Thursday, May 12th / Friday, May 13th --------------------------Getting ready to leave proved more complex than I had imagined.

We dropped Kylan of at school at 9am and came home and got stuff ready for a bit but then it was time to take Mike and Diane to the airport to leave for Italy. Once we dropped them off, we decided to run a few errands while we were already out: get flowers for Jenny's birthday, attempt to find photo albums, and possibly find me a pair of sunglasses. After our errands, we were right up to the time we needed to pick Ky up from school. From picking her up, we went to the bank to get our 1040 notarized (we had forgotten it the day before). It was fun to see the bank employees one more time before we left because they had seen us get stuff notarized many times through the process and they were happy to see us on the day we left. They always love seeing Kylan so that was fun too. Then we went to Walgreen's to pick up some pictures that we had developed for photo albums for the birth mother and for Levi to keep. Failing on finding a photo album at any of the spots we visited, we went home to see what empty albums we might have. At this point, time seemed short as we needed to leave our house by 2pm to meet Courtney at the 80/46 exit at Starbucks at 3pm. Frustrated, Sarita decided to use some albums we had at the house and emptied one for Levi to have. Finally we were out the door and on our way to drop Ky off to Courtney by 2. We arrived at Starbucks right at 3 and Courtney and Lily and Emma were there waiting for us. It was so wonderful to hear all the girls shriek out of joy upon seeing each other. We knew Kylan was in good hands. After struggling to get Kylan's cars eat tied safely into Courtney's car, we headed in to grab a few drinks because it was Frappy Hour, that is half priced Frappuccinos. We even got an extra one because they screwed one up. Boom. We stayed there for a bit and my dad called so I talked to him for a bit about details of our trip since we hadn't talked much about the trip thus far. At about 4pm we said goodbye to them and Sarita and I headed out for a long, terribly rainy, and awfully quiet drive to the Cleveland Airport. It vividly reminded me of our drive to Mercy the morning of Kylan's birth. We hit a number of delays because of construction and heavy, heavy rains and were nervous about getting to the airport on time for our 7:12 flight. We finally made it to the Park N Fly at about 5:15 and quickly got on the shuttle bus that took us to the airport. There was a rush of relief when we walked into the airport to find ourselves in a sparsely populated room of ticket counters. We were thankful to hop into the United line with only about 3 parties ahead of us. Upon getting to a Kiosk, we were asked to enter our confirmation number and then it asked us to scan our passports. I always wonder what sort of information they're looking for when they're scanning a passport. Totally makes me think of 24/alias. It's also

concerning when after you do that, the screen tells us that we are required to speak to a representative to complete our check-in. We waited for a representative and she simply scanned our passports, checked our bags and we were on our way to security. The security line seemed pretty short so we decided to use the restroom and while reading the multi-lingual restroom signs, the thought finally occurred to me that we were heading to a country that doesn't primarily speak English (Ethiopia) through a country that doesn't primarily speak English (Germany). How in the world would we know where we were going? It made me check my tickets and thankfully, our Frankfurt connection said we were looking for gate B60. I can read and understand B60. The security line was quick and when it was my turn to go, after the metal detector I was asked to step to the side for a minute and the TSA agent swiped my hand with some sort of a white cloth. No idea what she was doing while taking it to a scanner but she said we were good to go (also, through that she said we looked really young to be married we still got it!). We were checked in and through security by 5:45, leaving us about an hour and a half before our flight took off and safely an hour before we had to board so we headed towards our gate but were looking for a place to eat along the way. We ended up eating a sandwich from Bruger's Bagels and a piece of pizza from a little Italian fast food place (Just like Italy, I'm sure). Then we headed to our gate to board our first flight to DC. I remember sitting there at the gate having no clue what we were about to get into. I knew that the second we stepped foot on that plane, we were in for an adventure unlike any I had ever experienced and one that would change our lives forever. Our first flight to DC was on the smallest commercial plane I had ever been on. The first few rows were only 1 seat to the left and the rest of the plane was 1 seat on the left and 2 seats on the right and all of maybe 15-20 rows. Sarita and I had the first row of two seats so we got all the legroom we wanted. Too bad that was by far the shortest flight of the trip. Also, I was surprised that there was even room for a drink cart on the plane but they made it happen and on our 55 minute flight, we got beverage service. The flight as a whole was rather pleasant, little turbulence, and a smooth takeoff and landing. We found out that our gate for the next flight was only a few gates away. This came as a relief as with a 3 leg trip in just as many countries totaling more than 7,000 miles of travel, we had less than a combine 3 hours in layovers, leaving little room for error. We were off the plane in just enough time to gather SOME charge to our phones before having to board for Frankfurt. The plane for this leg was the biggest plane I had ever been on. 2 seats to the left, 5 in the middle, 2 on the right. Of course, we were seats 2 and 3 in the 5 seat middle section with one lady to the

