all – don’t let that scare you (it did me).

Our families have been amazing in helping us settle in.  They are feeding us and doing our laundry and taking care of everything around the house so that we can focus on Zoe.  And of course, they’re sneaking in a little time with her whenever they can.  We’re both feeling pretty good.  We might very well crash at some point in the near future but so far the transition has been quite smooth.  Dolly is doing better than I ever could have imagined.  She loves the baby and wants to be around her all the time.  She is always trying to lick her face, which we’re going to have to work on because that’s gross.  Yesterday I went in to the nursery while Zoe was napping and Dolly was laying down in front of the crib.  And she gets very concerned every time she cries.  I think she’s going to be very protective.  It’s so cute.

Zoe is doing amazing also.  I swear this is not the same baby we met just over a week ago.  This morning she actually stood on her legs for several seconds.  When we met her last Friday, she wouldn’t even touch the ground with her legs.  And her head control is so much better already.  She was kinda wobbly at first but now she can hold her head up and look around when we hold her on our hip.  And she’s charming and beautiful.  We’re totally in love with her.

We’ve gotta go get her ready for her debut at church, so I’ll leave you with just a couple pictures.

At the airport.  No worse for the wear, I’d say.

Dolly attending to her new friend.