THE TRIP - Day 4, 5a

Okay...I want to start off by saying that Megersa has been home for 1 week!
I can't believe it's been so long already! He's fit into our family like a jello mold made specifically for him. He's doing EXCELLENT. He's eating like a champ, attaching to me really well...enjoying his brother and Daddy and sleeping better each night!
He's a gift from God, for sure. Thank you Jesus for his precious boy.
Thank you for teaching us to reach out to you and follow your lead in life.

And now to the trip. Thursday, March 11, 2010, Ethiopia.
On Thursday we woke up and got showered, then decided to go downstairs to eat some breakfast at the Kings Hotel. If you're reading this and you're planning on staying there...I'd recommend skipping breakfast. And that's quite a statement to make considering it's part of the hotel fee. It was GROSSE!
Food that was suppose to be cold, was warm. Food that was suppose to be hot, was cold. It was nasty. I won't waste the rest of my time going into it. Yuck.
So...after breakfast (which I got, but didn't eat), we walked to Layla. We stopped at Kaldi's again so I could get a mocha frappuchino. It wasn't the same as Amanda's, but it was still good!
When we got to Layla, I was so happy to see my boy was up and had LOTS of smiles for me! I picked him up and noticed he was soaking wet. I changed his clothes and strapped him into the ERGO. He, of course, fell asleep minutes after I strapped him in, so I decided to walk around with him, taking more pictures until we could meet up with Amanda. She told us about her night with Tsehaye and I was so happy they were making such great progress! We decided to go to the Ritmo early that day. We walked over there and hung out. I'm pretty sure that we just ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (that they had at the Ritmo for free) for lunch. I planned to give Megersa a bath, but they still didn't have water. Oh well. We just hung out. We were thinking of watching a movie...but the electricity was also out. Oh well. I wish I had written down specifics of that day, but I dont think there were many. I know that we just spent time together and for dinner we called Jemal to get a pizza from the Hilton hotel. We split the cost with Amanda and Joe (the other adoptive Dad that was at the Ritmo) and had an Ethiopian style American pizza. NOT at all what you would eat here, but still, it looked like home. Thursday was when I noticed 2 things. Megersa was staring to play with my hair/earrings when I gave him a bottle (which I took as a GREAT sign!)...but also that Megersa really wasn't taking much of the bottle. It seemed like he barely drank anything and had VERY few wet diapers. All I was changing was diarrhea. And it was A LOT! I seemed concerned about it...but I didn't know how much they really fed him before. I think on his chart it said something about 3 - 6oz bottles, but by the time we returned to Layla to drop him off, I think all he had taken for me was 11 oz or something like that.
I was certainly concerned for that, the diarrhea and the lack of wet diapers.
When I dropped him off that night I was sad. I had used the last diaper I brought so he was dirty and the clothes I changed him from were dirty, so I left him in the outfit I brought for him (if you're going there but staying at a hotel...I'd suggest keeping the outfit your child had on in the morning, and putting it back on at night - you won't see the outfit you brought again).
Anyway, when I walked into his baby room, ALL the babies were upset. Most were crying and I could tell the nannies were overwhelmed. I mentioned to him that he was dirty, they nodded and then motioned for me to put him on the floor.
It didn't feel right. I scooped him back up and told them I'd be right back.
I told Mom how I was feeling and we were lucky enough to be able to catch the nurse as she was walking around. I explained to her that he wasn't really drinking much for me, didn't have many wet diapers and that he had diarrhea. As best I could tell she understood and then she said something to me. It took both Mom and I several minutes for us to understand that she said "isolation."
HUH?
We followed her to Megersa's old baby room where 5 other babies were. They weren't the tiny babies that are normally in the room. She said that they all had diarrhea. 2 of the babies in there were from Megersa's room. Perhaps with the cloth diapers that were being washed out by hand...this germ had been passed.
When I dropped him off he looked alright, but I felt super sad.
I walked back out into the room where we decided to wait for our taxi. We still had 15 minutes before the driver got there. Mom asked me if I wanted to pick up any of the babies for a little while and I said that if I was gonna hold anyone, it'd be Megersa. So she told me to go get him.
When I walked back in the room he was crying. I scooped him up and talked to the nurse again. She saw me trying to feed him again and then told me that he didn't like the bottle I had brought.
I brought the Playtex drop-ins for easy clean-up. With no access to clean water, I thought these would be best...but the nurse said that the babies don't drink well from any other type of bottle than the standard ones they have there. She gave me one of their bottles to use, and also said that she'd give him some pedialyte to make sure he wasn't dehydrated.
That made me feel better, but the concern for him put me in a huge funk.
Our plan was to go see the traditional Ethiopian dancing and eat the food...meet Anna at 8pm, but I didn't feel like going.
Mom coaxed me into it, and I realized that it was a once-in-a-lifetime thing, and I owed it to Megersa to experience his culture.
I'm glad I went. We really enjoyed watching the dancing and it was fun to hang out with Anna and her roommate Eden (pronounced Ay-den). I even ate the food!!
I enjoyed the hand washing ceremony and how they layed out the food...it was very neat.
I didn't really enjoy later on that night. I got sick. Not sure if it was from Megersa or from the food...but it wasn't any good. And, if you'd believe this - Immodium AD was the ONLY drug I needed that I didn't bring. Luckily I was able to sleep that night, after carefully going through my belongings and trying to pack what was dirty, what was clean, what was needed for my carry-on for the plane, for the diaper bag that day, and extra stuff to replenish the bag for the night.

