"Update from Ethiopia"

This is a post from Grant:

Well, as usual the internet connection here is horrible so it is very difficult to update the blog.  Hopefully this will work.  We’ve been here two days now.  I’m going to give brief updates of both days:

Day 1

We arrived around 8:00 am on Saturday morning.  We were taken to our guest house and told that our agency would be at the guest house shortly.  4 hours later we were still waiting.  We finally got in touch with our agency and found out Solomon, our driver, was in a wreck and could not make it to pick us up.  It turns out he was ok.  But they had to send a different driver.  I don’t know how to spell or say his name yet but he is very good.  So he took us to the orphanage at 2:00pm.  Because of all the confusion our agency rep was not able to meet us to get Denver.  This ended up being a mess because the nannies didn’t speak good English and neither does our driver.  They didn’t really have many instructions or tips about feeding, sleeping and all the other important things.  So we’ve been figuring it out on our own.  We left the orphanage and went to eat a late lunch.  Denver was a perfect angel.  He never cried and was perfectly content just sitting there.  After lunch we went back to the guest house and called it a day so Denver could adjust to us.  He played and laughed.  It was a great night.  He was a perfect angel.  Then day 2 came along. 

Day 2

We decided to go shopping on day 2.  However, the angel I put to sleep was not there.  Instead he had been replaced by a terror.  He wouldn’t stop crying unless I was holding him and standing up.  Oh, and he stopped crying to eat (his favorite thing to do).  We had breakfast at our guesthouse.  I ordered Denver some scrambled eggs but they gave him an omelet instead.  The omelet was about the same size of the normal sized dinner plate it came on.  Denver ate all but 20% of the omelet because I ate the other 20%.  My pancake wasn’t good so I had to eat some of his.  So we went shopping at the post office area (its a row of shops just big enough for 2 people to stand in on the side of the road).  Of course I had to hold Denver the whole time.  We then went to the Hilton to eat a late lunch.  That is the point Denver really started to get grumpy.  I barely got him to eat.  So we decided to call it a day after lunch and head back to the guest house.  Back at the guest house Denver was an even worse mood.  I finally got him to take a nap.  But the only way I could do that was by letting him sleep on top of me.  Every time I tried to move him he woke up crying.  Finally about 5:00 pm we figured out what would probably take most women 5 minutes to figure out.  He has two more teeth coming in.  So, we decided to give him some Oragel.  I about lost a finger but I got it done.  And sure enough 10 minutes later Denver the angel re-appeared.  He was back to his normal self.  Except for he is still very clingy to me.  As I type this he is sound asleep.  Hopefully he’ll stay like that for the next 8-10 hours. 

Tomorrow is our Embassy appointment.  Then we’ll be doing some more sight seeing.  I just wanted to take one second to say that Reggie has been a huge help to me.  I wouldn’t have made it this far without him.

Lastly I wanted to also thank my wonderful wife Vanessa for being the best wife/mom in the world.  She had me packed so well that it has made taking care of Denver a cake walk.  All snacks she packed for Denver have been perfect (of course he loves all food so far).  All the stuff I need to take care of Denver was put together with instructions;  Everything from taking care of his teething to giving him a bath to getting his clothes to match.  No one could be a better mom from 7,000 miles away (I guessed on the miles).  I love you Vanessa and you are the best.  I can’t wait to see you in 4 days.  Trust me I’ve been counting down.