Gotcha Day - Tuesday

Tuesday, May 29th OUR GOTCHA DAY!!


We made it to Addis Ababa with no trouble at all other than the fact that we didn’t sleep at all on the plane and were completely exhausted when we arrived. Much more so than on our first trip. We were slightly rejuvenated when the doors of the plane opened and we breathed in the familiar Ethiopian air. It smelled wonderful! We were back! We walked off the plane with our new Columbus friends and we both agreed that the smells were welcoming and gave us a boost of energy we needed. For the second time now I was amazed when we arrived at baggage claim to find our luggage waiting for us. We also had short lines through customs so we were quickly well on our way. As we rode from the airport to our hotel Matt and I marveled at the fact that it felt like we were just here and that hardly anytime had gone by since our first trip even though the last few weeks had been packed with an enormous amount of activity. It felt very natural to be back and in some strange way it felt like coming home.

Before we left Ohio I had made arrangements for us to visit the Hamlin Fistula Hospital in Addis. I hadn’t gotten confirmation before we left if this would be able to take place or not because we weren’t sure what time they had us scheduled to pick up K. But when we got to our hotel and picked up our itinerary we saw that they had planned for us to go visit the hospital first thing. We were thrilled because we knew our only chance of visiting the hospital would be this morning. We dropped of our bags in our room and I took a 5 minute nap and then we were off. On the plane we realized that our new Columbus friends were also visiting the Hamlin Hospital at the same time as us so we were able to meet them there and be on the same tour. Such a small world!

The Hamlin Fistula Hospital is a hospital that was opened by Catherine and Reginald Hamlin in 1959. An Obstetric Fistula refers to an injury resulting from long unrelieved obstructed labor. Prolonged and obstructed labor can lead to the death of tissue and an abnormal opening between the birth passage and bladder, and /or rectum. Following this traumatic experience the woman becomes incontinent of urine and/or feces and can only be cured by surgery. A constant trickle of body waste makes her offensive to those around her and unwanted. Eventually she becomes a social outcast in her own community. We became interested in the hospital after reading Catherine Hamlin’s book, The Hospital by the River. After reading it I knew that I had to see it with my own eyes and that I would always want to support it in some way. I had contacted the hospital a couple of weeks ago asking them if we could bring anything. They told me they needed pantyhose! I had envisioned bringing bins of medical supplies but pantyhose it was! When we got there we were escorted to an Octagon shaped room and a woman stood in front ready to give a presentation. Apparently they were short a guide that day so our Columbus friends and we shared the presentation and tour with students on a school field trip. This meant that we had to wait for her to give the Amharic presentation to the students and then give the English presentation to us. Let me just tell you that it takes 4 times as long to speak in Amharic than it does in English so the Amharic presentation was very long. Since I had no idea what she was saying in Amharic I was struggling stay awake during that part of it. Matt kept nudging me as my eyes kept closing. As soon as she gave the English presentation though she had my full attention and I was wide awake. We then were able to tour the grounds and the different surgery and recovery rooms. The grounds were beautiful with lush landscaping and lots of flowers and flowering shrubs and trees. This made me happy to know that the women had a serene and pretty place to recover in. As we toured the rooms and saw the dozens of patients there I was so thankful that I had already experienced my cry fest on the plane. It was very heart wrenching to see all of the patients and know of the pain and suffering they had endured. It was also hard to see such young girls there and to know what they had been through at such tender ages. Then, there were the difficult to look at before and after pictures of the patients who had months of physical therapy to regain the use of leg muscles after holding their legs in the same position for years in an effort to stop the leaking. I just wanted to go and hold their hands and stroke their heads and tell them that they were beautiful and worthy in the eyes of the Lord. When we were finished with the tour we were able to buy some crafts that the women make while recovering. We gave them the pantyhose we brought and discovered that they have the patients wear the top part of the hose and then cut the leg part off and use them to braid rugs. It was truly a wonderful experience and we hope to always be able to support the work they do there. Catherine Hamlin still lives on the grounds, is 88 years old and is still performing surgeries. She is a true gift from God.