Okay, let's try and get as much done of Friday as possible.
Woke up early to get finished packing, then went downstairs to meet our driver to pick us up. Mom checked us out and I know she paid more than we should have. Since we moved from a "suite" room to a standard room with 2 beds, it should have been more around 50 US than 60...but I guess Mom paid the full amount (though I specifically told her NOT to be taken for a ride!! :)...oh well. She also asked what she should pay the "porter" (which is the guy who carries luggage up and down - in case you didn't know! :) and the ladies who cleaned the room.
Needless to say, I was cleaned out after paying for that! LOL!
BUT...we did enjoy our stay there for the most part.
Mom went downstairs for breakfast which I SKIPPED! I still was feeling very yucky and I didn't want to repeat the breakfast experience there.
We went to Layla and when I walked into Megersa's room I saw one of the nannies pick him up. He looked at me with snot covered all over his face and cried. I like to think he was crying because he wanted me, so I'll leave it at that!
He did perk up when I held him close, cleaned off his face and arms, and changed his clothes. I strapped him in, despite feeling ill myself and we began our day. We had much planned for our last day.
Luckily I was able to get my hands on some liquid anti-diarrheal for me. It worked a little bit and I was able to withstand our shopping trip. In the car, as we drove around, we took many scenery shots. It'd be hard to really remember ET without them.
We were going to the places we found out we were able to bring our children. We got a taxi driver to take us to a basket weaving shop (though you aren't allowed to take your children there - I stayed in the car), the leprocacy hospital gift shop - where I got some BEAUTIFUL blankets, and a table runner...and then to the silk factory called Sab....sab something.
See...it's getting too far away from the trip to remember! Ugh!
Well, it WAS beautiful there with wonderful flowers and green leafy trees, but the prices on the scarfs and necklaces were WAY out of our range. My money was dwindling and I was ready to head back. We decided to stop outside the Caribou restaurant to order take out.
This...took forever. Megersa finally woke up (after almost 3 hours alseep in the ERGO) and we hung out in the taxi.
Why? Well, I guess it's not 'cultural' to take children out in public, and with the 'taboos' of American families coming to take away Ethiopian children, our agency advices us to keep a low profile from public places. The above mentioned places are very touristy and are enclosed compounds...so they're okay.
In ET fast food isn't really fast. We waited in the car for what seemed like FOREVER. My stomach was still hurting so I only ordered soup (which I didn't eat) and it was HOT.
I guess I've failed so far to mention how darn hot it is in ET. This of course, comes from someone who always seems hot...so weather in the upper 70s was hard to take with a warm body strapped to you...and having the runs. (there, I said it!)
Amanda and Mom finally came out with their food, and we went back to the Ritmo.
I ate some of Amanda's french fries and passed on the soup. I think someone else ate it. The other adoptive family, Joe & Lisa came back from swimming at the Hilton with their kids hungry...so they helped us eat our food.
I think this was around 2p or so, ET time.
The goodbye party at Layla was scheduled for 3pm. Mom walked over to take some pictures. I got on the internet at the Ritmo and it felt SO good to update Tim on what was going on. I was starting to feel homesick.
I walked over with Amanda to see the ceremony.
We got there early and I took Megs to his old room to tell his nannies goodbye. They said, Megersa...America? I said "Yes...today." Then I snapped pictures with all the nannies that were there.
They were so sweet to get him to smile and love on him for the last time.
This seemed surreal to me.
I was taking him from the only faces he could remember.
He was still sick. I was sick. And I knew an 18 hour plane ride awaited me.
Despite all that was going on in my head and both of our stomachs...he remained the sweetest baby you could imagine.