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Saturday, December 25, 2010

Gotcha Day for my travel partners

12/22/09

Isaiah slept for almost 12 hours that first night we were together. I was shocked and totally excited. I had heard from so many families about sleeping hardships so I was prepared to not get sleep and so amazingly blessed to get a child that slept. Now eating that was a different story for us. I was told that he was drinking four bottles a day and eating rice cereal. I tried all day Monday to get him to eat rice cereal and he never would, so at bedtime I gave up, and just mixed rice cereal into his bottle and gave it to him that way. I tried cereal again Tuesday morning, but still did not prevail in getting him to eat it and only succeeded in upsetting him, so decided rice cereal mixed in formula was the way to go for the rest of the trip. I would tackle food when we were home.
I was so glad to have Isaiah Yabsira in my arms, but had the jitters in my stomach because today was the day the rest of the travel group were getting to meet their kids. I had really debated on how to handle the morning. I love photography and wanted to be able to document for people, especially Jen their "gotcha days." I also wanted to make it as easy as possible for Isaiah and was worried that seeing the nannies again may upset him so I made the decision to place him with the guest house nannies while I took pictures for other people. He fell asleep just before the kids arrived in the carrier on me so it was pretty easy to hand him over to the guest nanny and Tigist.
Shortly after ten, I believe, the van pulled up with the kids. It was so fun to watch. There were 3 babies coming to families and then Lisa and Nate's two children and the Laura's toddler. Pretty quickly families found their way to different areas of the court yard to try and soothe and focus on their kids. I stayed with Jim for a little bit taking video and pictures of Gav for him and Jen. After a few minutes Jim took Gav upstairs to feed him and calm him down. I stayed downstairs snapping pictures :) I am so glad I did for I love looking at the pictures of the kids then and seeing them now. What a change in these precious children.
The rest of the day was spent getting to know kids and families getting to know each other as well. I believe this was the day Laura's brother went to go run to the store and was gone a little longer than we anticipated. A group of people on the street had convinced him to go somewhere with them and I believe had had some of his money taken. For me and probably for several other travelers it was the reality of all the warnings we had received prior to coming.


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