Monday Afternoon

Everyone who told me parenthood is tough, you were right. Everyone who told me it's exhausting, you were right. Everyone who told me it's the best thing in the world, you were right, too. It's Monday afternoon now and we have had a whirlwind of a weekend. I'm sorry for the lack of updates but we have been busy with these boys, and that's busy with the largest capital B you could ever imagine. Thomas is sleeping right now, and Julie went to the care center with another family and took little David with her. I hope to have enough time with him sleeping to write a seriously long blog entry here. In addition, the internet has been somewhat unreliable and with 11 families or so here all wanting internet time, it's kind of hard to get on the computer. We are so spoiled everywhere we go with wireless FAST internet service.

In my last blog entry, I mentioned my adventure out and about shopping. The reason for my trip was for two things, medicine and some type of seat or walker for the boys. With just two of us and the two of them, we needed a place for them to sit and be on their own while we make their bottle or whatever. David is a little stronger than Thomas and can roll over while Thomas almost can. David can almost sit up by himself but he topples over and Thomas does too. The medicine we needed was because we gave all of ours away and forgot to keep a bottle of our own. I called for a taxi and he came pretty quickly. Julie was on her own with the boys. I told the taxi drive I needed to go to a pharmacy. He says, "no problem", and then I try to explain to him that I needed to go to a store for babies. Again, he says "no problem." We're off on a Friday afternoon during the lunchhour. It's a busy time again the pharmacy is close. He parks the car and says he'll wait right there. There are really no traffic laws here in Addis. You can drive and park wherever you want pretty much.We we parked on the sidewalk actually. The pharmacist was helpful and sold me something like Tylenol. See, the boys came from the carecenter with what we're calling "the crud." It's basically an ongoing cold with lots of congestion and a slight fever. Most of the kids there have it because of the close quarters in which they live and how everything is shared. They sound like little freight trains when theysleep. They cough and wake themselves up. It's so sad with their little runny noses and coughs. Ok, so back to the story. They don't have Tylenol but they have something close and the pharmacist assures me it will help the babies. Back to the taxi, and off to the next store. To my surprise, he takes me to a supermarket and again, he parks right on the sidewalk. I think it's weird we're at thesupermarket but I go in anyway. It's a regualar store like at home,but just a bit smaller. They don't have anything close to what I need. I asked one of the cashiers if she knew where I could find thestuff I needed. She said, yes, down the street to "Baby World."Great! Baby World reminded me of Babies r us just smaller and guess what, they were out of walkers and bumbo seats. They had a bunch of clothes though and other stuff. I ask them too where I could find what I needed and their English wasn't as good as the supermarket lady but he came outside and told my taxi driver where to go. It was just a few blocks away. It was a 5-story mall. I swear I went to every store in that mall. It was a typical mall just on a smaller scale.The stores were no bigger than a living room but they had all kinds,shoe stores, cafe, restaurant, clothing, and many kids/baby stores. Iwalked around and up and down the stairs and went in every store that had to do with babies but they still didn't have what I wanted. In the LAST store I went to, they had what are called baby bath beds. I kept thinking I couldn't go back empty handed so I bought two of them.They are the cheapest, most basic, little chairs you would ever see, and by way, they're pink. My boys sit in and eat from little pinkchairs. They cost 400 birr each. That's about 35 bucks. Everything here seems so expensive because the exchange rate from birr to dollarsis 12 birr to 1 dollar. But, it's just the opposite. Most things here are pretty inexpensive, except for those chairs. In the end, I got the chairs and the medicine and Julie survived her time alone with the boys. They seemed happy to see their daddy when I got back.

