Today is Mother's Day and I am finally sitting down to blog our last day together...until we go back to bring you home forever.
Our last night in Ethiopia was the first night that I slept well. Our day started with a shopping trip. We started in a really beautiful shop full of beautiful gifts arranged much like an American store. We chose our treasures (all handmade items) and headed off to the Post Office area which is the market place. We were given 20 minutes to get all the items we wanted to bring home and get back on the van. Thanks to the help of our driver David, who is amazing, we pulled it off. Our next stop was lunch.
I don't know how to explain the compulsion we had to get to Nazeret. This was our last little bit of time together and the 3 of us would have been fine with skipping lunch...just to get to her faster. That's not how things work, so we ordered and waited. The power went out, so they had to come back and take new orders that could be cooked without the oven. We ordered a sandwich with "imported ham" to share. We really wanted out of there. When they finally brought our sandwich, there was NO ham. He took our plates back and returned our sandwich with one thin slice of ham. We didn't even care, we just wanted to get to Nazeret.
Finally, with mounting anticipation, we climbed in the vans to go spend our last few hours with our daughter. Because it was Saturday, only the children with parents visiting would be out today. We were excited to have the one-on-one time. The time seems to stall and yet pass quickly. I don't know how to explain it. We just played and sat together. I knew that one of the guides would come to us when it was time to explain that we were leaving. We didn't have any idea what to expect, but we had prayed that she would understand.
We sat with her while Job explained to her in Amharic that we were going to go back to America (like the other kid's parents), but we would come back for her and then she would go to America with us. He asked her if she wanted to go in a car or on an airplane. She chose an airplane. Good thing! We had Job ask her if she wanted us to leave her bag full of goodies or bring it when we came back. She pulled the straps up over her shoulder and zipped it shut....she wanted to keep it. We had one last gift for her. We had recorded our voices on one of those Hallmark books. She LOVED it! She called one of the older boys over and opened it. She told him "Daddy!" She turned the page and said, "Mommy!" This helped to hold the tear in our hearts together. Maybe she was really going to be okay until we could get back to her.
Then it was time to leave. She headed to the gate showing everybody and anybody, who would look, her bag of goodies. Then suddenly she came straight to me hugged my neck and planted the most precious kiss ever on my cheek. I asked her if she had one for Daddy. She went to him and kissed his cheek when he bent down to hug her. Without being asked, she went to Michela and kissed her too.
It was so hard to say goodbye, but God had answered our prayers. She seemed to understand. We were all doing better than anybody expected. We would make it.
So here I am on Mother's Day waiting to get back to Ethiopia. Today is a hard day. I miss my sweet girl and I still don't know how long it will be until we bring her home, but everyday is a day closer.
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