left and two guys to the right. The flight was absolutely jammed except for one seat in the row ahead of us. We couldn't have been more jealous of the guy who was on he aisle and sat next to the empty seat. There were a lot of cool things about such a big plane: plenty of overhead space, rather comfortable seats, personal TVs. I really like the flight trackers that let you see your altitude, speed, distance, map, etc. This was confusing though as the map would rotate between German and English, as would the loudspeaker announcements. Also, I didn't realize on a plane that big just how little you feel of the takeoff and landing and really, and movement through the air. Thankfully I was able to sleep a good bit on this flight as it was our one chance to get adjusted to the time in Addis. The flight left Washington at 9:50am and landed in Frankfurt at just about Noon their time, which is close enough to Addis time to get adjusted. The movies from the in flight magazine were not even close to what was really playing so that was frustrating, but I ended up watching 80% of country strong before passing out. 8 hours later, we were in Frankfurt. It was wild to me that at the Frankfurt airport, a very large international airport, they used the steps to have us get off the plane a 747 at that. We boarded 2 busses at the bottom of the stairs which took us to the main terminal after a ride across the paths where planes come and go throughout the airport. All the German signs and european cars (almost entirely Mercedes and VW) made me think of some sort of Euro action movie like the Bournes. Once at the terminal, we were pretty quick to find our gate which made us feel relieved, yet again. The airport was very Euro modern in all aspects. Glass, metal, simple, even down to the bathrooms. It didn't feel terribly different from home though with a starbucks and a McDonald's right in the main area. The one thing that I thought was cool was that the janitor rode a tricycle through the airport with his gear attached. Efficient. It was at this point that I was able to visually identify some Ethiopians but the flight was mostly white people going to Addis and I really want to know what they are all going for. As we waited, instead of an airplane pulling up, we were greeted by a bus that showed up outside of the doors of our gate which we boarded and took a 10-15 minute ride out to our plane, using the stairs once again. All of 20 minutes standing and walking and back to sitting on a plane. We were thankful to know that we had the window seat and the seat next to it on a plane with a 2-4-2 seating arrangement. As the plane boarded, we also realized that the flight was far from full, making it a more relaxed feeling plane. Also, the Lufthansa planes and staff are incredibly accommodating and make the flight very comfortable. Each seat has a personal monitor that lets you select what you want to watch at any time, again including my favorite, the flight tracker (this time in English, German, and Amharic). As we took off, the plane felt a bit shaky but as soon as we got to a decent altitude, the rest of the flight was very

