Four Months Since Micah's "Gotcha Day" :)

Four months ago today, we landed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and were met by a driver from Ethiopia Guest House who escorted us to our home-away-from-home for the week (and the place where we would first experience 25-hour-per-day parenting). We arrived first-thing in the morning, and we almost immediately settled in for a nap. Neither one of us had slept much on the plane ride, so rest was in order. We planned to wake up just in time for lunch. Wake up, we did, to the sound of a knock indicating that not only was lunch ready, but that we were due for a meeting at our agency care center in just under an hour. "Meeting? Really? We just got here? We haven't even called to tell them we're here yet!"

In Ethiopia, nothing happens in an hour, so it was about 2pm (not the 1pm mandate) when we arrived at Layla House to pick up our son. There was no meeting, but Micah was apparently "ready for us." I'm not sure exactly what they meant by ready, but I observed that it likely meant, "asleep in a sopping wet diaper with a bottle lying next to him." :) Ready, or not, picking up a sleepy, sopping wet, 11-month old, was our inauguration into parenthood. Changing the diaper and putting him in fresh clothing (which we brought with us for such an occasion) was our first act of parenthood. Actually, I think Ryan was holding a camera for that part, but who's keeping track?

Since then, there have been LOTS of wet diapers (many changed by Ryan!), plenty of times to gather up a sleeping child and plenty more to gather up an unwilling-to-sleep child. There have been many times we felt like we didn't have a clue what to do and many more, recently, where we were proud to find that in-fact we DID know what to do. The times when we know what to do are finally outweighing the times where we don't, and after a great deal of learning and a great deal of crying (on the part of ALL parties involved), we are much more "ready" than we were on Gotcha Day, for the challenges and joys of parenthood.

It has been a VERY, VERY good four months.

Rebecca
Happy mom to Micah, who just completed a shorter-than-desirable nap! :)