G-Lover: Day 1: Meeting Levi Biniam

We are home and adjusting back to normal life. The jet lag has taken a toll on us. We arrived back in El Paso Sunday night around 7:00 and were warmly greeted by the youth from our church. That was a fun surprise!! We went to bed around 10:30, beyond exhausted. I woke up around 5:00 am and could not go back to sleep. Jason slept until 1:30...pm!! Last night was much better for me...I went to bed at 7:30 and woke up around 6:30 this morning. Neither one of us slept straight thru the night last night, but I feel much more rested today. Jason is back to work today and I'm doing stuff around the house. I'm ready for things to be bck in order again. While

we were in Ethiopia, I sent a daily email update to family and friends. I will update the blog each day with that email. It's killing me that I cannot post pictures of sweet Levi yet. It's the first thing I am going to do after I hear that we pass court next week. Until then, here are the updates...

Hello again!I have waited 45 minutes for the computer and I'm so tired I can barely keep my eyes open.We slept well last night. Jason was wide awake at 5:30...I slept in until 6. :) We got ready for the day and went to breakfast in the dining room of the guest house. There are many families here also adopting, but we are one of the few american families. After breakfast we called our agency's office and arranged to have our driver come assoon as possible.

He picked us up in cute little Toyota and we were off. I was a little nervous as we got in last night while it was dark...so this was our first time seeing the city during daylight. The driving is crazy!!!You just go and basically pray no one hits you. People walk in the street and there are honking horns every second. We only drove for about 10 minutes when we pulled off the main road onto a dirt/gravel/bumpy/doesn't really seem like a real road kind of road. His phone rang and apparently we were at the right spot. They had moved Levi to the Hope Transition Home and we were parked right outside. I have to admit that I got a little teary as we were driving through the city knowing we were on our way to meet our son. I had no idea it would only take 10 minutes to get there!!

We walked into the gate and into the Hope office. We introduced ourselves and then they said we were free to go see our son. We walked over to another building and there was a door that said infant room. We walked in and looked around but didn't see him right away. Then a nanny picked him and showed him to us. Immediately I teared up and stared at his beautiful face. She handed him over to me and I fell in love. He is so sweet. Daddy was busy taking pictures of us. After I kissed him and loved on him for a moment, I handed him off to Jason. (he had tears in his eyes too...and the look on his face, I'll never forget.) I snapped a few pictures of him and Levi together. We made our way over to a couch where we just laughed and smiled and admired our precious baby. We were able to hang out with him for an hour, maybe more. The other babies in the room were demanding attention too, so we took turns holding Levi and playing with the other babies. Jason had the honor of feeding his first bottle from mommy and daddy. He was more interested in playing than eating. After a while, he fell sleep in my arms. Precious!! We put him in his crib and walked outside because they were preparing the coffee ceremony. We met another family who is here for their embassy appointment. We shared the coffee ceremony with them and then joined them for lunch. It was nice to meet another family and share our stories. After lunch we went back to hang out with Levi for a bit. Then because we were dead tired we came backto the guest house, took a nap and then ate dinner here.

one of the nannies preparing the coffee ceremony

Before I go...I'll share some thoughts on Levi. He is super tiny!!! His little legs are so skinny. The nurse weighed him and he was 6.4kg. Someone convert that for me!! (I now know that it converts to a little over 14 pounds!) He may be small but he is beautiful and happy.He didn't cry one time and laughed a lot on the second visit. He loved Jason's hat and we love him. I can't wait to share the pictures. We'll go back tomorrow to hang out and then we'll do some shopping.

We're off to bed. The tylenol pm works great!!!

here are some pics:

our room at the Yeka Guest House