Tuesday June 28th PART 1

We woke up around 8 am. We took showers and ate a good breakfast of french toast. Then we waited for our CWA driver to pick us up. He told us that he would pick us up around 10 am. What happened is.....CWA only lets you see your children two days and only for two hours each day. Usually they pick the families up from the airport and give them an itinerary of times when they get to see the children and the times for court and times for any other appointment they may have. What happened with us is we got in Addis at 1 am in the morning and the office was closed on the weekend so no one came on to give us our itinerary on Sunday so starting off Monday morning we were confused on when we would see Gracie. It was a misunderstanding but it would have been nice to have our schedule right away.
SO we weren't really supposed to go on Tuesday but we didn't know that. It ended up working out better for us in the end :)
Anywhoo...they didn't get to the guest house till around 11 am. The driver took us on a different route then the one the day before had so it was fun to see different scenery.



The gates to the Acacia Village~Where Gracie is now


When we arrived at the Village we went into a little office and talked with Beza about Gracie and about her health. She asked us if we had any questions and we didn't really. Then one of the nannies brought her to us. She ran into our arms and hugged and kissed us :)
I took her measurements (YAY I am having so much fun buying clothes!!!) I gave Gracie some clothes that we had brought her. She was so sweet....she {{Loved}} them! Then we went upstairs to the little room we were the day before.


I asked her if she wanted me to paint her nails....her smile was very readable! I can tell she is going to be a girly girl. I had brought 4 different colors and I let her choose...she chose pink :) We did her toes first because it was almost lunch time.
We put little stickers on her nails also :)
showing her how to put on chapstick....so weird that she has probably never seen such a thing.

She was so happy with her nails and her little feet were so cute. I asked her if she wanted to paint my nails....she smiled and I let her choose which color...she chose pink :) She did such a good job! She tried to do it so nice for me :)






Then it was time to go downstairs for lunch. They served pasta and bread and some vegis to the children today. The other two couples that we had met the day before {Hi Heidi :) } were telling their children goodbye. They had got there earlier then we had and we only got two hours :( I started crying watching one of the Dads say goodbye to their son....tears* I dreaded what was ahead. I had to walk to a corner and get myself under control and get my tears wiped up. Britton came over said Gracie was worried and that I needed to get myself together because we were trying to spend as much happy moments as we could together.
All the little girls were talking and talking about her nail polish...they would look under the table and just chatter away. Gracie was beaming. I wish I would have had time to do all their nails so I ended up leaving all my polish with the nanny and I told her that Gracie could do all their nails. As soon as lunch was done and she got cleaned up she took my hand and led me back up to the room to do her nails :) While I was painting them Britton showed her some videos of the boys we had taken for her before we left. Then we read some books and sang some songs. Then the nanny came in and was translating for us to her. We asked her if she wanted an American name and and then we told her the name we had chosen for her. We decided to keep Bereket as her middle name because her Mother gave it to her and it means "blessing"
Then we gathered up all the little toys we had brought her and took it all to her bed. I had a bag of bubble gum that she passed out to all of her friends. Then we went downstairs and ate lunch with the staff. (It was the childrens naptime but our two hours wasn't over yet) They served spaghetti and it was very good. I held her on my lap while I ate. She watched every bite that went into my mouth :) It was so fun just to kiss her cheeks and hold her close. She just laid her head on my shoulder and I treasured every moment as they were ticking away.
Then it was time to say goodbye. Our driver had pulled up and was waiting on us. My heart started pounding...I hate goodbyes and especially this kind :( We took her back upstairs to the little room we had spent some time in. Britton carried her and she just laid her head on his shoulders and she had her brown little arms wrapped tightly around his neck. You can tell she really likes her Daddy. We all kneeled in a little circle...She was in between us and Britton tried to say a prayer. We were all sobbing...I was wiping her tears and telling her I was ok and she understood....We told her that we would be back as soon as we could. And we told her that Jesus loves her so so much and He would watch over her while we were away. Then the dreaded...She put her little arms around us and held on for dear life. Britton had to pry her away and lay her in her bed. They were both crying and she covered her head with a blanket so she wouldn't have to see us go. Britton and I stood in the hallway for some time after we told her goodbye. We cried...the pain was so sharp in our hearts. Then we went downstairs out and out of the foster home not knowing when we will see our beautiful daughter again...God only knows.

....Laundry at the orphanage drying in the breeze

Her room is to the left



The CWA driver stopped at a little shop on the side of the road because we wanted to buy one of the Orthadox umbrellas that they were selling. I wanted a pink one for her room.




TO BE CONTINUED......