Our second night with the boys was a little better than the first.They didn't get up as much as the night before but it seemed like alot. Of course, they can never be up at the same time and once one goes back down, and I start to fall asleep, then the other one starts up. It's kind of funny actually. It's like they know how to get to us. :) Saturday was a really neat day. We met the Howletts from Colorado and their little boy Berekit. He's 4 and speaks no English but the Howletts are very experienced parents and are doing well with him. They invited us to go to a place called children's Heaven, a teeange girl ministry where this lady named Hanna opened up a YMCA type place but just for teen girls. She told us many have been prostitutes and are pressured everyday to do that. We walked into a room and there were at least 60 girls ages 10-17 in there waiting for us. We and a missionary couple were the guests. A few girls were brave enough to stand up and introduce themselves in English. They told us their name, and their school name, and their age, their favorite subject and what they wanted to be when they grew up. Some wanted to be doctors, one girl a biologist, and another a journalist.Their unanimous favorite sport was soccer, and they mentioned their favorite hobby was reading the Bible. They shared their bread and snacks with us. It happened to be the one day a week when they get to have milk. Hanna, the director told us that for some girls it would be the only meal they would eat that day. They sang for us and a couple girls played some drums. Their smiles filled the room with joy along with their angelic voices. In the midst of their troubled lives, they found joy in their singing and sharing with us. It was a true blessing of an afternoon. They have a website called childrensheaven.org We may even get to go back on Thursday.

Saturday night was the night to end all nights. The boys were up most of the night and Julie and I with them. We both got very little sleep. They would cry and cry and cry and we just couldn't figure out how to help them. Little Thomas boy (that's what daddy calls him) is having the hardest time adjusting. He gets this scared look in his eyes a lot and it just breaks our hearts. Julie and I each have had our moments of shear frustration and breakdown because we can't seem to get through to him that we are his parents and he needn't be scared. There are times when it comes through and he recognizes us and smiles and laughs but they are just not very common yet. He doesn't like to be cuddled when he cries but instead likes to look around and be held while we walk around. He does enjoy the front packcarrier thank goodness and has been very content when we are out and about while he's in there. Julie and I just hope and pray that this gets better soon. We have read books and have information that some adopted children and even babies go through a time of mourning. We think this is true for Thomas. He is mourning his nannies at the carecenter and maybe even at times his birth mom. Now, little David Asaye, on the other hand, couldn't be a happier little baby. He smiles and laughs and snuggles with us and responds to his name.Don't get me wrong, he can cry and throw a fit like any other child,but afterward, he's back to being Mr. Happy. The people here have said he must have been the first boy born because he's bigger,stronger, and is adjusting better. We have small breakthroughs with little Thomas but we just really want him to feel safe with us and we'll just keep loving him best we can and keep showing him.

Yesterday (Sunday) we travelled back to the care center with two families that arrived the night before to get their children and so we could videotape for them. The Flowers family picked up little Rahel and the Briola's from Texas picked up their 3-year old boy Shimeless(shi-may-less) What a joy it was to be on the other side this day and see the joy in other parents meeting their children for the first time. The nannies also enjoyed seeing our boys again too. The boys were right at home with them too, even getting a bath from them before we left. We spent most of the day at the care center playing with the children and they cooked us lunch too. I just love Ethiopian food! More about that later. At night we went out with 6 other families and ourchildren, to an Ethiopian restaurant. That was an adventure too, but the boys were pretty happy while we were there. Julie and I decided that we were just letting the boys sleep too much during the day and that's why they didn't sleep at night. We kept them awake yesterday from about 2 pm through bedtime even though after dinner and whenever we get into a car, they want to crash. Well, our change in the schedules worked!! Last night, they slept from 9:15 pm all the way thru 4 am and then were up for a short time and back to bed until 6:30. It was great to get some good sleep for a change.However, I will tell you that we paid for it because this morning both boys were very very fussy and unhappy. They're just kind of grumpy in the morning, like some of us I suppose.

I will wrap this up now since I think little Thomas boy is stirring. He's not had a good day today either and I hope this nap he's in right now will improve his mood. We miss home and are looking forward to getting our boys home and into their home routines. This trip has opened my eyes to so many things I hope to talk about in furtherblogs. I have a renewed hope in people and a renewed hope that the world is not a bad place, even though that's all we hear about at home sometimes. I hope you are all commenting on blog posts. The blog will not load with dialup, probably because of the video and the pictures so I'll have to read them when I get back. We do check email so if you wanted to send a note you can. bdr1016@gmail.com orjuliedriver1@gmail.com We may not write back but a sentence or two.I hope that's ok. Ok, I have to go now. My shirt smells like the cereal little David threw up on me two hours ago. :) Love to all,Blake