Wednesday, February 24, 2010

ANOTHER UPDATE FROM PATRICK

All is going well. It is Wednesday around lunchtime right now; we are getting ready to go shopping for a while. Sunday's trip to Durame was.....crazy...beautiful....terrifying...sad...joyful. Boy, you name it, we felt it. It is a 5-6 hour drive (mostly paved) but the drivers seem to think they are on a nascar circuit. The scenery was amazing,and don't worry...we took hundreds of pics. The meeting with Little E's birthmom was extremely emotional. Its hard to put into words and we will do so at a later time. Needless to say, we are glad we met her and spent some time with her. She looks just like Little E, is emotional like E, is stubborn like E. I am sure Michelle will put together some eloquent words later on to describe the scene, but trust me...nothing really prepares you for it. It did end with the birthmom hugging us and walking arm in arm with Michelle....that was touching and meaningful. We came back Monday afternoon (exhausted yet again)....we were very nervous that E might not remember us as it had been 48 hours since we had last seen her. She objected for a minute, but was fantastic after that. The boys went with Grandma to the Hilton and Sheraton across town to swim and use the internet....they had fun but got really sunburned! The GPS says we are at 7718 feet of altitude. The weather is simply beautiful and it would be nice to be outside if it wasn't for the intense smell of diesel that permeates the air 24/7. Yesterday (Tuesday), we went to the US Embassy (which, by the way, is surprisingly underwhelming....I was expecting a fancy building - what you get is a small one that really has NO indication on the outside that its the US embassy). We did all the required stuff there to get E back to the US after waiting for about 2-3 hours. Last night, E spent her first night with us. She did really well! She has a bad cough and is congested, but the smog could be doing that as much as anything else. She coughed/sneezed for about an hour, but slept for the next 10! We had the farewell ceremony at the care center this morning (cake, Coke, Coffee...all the "c"s). Many of the kids, including E, seemed upset to be back there, and once we got back to the hotel room, E was her playful self again. She is going back to the center while we shop today, but that will be the last of it. We are ready to come home!!!!!!OK, lunch is served and I have already used more than my time on this computer (the keyboard is terrible, so excuse the typos). Soon, we will be on our way back to begin our new life.....yikes.love,pat.

2 comments:

  1. Wow. I didn't realize you would get to meet little e's mother. I cannot imagine how intense that must have been. I'm glad it ended with hugs and walking arm in arm. You're leaving Ethiopia today and should be home tomorrow. I hope your travels go well. I'm looking forward to more pictures!

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  2. so glad everything is going well! Can't wait for yall to be home so we can Skype!

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