While I have a few minutes (Asher is napping), I thought I’d post a few pics from our stay in Ethiopia. I was there for close to three weeks, but the first week I had Asher by myself, so I wasn’t able to take a lot of pictures. Once Owen got there, I started taking pictures like mad, but still feel like I didn’t get enough, or capture what I wanted to. A lot of the pictures were taken from a moving van as we toured the city or drove from place to place with our CHI drivers, so I don’t feel like the photos can convey the “feeling” of Addis Ababa or its people adequately.

The first moment I laid eyes on Asher (with his buddy, Cullen, and being held by Tsegay’s wife, Almaz)

One of Asher’s Nannies saying goodbye.

First picture as a family.

Tsegay holding Asher.

Yeah, the blog isn’t exactly a priority right now. I’ve been in survival mode for the last two weeks, so there are a lot of things way down on the list.

We’ve been home with Asher for two weeks and two days. I can’t seem to remember what it was like without him. I don’t ever remember being this tired or this happy. I would be lying if I said it was easy. We’ve all had a lot of adjusting to do. The first few days were rough with very little sleep as Asher adjusted to US time. We had lots of 2 am parties with the little guy. Fortunately, Owen had a couple weeks off, so we were able to take turns getting up with him. We still haven’t solved the sleep issues entirely, but we’re working on it. Owen had to go back to work today, so it looks like good old Mom will be the one getting up most of the time. Currently, Asher  goes down at 7:30 pm, then wakes up between 10:30 – 11:30 pm for a bottle, then goes right back down to sleep. Sometimes he’ll sleep til 6:30 or 7:00 am, other times he’ll wake up at 2:00 – 3:00 am and fight going back to sleep. Sometimes we rock him back to sleep and put him back in his crib, other times he goes in bed with us. As I said, we’re in survivor mode right now, so we go with whatever works!

We had our first Pediatrician appointment last week. Asher is right on target for everything developmentally and physically! The Doc said he can’t believe how healthy he is! I was relieved to hear that. We did four immunizations. The Doc was willing to wait on some of the others. I didn’t want Asher to get all of them at once. There are a couple we will do titers on, so hopefully he won’t have to get them.  

I’m still trying to process our whole trip to Ethiopia. It all seems so unreal. It seems like it went by so fast, but in reality, I was there for almost 3 weeks. As hard as it was being there the first week alone with Asher, I would do it again in a heartbeat. I think it made such a huge difference in bonding with him. By the end of that first week, he KNEW who his Mom was. I’m so grateful I did it.

I’m going to try to post more about the trip as I get time. It’s hard making time for the computer now. Asher is sooooo active! What little computer time I have, I usually spend on Facebook because that’s where all my friends and fam are. I may end up transitioning all posts to Facebook notes. I post all my pics there now anyway as well. It just might be time to put the blog to rest. I think it may have served its purpose.

Here are a few pics of our new family!