Sweet Smile

We finished out the first day of meeting the boys playing with them.   At the care center the nannies feed them around noon and then they go down for a nap.  When the boys went for lunch, so did we.

Here is a picture of the street we lived on for the week we stayed in Addis.  We walked down this street to get to the other guest house where we ate our meals.

Here we are eating a meal.  We were so thankful for the amazing staff at our agencies care center ... including the cooks who made us many delicious meals.

We were so blessed to be able to be staying at the same compound they boys were at.   After lunch, the kids all nap.  I spent most of the time while the boys were napping gazing out our dining room window at the door of the room the boys were sleeping in.  While they were napping, all the little "crocks" were neatly lined up in a row outside the room.  Here's what the view was out the dining room window of the guest house we stayed at.

The room on the far left is a bedroom and the middle room is the bedroom that our boys are sleeping in along with three other little ones.  The room on the far right is the room that the kids spend the day in - they play, sing, dance and also eat in that room.

The boys woke up and we went to play more for the afternoon.  We had brought soccer balls along with us, which we played with every single day.  Throwing them over the clothes line was a fun thing to do with a little help from a big brother and sister.

The little boys did warm up to us and play with us that day, but you can just tell that their little hearts were guarded.  One of the amazing staff at the care center told us that the first days are the hardest.  I would have to agree, it was hard - but yet so amazing and awesome at the same time.  I continue to learn that this journey is such a mixed bag of emotions and looking through pictures makes me miss those little boys soooo much!  I'm so grateful to God who is blessing us beyond measure on this journey.  It was just this morning that Amanda texted and said "mom, I'm praying that we get an embassy date soon.  I miss my little brothers."  and then a second text that followed from her said, "but mom, my prayer is really that God will give us an embassy date when our family is ready, and I think our family is ready now!"

We played the whole afternoon with the boys until they needed to go for dinner - and so did we.  We ate and then walked back to our guest house.  Ryan and I tucked little b&b in their bed.  Buche was already sound asleep, but Burka was awake.  His sweet smile as we kissed him good night ended the day that we held our new sons for the first time!