Day 7

We woke up on our last day with so many different emotions swirling through our minds. Today was the day Eden was going to be signed out of the orphanage and her life would be forever different. I felt a little unsure of may abilities at mothering four children and so was a little nervous about leaving with Eden. I knew her nannies understood her so much more than I did and I felt kind of sorry that her little world was going to be turned upside down again. I was sad that I wasn't going to wake up to the sights, smells and sounds of Ethiopia again for at least a long time. I had fallen in love with Addis and did not want to leave. If our boys would have been with us we would probably still be there. There was something about the people of Ethiopia that I felt I needed to learn. A week just seemed to short a time to soak everything in. At the same time I could hardly wait to squeeze my boys again. Hearing their voices on the phone helped ease the ache of being apart but I really needed to see their smiles, feel their arms and know they were okay.

Arriving at breakfast we had the wonderful opportunity to meet another couple who had just arrived and would be meeting their daughter Savannah. We enjoyed the little bit of time we got to spend with them on Monday and only wish we could have gotten to know them a little bit better. They had 5 children waiting for them at home. This was their second international adoption experience so it was fascinating hearing the differences between how the Guatemala and Ethiopia programs differed. You can see their family and see some really nice pictures of the orphanage if you visit their website http://torgersonfamily.googlepages.com They really captured some neat photos of Toukoul and posted some neat info about the orphanage system as well. We did some last minute shopping in the morning, visited Eden and then went back to the villa to finish our packing. In the afternoon we arrived back at Toukoul and sighed our little Eden out of the orphanage. I don't know that any single signature ever packed so much punch for me. Signing that paper was the last step to having Eden released into our care forever!! This was more monumental for me than meeting her I think. There was something so final, so life changing, so life giving and eternal about those signatures!! We changed her clothes and put her first set of clothes on her that we had brought with us. The picture above is after she was changed and Mark scooped her up!! I took her into see the nurses one last time. They took such amazing care of her while she was in their care. The on sight pediatrician and on sight nurses were so patient in answering questions and obviously loved Eden. They handed me her complete and comprehensive medical files including her chest x-rays and gave her one final kiss. They made sure I understood that they wanted to see pictures of her - this was not the last time they wanted to see her. I had tears as I took her from them and walked out of the infant/toddler house for the last time. There were so many cuties remaining in there and I had to have one last look at them. Ahhh...my heart....it still hurts thinking of them.

We arrived back at the villa and the woman who had cooked my breakfast all week wanted to hold Eden and talk to her. Hopefully she wasn't telling Eden that I was a crazy lady!! The young girl next to her is her niece. Sweet, sweet girl who served me tirelessly.

This was the first bath we gave Eden. After arriving back at the villa we decided to give her a bath before starting the long trek home. She started getting excited as soon as we started stripping her clothes off. She loves getting baths!!! Don't judge her enthusiasm about bath time from her expression above.

Drying off after bath time. She was so, so cute and petite. I couldn't get over her tiny little feet. I don't know that the boys feet were ever as small as hers.

Saying good by to Gabriel was one of the hardest things of the trip. For some reason he just worked his way into our hearts. This young man was adopted from Ethiopia as an infant by a couple from France. His father was the man who started the non-profit Toukoul orphanage system. From what I remember from our conversations his father is an engineer and has ongoing projects in Ethiopia that he helps facilitate and oversee. The orphanage system has farms that are self-sustaining with very nice equipment, irrigation, spraying - the whole nine yards. Gabriel grew up in France, spent close to two years in the states going to school and is now in Addis Ababa. Out of all the places he has lived he said he would choose Addis hands down. He loves the pace of life and the people. We had so, so much fun with this young man!! Since he was raised in a western culture he finds the same things funny that Mark and I did. Like dead donkeys in the road, crazy drivers, etc. I don't know .....there is just something about him that we wish we could have brought him home. We kept telling him Mark has some pretty sweet sisters!! He seemed pretty happy cruising around Addis though. I expressed some of my anxiety at removing Eden from such a beautiful culture and he assured us that she is a "lucky" one. We heard that phrase over and over from different people in Addis who had themselves been adopted. Our hope is that Eden will grow up feeling secure in our love.

Mark and Gabriel!

A random water cooler in the Frankfurt airport! I just couldn't resist taking the picture. I am working on getting some pictures from our arrival home at the airport. After I have what I feel sufficiently depicts our homecoming I will post about that wonderful evening!!