smooth. During the flight, we were served an awesome meal (I selected the beef stroganoff) which sarita slept through. It was the entree, a salad, bread, a dessert, a wedge of cheese, and an empty cup which they later filled with coffee or tea after the meal. It was funny to me to watch the map as we sailed just east of Italy, where Mike and Diane were. We saw the mountains north of italy and there were beautiful from the air. I found it incredible to watch as we approached the northern Shore of Africa over the Mediterranean sea. At that point, I realized "Holy crap, we're in Africa." It was in the middle of this flight that the travel began to feel a bit long but after reading a bit of "Love and War", watching The Tourist, and listening to Adele's "21" while falling in and out of sleep we finally started to descend towards Addis. We unfortunately had to fly into the city at night. I love landing in the daylight so you can see what the place you're landing in looks like. We saw the lights of Addis which were beautiful but are no help to see what the city looks like. After a smooth landing we we deplaned and there we were, on our feet standing in Ethiopia. The airport was more modern than what I was led to expect but it certainly would be seen as dirty by American standards. We walked down a set of stairs into a very large room with queues for customs. We searched for a minute for what we were actually looking for and finally saw the "Visa on Arrival" sign and saw some people from our flight in that line so we followed. It was the right place and we walked single file across a table of 4 or 5 customs agents who would check our passport and visa paperwork we filled out on the plane, ask us a few questions and give us a visa sticker in our passports for $20/ person. After that, we headed out to the larger set of queues in the main room. I suddenly was eavesdropping on a conversation unlike and that I had seen before. A German man and an Ethiopian customs agent began speaking but with the two being from entirely different non-English speaking countries, English was the common language. I was relieved and humbled to know that we live in a place that provides us the ability to travel freely and know that our language will generally be understood and spoken. Unfortunately, this gives us a good reason to remain ignorant towards the places we travel, as I feel I am about Ethiopia. Standing in the customs line, I discovered that the airport had free public WiFi, a fact that surprised me greatly as neither Germany or DC offered a similar luxury, but the Ethiopian airport had it. I was relived to be able to send an email to a few people letting them know that we arrived safely. We walked up to the customs counter and waited a few minutes as she reviewed our paperwork again and then handed us back our passports with a stamp. We were now officially through customs and in Ethiopia.

The next room was the baggage claim room where we found our bags pretty easily and started to head towards a luggage scanner on the way out of the baggage area. Thankfully the bag I was pushing had a bum wheel and I was alerted upon second look that the bag I grabbed was't ours! I took it back to the baggage area and picked up ours and again, we were on our way. The scanner picked up the power strip I had brought and the guy had me take it out to show him what it was. Once satisfied, he let us move on. As we walked out of that room, we see a line of Ethiopian faces looking at us. These were the people waiting for family and friends, and ground transportation drivers looking for who they were picking up. I began immediately looking for a man in a black polo shirt that said "Ethiopian Guest House" on it but after a few scans still didn't see him. An Ethiopian man saw us confused and offered to make a call for us (from his iPhone, go figure) to the number we had on our confirmation sheet. After talking with the Guest Home, I was told that a driver would be there in 10-15 minutes. We walked around the main area for a bit but still did not see our driver. We ran into another white couple who happened to be here on an adoption trip as well, from Canada. They were staying at the Hilton with their adopted 2 and a half year old because it had a swimming pool which I thought was a pretty cool idea. As we were talking to them it struck me as really cool that they packed a folded up stroller knowing it would have a little butt in it very soon. We were excited for them and they were excited for us. We stood around and talked for a while but after a bit it started to feel a bit long and our driver still hadn't shown up. I left Sarita with the other couple and began to roam the main area for a bit to see if I could spot him as the doors we were standing by were taped shut but to no avail. We decided after a while to sit around the "Yellow Spot" cafe, a small food stand in the middle of the main area of the airport and wait. While watching people for a while the main trend that I wasn't used to was that there were many men being visually affectionate of other men, holding hands, walking while having arms wrapped around each other and women doing the same. Men and women would not do this with each other though, I didn't want to immediately paste what that means at home to these people because I know this is a different world with a different way of doing things. After another while, I decided to ask someone else in the airport if I could use their phone to call the Guest Home back because we still weren't seeing our driver. A girl let me use her phone to call and this time I called Ephram, the in-country manager. He said he would call back after talking with someone. The girl asked if I would pay for some airtime so I gave her $2 hoping it was enough, as I have no idea how much minutes really cost in Ethiopia. I kept an eye on her to see when she received a call and

