Journal Entry 9-15-07

7:30AM – 9/15/07

We had a good nights sleep, we do not think we even dreamed, that is how hard we slept. We woke up at 6:30AM with the call to prayer heard in the distance. There is no water this morning, so no showers. We have gotten ready for the day and are about to eat breakfast.

2:30PM – 9/15/07

We met Mehandis this morning at the care center!!! It was a really surreal experience and this is how it happened.

During breakfast at the guest house, we met Massi, the manager of the guest house, and he gave us a packet of information to look through. We opened it and saw a picture of Mehandis that we had never seen before. It was a packet full of information on our child, how he eats, sleeps, plays and is developing. It was full of pictures, is was really neat to see after only seeing two pictures of him over the past two months. It was overwhelming. After breakfast, Massi drove us to the office to do some paperwork. Then it was off to the care center. Along with us was Russ, who also spent the night at the guest house on Friday night, but we did not meet him until Saturday at breakfast. He was by himself, he has a 3 year old at home who he adopted from Korea and his wife is home with the kid.


We got to the office and they put us in a waiting room. Soon a lady came in and said “Mehandis”? We said yes, and followed her outside, then around the corner to the care center and when we went up the stairs, we saw the cameraman and we knew we were close. We went up a flight of stairs and into a room with six cribs, two nannies and six kids. The only child in crib was Mehandis, the rest were on the floor playing. The cameraman was perfectly situated to get our reactions. Michele went for Mehandis and talked with him, soon picking him up and holding him. Soon she gave him over to me and I got hold the little feller. It was a surreal moment, this little picture that we had for two months and now we had the guy in our arms.

Soon we sat down on the mat and played with him. The nannies were great, they would pick him up and show us how they liked to play with him. They kept saying, “Papa, Mama” to him. The other kids in the room were very cute as well and one of them seemed to be a friend with Mehandis. It was an unforgettable hour.
Soon a social worker came and had us leave and we walked back to the office where the rest of the group who was coming from Ethiopia Air were arriving. They just got in and looked the part. We had a short slide presentation and then met the director of the program. He told us that the program has grown from 6 employees to over 220 since 2003. After the meeting, Russ, Michele and I went back to the guest house and ate lunch while the rest of the group stayed to meet their kids.

When we got back, the water truck arrived and filled up the tanks. I played soccer with the workers who were waiting for the water tanks to the filled. Then Massi got the basketball out and we shot hoops for a bit. After lunch, we laid down for a bit and then went outside and talked with the newly arrived group. We went back to the care center at 3PM and got to spend another hour with Mehandis.