We Meet

Let me say, the daughter I've been calling sweet for the past four months is just that. Sweet.

After a great night sleep at the Ethiopia Guest Home, we anxiously waited at for the driver to pick us up this morning. From here, we were driven through downtown Addis Ababa to the Thomas Center. Since we arrived late last night, this drive was our first picture of Ethiopia well, of Africa. Beautiful. But more about that later.

The Thomas Center, like our guest home has a gated entry with a guard. We were greeted at the door and immediately escorted up two flights of stairs and into a nursery. About eight or nine cribs lined the walls, each with a sleeping baby. Except one. On the far side of the wall facing us was sweet Marta, holding herself up and looking at the strange white people who her nannies were making such a fuss about. I hesitantly walked to her, fearful of approaching too quickly and overwhelming her. After an eternity of talking to her and touching her little hands and cute tiny curls, I finally reached into her crib and picked her up. What. A. Gift.

Video of meeting our daughter:

First time holding her.

We were brought chairs so we could sit in the nursery, but were very soon escorted to an office two more flights is stairs up. There, we were given time alone with our daughter for about an hour and a half.

That girl, she's a serious little thing! She was most content when we stood and held her so she could face out and turn toward noises. She watched every movement with little expression, but very wide-eyed. She didn't fuss once. As time went by, she seemed to warm to us. We figured out a sure way to get a smile was to let her make noise by banging on things. She always seemed surprised as delighted by the noises she could make. She has a bit of a cold, and each time she sneezed she looked at us and grinned, as if to say, "See what funny noise I can make?" To my delight, she also got a kick out of touching my face and hair when I nosed in close to her.

By far, the most precious moment was when she fell asleep against her daddy's chest. She dozed about 15 minutes in Ty's arms before a nanny woke her for a diaper change. The nanny then wrapped her in a blanket and handed Marta over to me, and she fell right back asleep. Any doubt and insecurity I had about being a mom momentarily faded away Marta slept against my chest. God has given us such a precious gift.

Our driver returned and we put our daughter back in her crib and headed back to the guest house. It was a very quiet ride.