when she did she handed the phone to me for Ephram to tell me that a driver would be coming and that he was originally told 12am was our pickup time (it was almost 11pm and we had already waited almost an hour) and that the driver would be there in another 10-15 minutes. We arranged a spot for us to meet and sure enough, our driver finally showed up with a sign reading "Rayan". He greeted us as "Masti" and then we walked out of the airport to the parking lot where the actual driver and the 1980s Diesel Toyota van were waiting for us. We hopped in and took off towards the guest home. This first drive would be many of wild passenger adventures in Addis. We noticed very quickly that the rules of the road that we know at home have no place here. It is basically a free for all with no traffic signals, hardly any lane markings, but a common understanding of courtesy among drivers. We were passing people, driving in the middle of lanes, driving in the wrong lanes, etc. The visuals of the city even at night were a sight that you can't qualitatively describe. Ranging conditions of buildings, broken concrete on both sides of the rode for curbs/sidewalks and cars with an average age of 30 years old. I was quick to notice a great number of vehicles, both vans and cars, that had blue bottoms and white tops which I later found out were their taxi colors. This drive took us through the more populated parts of the city out to a bit more rural of an area, all of which is generally littered with rubble and people walking everywhere. We pulled into a very bumpy driveway in what looked like a curious side street. My first thought was one of terror as I was only hoping that they were taking us to the guest house, seeing no signs of such. We pulled up to a gate and the driver honked. The small door of the gate was opened and we were let out of the van and greeted by staff of the House. Walking through the gate, we approach a beautiful staircase and entryway to the house and immediately started to feel better about where we had been dropped off. We were greeted by the night receptionist named "Tecato?" who was quite friendly in showing us around and getting us set up for the night. He showed us through the house to our room and bathroom, gave us our water for the day, handed us an Ethiopian cell phone and walked us through the amenities and services they provide at the guest home. The guest home is incredibly clean and well kept and the staff were amazingly friendly and helpful. First thing we had to do when we were there were to try two things: power and internet. First, I tried to plug our surge protector / power strip into the converter/adapter we had bought. I made sure the converter was set to 120 and was getting power from the wall then I plugged the strip into the adapter. I was pleased that it turned on and that things seemed to be working. About 30 seconds later, though, it blew out and smelled like burnt plastic. I took it down to the receptionist area to see if they had dealt with this before but they weren't able to help me much past telling it me it was broken and that they could try to fix it

(never to be seen again). I got a crash course in 240v/120v power by looking at all of what we brought to see what we could and couldn't use. Thankfully, our computers and camera charger would work which would get us through the trip. Then we got the password for the internet and were quickly frustrated to see how in and out the internet actually was. Maybe I'm just used to solid internet at home but this connection seemed less than usable. We were pretty tired so I took a shower (making a wet mess of the bathroom because of the hand want) and we zonked out. We had a big day ahead of us in the morning. Saturday May 14th ---------------------------We had the pleasure of waking up to the rumored dogs and Muslim prayers starting at 6am on Saturday. The dogs are mainly street dogs that just bark constantly and the prayers are done through a PA system that sounded like it was set up about 10 yards from our window. I finally got a glimpse of what the view out our second story room was and it was beautiful. Addis seems to be a valley even at such high altitude. From our window, immediately you see the "road" just outside of our gate and past that, a drop off down into the city. Past the city seem to be a few uninhabited mountains. It was interesting to see that right next door to our beautiful house we were stain in was a yard that was filled with corrugated metal lean-tos (first of uncountable that we would see). We went downstairs for breakfast to be greeted with coffee (tasted like instant American coffee eww) and heart shaped waffles and pineapple juice. We enjoyed breakfast with a group who was traveling with "Living Water" who was in Addis for a day or two to prepare for a hygiene workshop in Owasa that would last a few weeks. We were told that our van was coming at around 9 so after breakfast, we finished getting ready to go. While we were getting ready, I noticed that outside the window, a groundskeeper was mowing the lawn with hedge trimmers. Just a small insight to the primitive nature of how people live here. We were nervous as our van pulled up to the gate because we knew this would be our first time out to meet Levi but it is also the first time that we were meeting the families that we were traveling with. We were the last ones to be picked up that morning so we were able to meet everyone at once which was nice. The families seemed wonderful but we were indeed a bit jealous that they were able to meet their children the day prior because they were told to come a day earlier than us and were able to have both morning and afternoon sessions with the kids. We headed out and we were able to have our first full daytime glimpse of Addis and its people. The first thing that I noticed was how many people crowded the streets and sidewalks. We saw people walking around on our