When we returned to the hotel we have now been awake for 28 hours and are beyond exhausted. As much as we couldn’t wait to be reunited with K we were both worried that we were not of sound mind and didn’t want our exhaustion to take away from the moment we have been waiting for the past 2 ½ years. We decided to take a one hour nap and then we awoke and had the driver from Hannah’s Hope come pick us up. We were still in a haze and I just prayed that adrenaline would kick in as soon as we arrived at the gates of Hannah’s Hope. Thankfully it did and when we arrived at HH we were told that K was just finishing up her bath. We had met another adoptive family that morning at the hotel and they agreed to take pictures for us. We were standing in the courtyard waiting for her when all of a sudden she came tearing around the corner in a full out sprint and jumped in to my arms and gave me the biggest bear hug of my life! It was the most amazing moment ever! I expected her to be shy and reserved since we had been apart from her for 5 weeks, but this was definitely not the case. After she hugged me for a while she went to Matt’s arms and did the same thing to him. What a reunion! It was better than we ever could have imagined. We sat down with her for a while and played and talked to her even though she couldn’t understand a word we were saying. Then, we played with the other children. We gave HH our donations and then we pulled out a bunch of things for the children. When we pulled out the books the kids went nuts. It was so fun watching the joy on their faces. We also brought new coloring books and crayons and the majority of them immediately began to color. We pulled out new jump ropes (which they are masters at) and some Velcro ball catchers and taught them how to use them. It was sooooo fun to be back with the kids again. After playing with them for awhile it was time to go. We weren’t sure how K would react to leaving HH but we were thankful that we would be back on Friday and that we didn’t have to say our goodbyes right then. The kids were giving her hugs and kisses before we left and then without hesitation jumped right in the van. We could tell she was excited about the van ride and had fun looking at all of the sights out the window. She hasn’t been beyond the walls of HH in 3 months so there was a lot to see. When we got to the hotel we were starving as we had never eaten lunch so we only stopped at our room for a few minutes before heading down to eat dinner. We met the other couple for dinner and had a great first meal with our daughter! We decided to order some injera, dora wat, and shiro as this would be familiar to her. She had been very happy and playful but when they set down the food in from of her her mood changed. She suddenly got a very serious look on her face and became withdrawn. We were concerned because we didn’t want her to be hungry later but our new friends reassured us by telling us that they had witnessed her eat two full plates of spaghetti at lunch. Her sullenness continued until finally she sat on Matt’s lap and began to eat. And wow, can this girl eat!! She will fit right in with Brooke who out eats her brothers. She then moved to my lap and ate some more. In fact, she polished off the whole dish of Shiro! We weren’t sure what happened when she had withdrawn for a spell. Perhaps she was missing her friends and realizing that this was a new mealtime experience. We had a great time visiting with our new friends and I felt so much more awake after eating. We wanted to keep her on her schedule (7:30 bedtime) as much as possible so after dinner we said goodnight to our friends and headed up to bed. She was full of energy when we got to our room. She wanted to pull out the jump rope and play. We let her play for a few minutes and had a blast watching how funny this little girl is! We didn’t know we would be adopting a comedian!! Next, she did an awesome job of brushing her teeth and even knew to turn off the water in between brushing. Matt and I decided to make a comfy bed for her on the sofa for her to sleep on. She seemed very excited about it and she crawled right in, snuggled up with the teddy bear we had brought for her, and was asleep in 20 seconds! Well that was easy!! Again, not what we were expecting at all on our first night. She slept through the night but made some noises during her sleep. Believe it or not she was laughing during her sleep! This is very fitting because the other adoptive families have nicknamed her “Giggles.” Even in her sleep she continues to radiate joy! Thank you God for the best Gotcha Day we ever could have ever dreamed of. We couldn’t have written the script any better than that.

                                                                          The Hamlin Fistula Hospital

                                                      In our arms forever!

                                                          Best smile - our "Giggles!"