Meeting Isaiah!

Monday morning, we woke up excited to finally get to go see Isaiah. We managed to eat our breakfast with the other families in our guest house. Our driver actually arrived earlier than we expected, so I didn't even get to do my hair! I threw it into a pony-tail, jumped into the van, and we headed to the CWAE offices. When we arrived, we unloaded our donations before being briefed on the schedule for the upcoming week.At this point, our hearts were racing, and our stomachs were in knots. We were excited, curious, scared, and relieved--all at once! All of the families except us were shuttled to the CWA Transition home. Isaiah is still at his orphanage (which is in Addis), so we were taken there. We hopped into a jeep and made the five-minute trek to his home. A videographer came with us to catch the moment on video. We were so excited about this so that we could just enjoy the moment. This is the gate to his orphanage! Here, we are in the nurse's office, waiting for her assessment.

After waiting for what seemed like forever, the moment had finally come.

Someone brought him down the stairs and handed him right to me. I was relieved he didn't cry. You can tell in these first videos/pics that he was a little overwhelmed. Fortunately, as soon as we took him to his bed, he relaxed and seemed much more himself.

Still a little scared. . .

. . . but Daddy broke the ice fairly quickly.

After hanging out outside for a bit, we headed back into the living area to spend the rest of our time. This is where we played with him,tickled him, fed him, changed him, and held him while he slept. Again, it was a sweet, sweet day. Enjoy the pics and video!

He loved Peek-a-boo!


Tickles drew out his giggle!


These are the first steps we saw!

More smiles!

I'm not sure he's a huge fan of injera!
As soon as he was finished eating, we changed his diaper. Immediately, he fell asleep. . . right on the floor!
So, the rest of our time was spent cuddling this sweet, sleeping boy. It felt like heaven.
Tomorrow is court. We will have a chance to make Isaiah ours, officially!