trip from the airport to the guest home the night prior but that was sparse in comparison to the crowds on every street in the daytime, even on Saturday. We were also able to see what all the buildings were along the main road from the guest home to the transition home: the meat shops, the storefronts, the markets, the auto parts stores, the repair places. We pulled off the main road onto a gravel/stone street and there we saw how many of the people live in small, dirt floor, lean-to shacks with seemingly no modern facilities and no front door. Clearly, such a stark difference to how we live at home. We saw children playing, people coming and going, and life as they know it goes on, just as it does for us at home. Seeing how these people live, what I've always said were 'needs' immediately were shifted in my mind to privileges and wants. My heart was beating a thousand times a minute as we pulled up to the black and silver gates of the transition home. The gates were opened and we pulled into the cement courtyard of the compound and the gates shut behind us. After all this time, it was pretty amazing to be standing within the same walls that Levi has been in since we've known of him. We saw other children standing, waving at and waiting for us as the van pulled to stop. Some of the children that had met their parents the day before immediately ran to them as we stepped out of the van and hugged them. What an amazing sight to see! Immediately we noticed a small boy walking around and he looked too old to be Levi and his face was a bit different. Having never seen Levi in person, we wondered if we could somehow make this face fit Levi so we asked Hermella (who we met this morning as well) who that was and she said a different name and that we would meet Levi in a few minutes. I took the opportunity that the other parents were greeting their children again as a chance to take in some of the surroundings within the walls of the orphanage. The first things I noticed were the clotheslines run across the courtyard, filed with clothes, blankets and diapers, a few playground type items, and many, many nannies and staff. After a few minutes, Hermella guided us upstairs into the family waiting room where we waited while she brough Levi to us. I stood their waiting, breathless, heart pounding. It was eerily similar to how I felt while waiting for Kylan to be born. Then Hermella turned into the room with him in her arms. As soon as he saw us, we froze and he shrieked. She handed him to Sarita and Levi shrieked and shrieked and shrieked. The type of scream that would make you thing we were branding him over and over and over. We knew not to expect him to throw his arms around us and say his first words of "Mommy" and "Daddy" and it was clear that this was a scared little boy so we tried to just keep our cool and calm him by holding and rocking. We tried to show him some toys but he had zero interest in those. The only thing we could think to say to him was "Ashu," the nickname we heard the nannies calling him in the videos we have of him. In the videos, this seemed to get him to laugh and giggle, but it was no help to us now.

We held him tight and traded hands as his shrieks became pouting and then broken deep breaths as he worked himself to sleep in our arms all in about fifteen to twenty minutes. We were holding a scared, sweaty, sleeping little boy. Finally, we were holding our son. With him sleeping on Sarita, it gave us a good opportunity to meet and watch the other kids and parents interact. There were 4 other children to the other 3 couples, ranging from 20 months to 6 and a half, Levi being the youngest at 13 months. Watching these children play with and get to better know their parents was truly a gift. Even with language barriers, play, fun, and laughs translate worldwide, it seems. My favorite thing was just how well the 7 and 3 year old siblings knew how to work our cameras and how much fun they had taking pictures of everything/ Somehow they also knew how to work our iPhones! There were balloons being blown up, played with, and deflated to make flatulent sounds. Bubbles were a popular toy and balls were being thrown everywhere. The entire room was the essence of play and it was a wonderful thing to get to watch. I feel like our job on the first trip is not to be disciplinarians but rather, to get the children to know us and like us enough to feel ok leaving with us. Basically, we get to be grandparents for a few days. It was easy for us because at this point, Levi was still sleeping and 'grandparenting' a 13 month old is easy and fun. Of course, in this time we were taking so many pictures and video and just loving simply being in the same room as him and having him in our arms. He slowly began to wake up about an hour after he first fell asleep. We were worried that he was going to wake up, realize it was us he was with and start the whole thing over again. Instead, he fell in and out of sleep for a while and when he finally woke up, we were able to have a sort of a reboot as he maybe realized that we weren't horrible. We got out some toys to try to play with, tried to set him down to play with them but he cried again, this time wanting to be held by us (probably anybody but we were lucky enough to be there). To be sure, him turning towards us wanting to be held was a wonderful feeling. As we made our way through the toys, we got out the blocks and holder (with wheels) that we had brought from home. I began to build some towers and then we had our breakthrough. All Levi wants to do is destroy things. I should have thought about this with him being a boy. He knocked over the first one and that it was ok. He knocked over he second and we got a smile. I built them up and he knocked them down again and this time he laughed as violently as he had wiped out my tower. We were finally getting somewhere and it was awesome. We played and played and took pictures and videos and ooed and awed over our little man trying to pull out as many laughs and giggles as we could. As our time for this morning session was closing, Hermella brought us a bowl of food to try to feed Levi, which we thought was awesome. It was a bowl of mashed pasta and potatoes and it was really fun getting to have our first feeding

