ETHIOPIA ~ DAY 6 (Friday)

Wow.  Time was flying by so fast!  We were cherishing every single moment with our baby and trying so hard to not focus on what was going to take place tomorrow.  We were leaving.  U-G-H!

Okay, but I had a talk with myself and I said, "Self, you are still here in Ethiopia with Baby K!  Do NOT!! I repeat.....DO NOT waste a single moment of it on worrying about tomorrow!!!!  Take in all that you still have left NOW!  Today!"

And that is what I tried so hard to do.  Soak. in. every. precious. moment.

We went to the Transition House right away in the morning {I so LOVED starting my day like that!}.  Our sweets was in a bouncy chair, bright eyed and happy.  When he saw me, he smiled big!  Love it!!!  One of the younger nannies was in the room and she just beamed at me.  I think she knew how easily he turned my heart to mush with such a big smile of recognition and joy to see me!  {sigh}

We had just laid our blanket on the ground outside and were getting settled in for some more quality family time.  He was so HAPPY (then again, when WASN'T this sweet boy happy ~ aside from being tired, poopy or hungry).  Our Baby "K" was all giggles, and was excited to play our family babbling game.  He quickly learned that if he babbled, "bababababa" to us.......then we would babble, "babababababa" back to him as we came in close to his face and would plant a sweet kiss on his precious face.  HE. LOVED. THIS. GAME!!!  We were enjoying this sweet enagement of babbling, when all of a sudden a couple of the nannies approached us.

"Please tell me they are kidding!" I pleaded to Jeff......no such luck......no kidding.......for real.......they were wanting to take our Baby "K" to the clinic for x-rays!  Right then!  Right when we were just starting our family time on our second-to-last day of being with him!

My heart absolutely sank.  I wanted him to get the xrays, as the doctor wanted to make sure his lungs were clear, since he had not totally gotten over his upper respiratory infection.  I understood the need for the xrays......but at the same point........I DID NOT WANT TO MISS OUT ON OUR LIMITED TIME WITH OUR SON!!!!

The sweet nanny recognized the fear/agony/total distrought/near panic in my face, bless her heart!  And she immediately offered to have us join them.  Which we were MORE than happy to do!  Thank you, Lord! Time in a van and in a clinic far surpassed spending our time at the TH without him!  Whew!

So, we climbed into the van with a number of children of various ages and a couple of nannies.  I could not help but look at the other children with us, wondering if they were some of the other AWAA family's children!

Okay, so I think I commented on an early post how CRAZY the driving is in ET.  Crazy does not cut it, let me tell you!  We had so many ~ what I would call ~ "close calls" to getting in an accident, yet our drivers, never flinched.  They knew what they were doing and how to maneuver in such chaos.  However........

........now sitting in a van full of children and holding our son on my chest as he fell into a deep sleep....(they don't use seat belts in Africa, remember!)........I found myself MUCH more worried for the safety of our son and the other children!  Of course, we made it to the clinic safe and sound.  When Baby "K" awakened, he was hungry and the nanny gave me a bottle to feed him.  Sweet moments.  I so LOVE feeing him!  No matter WHERE we are!  Such connection and bonding!  He loved looking at me and holding my finger as he drank from his bottle.......{a little slice of heaven!}.

Well, long story short, they did not do xrays afterall.  Good thing we were with him!  I would have been so bummed to miss out on time with him for no reason!  Ufdah!  We were glad to find out that the people were going to re-take xrays, because when they tried to get them the other day, the machine broke down.  They thought his did not turn out, but they did!  So they spared him unnecessary radiation!  Thank You!!!

The driver then took us to lunch and I handed my sweet baby boy to a nanny.  {sinking heart inserted here}  We met the others in our travel group and enjoyed lunch at the Makush Restaurant.  Our tummies were pretty gnarly by now and I was feeling pretty yucky, physically.  I wasn't sure if it was a "bug" that had been with me all but two days of the week, or if now, it was just the ickies stirring in me ~ anticipating only one more day with our precious son.  Either way, my body wasn't tolerating a whole lot food-wise.

My heart ached throughout the lunch for the quality time we missed out on at the Transition House.  Grateful for the clinic, yes.  Lonesome for the family fun we could have had if we weren't at the clinic, definitely.   OHHHHH......how I could have kissed David and Yonas when they announced we could go back to the TH to be with Baby K after lunch!!!!

WE. GOT. THE. WHOLE. AFTERNOON. WITH. OUR. SON!!!!!

This was SUCH a treat, since we only got to share about 3-4 hours together as a family once-a-day all the other days!!!  We were so excited to have more time with him!!!!  Now we REALLY soaked up every single extra minute given us!!!!

All the families so enjoyed this extra time with their babes.  A truly precious gift to all of us!

Of course, even with this extra bonding time as "the three of us," when it came time to go, we hated to hand our son back to the nanny.  Hated it.  Never enough time, I guess.  Never enough time to soak in his precious expressions.  Take in his alertness and intrigue.  Shower him with our love.  Snuggle him in our arms.  Nonetheless, it became time to go.  Again.  So we did, but this time, with such gratefulness for the extra afternoon spent with him!!!!

Dinner was at the Transition House and Jeff and I began the dreaded packing.

And went to bed with FULL HEARTS for the time spent with "K".......and a foreboding sense of dread for what was coming in the morning.........

Prayers were sent up all night again.  For Baby "K."  For our momma and daddy hearts.  For God's covering over all of us.  And the dreaded "See ya soon".........