Thursday June 30th 2011

*Gracie's bed

Today we woke up around 7 am. We wasn't able to eat breakfast because the CWA van was waiting to take us to our court orientation. When we got in the van and were driving the driver told us that there was a misunderstanding and for some reason a schedule got mixed up at the embassy AND the man that was going to meet with us at our orientation was in a meeting. SO they were taking us to the Acacia Village to spend another 2 hours with our daughter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We were over the top excited! We had no idea!! On the way we picked up the family that had the embassy appointment. I was trying to be happy for them and not be to jealous. They were telling their son, "this is the last step, buddy" OH!!! Made my heart hurt! I wanted to be them so bad!
When we got to the Village they had JUST told her we were coming. She came skipping down the stairs in the clothes we had brought her. They seemed a little big on her. That is one of the bonuses of going twice is figuring out just what size of clothes I need to buy. We went in the toy room and just played legos and blocks and read books. She opened up alot to us. She laughed several times and smiled lots. One thing we noticed and we are fervently praying about is...she is not used to being touched or kissed especially by men. We are looking forward to working on that :) We have lots of hugs and kisses to give her!
Then we got to eat lunch with her again. I just remember being happy that we were there and it seemed a little more relaxed today. We found out that it is a custom in Ethiopia for the host to feed the guest a bite of food. So when she held up her spoon we were ready :) She fed us and then we both fed her a bite. What an honor it was! *Tears just thinking about all the little bites of baby food I didn't get to feed her* While she finished up eating I went over and helped the nannies feed one of the babies. Britton told me later that she thought that was so neat I did that and she kept watching me :) We held some of the toddlers when they were done with lunch. One of the little guys latched on to Britton and wouldn't let go...so sweet.
Then it was time to say goodbye...again. We took her upstairs and they all brushed their teeth. Then we gave her big hugs...we didn't want to cry this time. We gave kisses and then she climbed in her bed and we forced ourselves to walk away. :( >>We were very lucky to get to see her 3 times! They only let families go twice but since they didn't bring us our itinerary when we got there every thing got mixed up<<
Then the driver took us to the CWAE ( Christian World Adoption Ethiopia) office. We met with the man and they brought out popcorn for us to munch on while we talked about what to expect during court. We signed some more papers and then they took us back to the guest house.
We got refreshed and then we filled our backpacks with crackers and went out to town. We went to the Jupiter Hotel where they had free Wifi and we skyped our boys!!! We were so happy! Of course I had some tears...we missed them! Then we ordered a Medium Pizza and cokes. YUM! By this time I had at least lost 5 pounds. I hardly ate anything and my stomach was always growling.
We had been telling the boys all week that we would get our shoes shined. They did a great job!!

These silly boys love Britton!
The front of the guest house
*Here are some pictures my case manager sent us of our first day meeting her



*We were feeling a little sad that our trip was winding down and we were leaving tomorrow night. We packed some of our stuff and got organized. We went to bed early so we could be up and ready for court in the morning.