Day 4, Addis

This morning we attempted to sleep in and get extra rest- a difficult task when our bodies were fighting the time change. We'd spent a lot of night time hours the past few nights willing ourselves to sleep with little success. This morning however, we finally felt like we'd caught up. Unfortunately, the moment River opened his eyes he was not feeling well. We encouraged him to stay put, and began packing our things around him. Today was the day we moved on to the guesthouse to join the other adoptive families in the quest to finally meet our future children. After years of paperwork, social work visits, fingerprints, Hague treaty requirements, government appointments, and finally the most difficult part- the seemingly endless wait for the magic phone call with news of being matched with our children- and longer still- the call to finally travel- we were definitely ready for this moment to arrive! We booked our room for another half day to allow River to rest with Nate while I hired a taxi and ran around to the markets in search of some treasures. By four o'clock we were being transferred to our new place. The guesthouse was a gated establishment consisting of two 3-level buildings with a common dining room and living room. In Ethiopian standards, it was pretty nice- for us, um, not so much, but we are not picky, don't need things to be fancy, and the place served it's purpose- at least for the most part. It often ran out of electricity, or had a surge of it, which fried our computer and ipod chargers the first night. The house computer is dial-up, which rarely actually 'dialed up', but despite any inconveniences, the guesthouse was located very close to the orphanage. After learning that the building across the hill was it, I went in to 'stalker mode' with my long-range camera zoom, spying on the children outside in the play yard. I felt like a crazy lady, but was so excited to see all of the children over there, and was so eager to spot the sweet face of my boy. I felt butterflies while thinking it would be only the next morning before I would meet them! We unpacked, tried to soothe River who by this time was stomach sick and feverish, and hit the sack. Late that night all of the rest of the guests arrived, and I popped up to say a quick hello, and returned to bed where I lay awake, imagining looking into my children's faces for the first time, and whispering their names under my breath.