2nd Day at Hannah's Hope

After our initial visit with E going so well, I thought for sure that she would start back up where she left off the next day with us. Not so much....

At first she was a bit stand-off-ish again, so we just sat down next to her and showed her the picture book and the photos from the day before. She seemed to like that. Then she devoured one of the applesauce squeeze snacks I gave her and she insisted on walking around with the empty container showing everyone her snack.

E's specific special mother was there today, and boy...E is very attached to her. I think that was the main issue specifically today as to why E wasn't really wanting to play with us. E fussed and whined a lot, and then eventually tolerated me holding and playing with her. I initially thought that she wasn't feeling good today and asked to speak with the doctor. The doctor will come in later they said, so hopefully we can talk to her about E. She just seemed to not be feeling well. Overall today was completely exhausting and frustrating.

The staff kept encouraging me to take and hold her, but it was hard for me to be making her so upset. I finally just told them to please take her away, and let her settle down. It was too overwhelming for me to feel like we needed to "force" her to be near us. It was emotional for me and poor E.

We played with the big kids for a while E went to eat. One of the older girls braided my hair in cornrows. She did such a good job, and was very proud of her handy work. I wore my hair the rest of the day like this-even out to our cultural dinner. One little guy, "D" took a special liking to Nate. He kept coming over to him and pointed "up" and grabbed Nate's arms. It was really sweet so see him snuggle Nate.

After E ate lunch, we found her sound asleep in the baby home. Nate and I just sat and watched her and the special mother's care for all the other babies while they napped. It was impressive that the specific room had 6 kids in it, all sleeping and requiring a bottle on the same clock. They are on a schedule! It was especially comforting to see they way all of the special mothers acted with the kids and babies. It's obvious that there is a lot of love and attention given to each child.

Before it was time to go I went and gave E some sweet kisses while she slept. Hopefully tomorrow she will be feeling better and we can have a less traumatizing day.

Nate and I headed back to our hotel and had a 3 hour nap. Then we went with the other traveling families to a cultural dinner and dance ceremony. It was a great time, and neat to see all the different dances from the different regions of Ethiopia. We video taped a lot of it for E to watch as she gets older.