time with him. Soon enough, we were shuffled out while Hermella continued to feed him (at a MUCH faster pace than we were) and the families loaded up in the van and we headed back to our respective guest homes for lunch. On our way back to the guest home from the transition home was the first time that we got to see donkeys being used for the purpose that God had in mind: carrying stuff. We only think of it in biblical times but in Addis, real donkeys are used to haul bags of 'stuff'. Not sure what that stuff is but they carry it down the side of the road. Usually, there are even more than one at a time with someone guiding them. We were able to go back later that day to the transition home and see Levi again. He cried pretty hard again when he was handed to us but this time we were ready with blocks in hand. We sat down and immediately began to build and destroy. That got us back to where we were pretty quickly. A bit later into this play time we decided to take him outside. We went down into the courtyard where the other kids were playing. We decided to give him a try on the 'merry-go-round' chairs they have there. He loved it from the second he sat down. We went round and round and round and round, over and over, crying when we tried to take him off. Gennet was riding too and a guard at the home came up and started playing with the kids and getting them laughing as they made their way around the merry go round to where he was standing to receive their tickle. Funny thing is that I had no idea that this guy was a guard. By the way he was playing with and seemingly caring for the children (knowing them all by name) I thought he was some sort of administrator or caretaker. I found out later that he was the guard and I thought it was awesome that even the guards at the home love the kids THAT much. After a LONG session on the swing, we again said goodbye and loaded into our van to go back for dinner. We were not looking forward to not being able to come back Sunday because we had made so much progress between the two visits today. We almost assured ourselves that come Monday when we see him again, we would be starting from scratch when it comes to him seeing and recognizing us. Thankfully, this day had given us a head start on how to play with him and his attitude and personality in general. This time on our way home, we were able to add cows to the list of animals we see walking along the side of the street. No one herding, no one making sure they head out into the road. Nope. These cows were as free as could be and were roaming the curbs and yards along the semi-busy roads that we drove on. This had been a huge day between meeting Levi, seeing Addis in the sunlight for the first time, and racking up farm animal points. The one thing we almost totally forgot about was the fact that this was Sarita's birthday!

Happy birthday, Sarita!

Sunday May 15th ---------------------------Boys with Cows Day out with Hermella No Money Coffee shop Shopping Area * Goat being walked into store * well dressed people Restaurant * Power Outage * Talk with hermella about america Back to Guest Home Monday May 16 ----------------------------Breakfast Transition Home * Levi Cried again * Played upstairs for a while * I did paperwork with Tsegay * Heard more about Levi from Tsegay * Saw Levi's birthmom photo * Headed down to swing * Played with Baraket Back for Lunch Out for shopping * Traditional Stores * Coke for buying * Hermella saying goats know where home is Back for dinner

Tuesday May 17 --------------------------------Court * Guard with Gun Transition Home Lunch Transition home * Little Girl Peeing in bucket * Yenensh Coloring on Sarita * Coloring with Levi

* Saying Goodbye Soccer with kids Met Dave Trip Home

Observations --------------------Dogs Emptying Pans Into Sewer Fumes Apples on window No toilet Paper Brushing Teeth with bottled water Power Outages Internet outages More english than I expected