The flights were both delayed. My feet were swollen to 9 month preg size. Ron got a dangerous looking bruise in his foot. We are recovering from jet lag. We are enjoying our time with the other families. We were not met at the airport. Thankfully, I had made a wonderful friend on the flight, Aster. She gave us a ride to a hotel that we don’t know what it was called. We saw Tegga the next day. We had tea and looked over the busy Bole International Ave, smelling diesel fumes and people watching.

Our guest house is gorgeous like an exotic resort. We have a huge balcony. The weather is always 70 degrees and mostly sunny.

But, our girls are so cute. We met them for the first time today. We will visit them again after lunch. D could immediately tell which was which. He said, “That one is B,” but the social worker corrected him. However, the nanny jumped in and vindicated D; it was indeed B. B fell asleep in Dad’s arms, and later C fell asleep in Mom’s arms. Dad wept when he held his girls for the first time. I, Mom, was bleery eyed, but was watching the bittersweet reaction of their nanny. Those women love the babies so much.

I am late to lunch. Sorry to be so terse, just wanted to communicate some essentials quickly while I get this chance. Hopefully more eloquance to follow later.

Mom

Well, this is it! We’re on our way to Ethiopia. We will be touching down Thursday night, meeting up with Tegga for a day or two, then proceeding to the guesthouse to meet the girls on Saturday. On Sunday we will travel south to their birth village in the hopes of meeting living relatives, and on Monday we will be given full custody of the girls. Then begins the visa application process at the US Embassy in Addis Ababa. After that is wrapped up and we are approved, we’ll be heading back to Cleveland for a July 7th arrival. See you all soon!

Both girls are very sociable and very cheerful, but B is a bit more sociable than her twin sister and more energetic. They both like to be on the floor playing with each other, rather than trapped in their side-by-side cribs. Although they don’t have favorite toys yet, they sometimes fight when they want the same toy. B will not back down without a fight once she’s decided on a toy, but C will “walk away” and find something else to play with.

The twins must taste every toy they get their hands on. They constantly suck their thumbs, and yours too if it is within reach, although C is a bit more cautious about putting strange hands in her mouth. Sometimes B likes to stick her tongue out. And when they get really excited, they wiggle their legs non-stop!

The girls start their day around 6:30 AM when they are washed and get diaper changes. They go out to sun bathe for 15 minutes on sunny mornings where they are massaged with baby oil. Then they are fed and are put to bed for their first nap. For meal time, they eat foods such as combinations of wheat and honey milk cereal, fruits, different kinds of fresh juice, oats with milk, vegetable soup, pastini (small pasta noodles), Injera with shiro wot (shiro is a sauce prepared from ground beans). Potatoes, carrots, leeks, zucchini, ground fish, meat, and chicken are also part of their menu.

The girls are often put on the floor to practice crawling and/or walking and play with their toys. The nannies cuddle and play with the infants to give them personal attention as much as possible. They are put to bed around 8:00 PM after being fed. During the night, they usually wake up once to eat and the nannies are always around, ready to look after them.

I have these interludes where the realization of what I’ve done hits me in one of its myriad ramifications. I flash forward to the first morning after they arrive here. I walk to their doorway. They are still here. They did not evaporate into the night. Two round heads, huge brown eyes look at me with the exact same question in my blue eyes, “Are we doing this again, today?” My joy is selfish, rich, ice cream and marshmallows; they are mine again today. Then who do I pick up first, the one who pulls herself upright to solicit my attention, so willing to be loved. Or, no, perhaps the one who still has not decided what to think about the new mother; perhaps she needs the extra preferences.

And then the agony of culling the obscene amounts of pink, flowered clothes, the mountain of lilac and polka dotted yellows and red gingham and ultra white laundry - just to find the cutest thing possible to dress them in for today, no, this morning, because time is running out on this mountain, all the same size clothes, for this summer only.

Little brown fingers on my white, pink knee, as I try to squeeze little feet into purple socks. Do girls have sticky fingers, too? like boys? I bet they don’t.

I say these things now, before they are here, before I can possible know what I will think or feel. Now, I walk past their gorgeous nursery as it sits empty. Once in a great while, I stop, lingering in the gently pink light of the room, glance from one empty crib to another. I inhale, as if the room should already smell like babies from a land far away.

It smells like nothing. The beds are still made up exactly how I did it a month ago. The crates of beautiful clothes depreciating by the minute. A brown babydoll in each bed, along with a homemade puppy.

Happy. Sad, Happy, sad sad, HAPPY HAPPY. And that’s just this morning.

I sure do love them.

FINALLY! They have given us the go ahead to go get the girls. We will meet on June 29th. So now we can scurry around again and get travel arrangements and pack and tell people good news. Wow.