Day 4 in Ethiopia--Last Day--Time to Say Goodbye

Today was a very emotional day. We got up eager to go to Hannah's Hope to see Justus. Our driver was a little late so we were getting antsy....We got to HH and the kids were playing outside. One of the little girls grabbed me by the hand and led me to Justus. I said, "hi", gave him some love and went in to talk to Almaz a little bit about some additional info we had found out while there. Trevis was out playing with Justus and told me he kept looking around for me....He came inside and found me in Almaz's office and his eyes lit up.:) Soon, I was back outside kicking the soccer ball, blowing bubbles, swinging on the swings, giving out Hot Wheels Stickers, and Incredibles plastic rings, being a kid....with all the kids. It was a fun morning. Justus kept wanting to operate the camcorder and camera. We let him take some pictures so of course he chopped some heads off and took pictures of legs, feet, you name it....We had to put the "photo" away. He loves this little Leap Frog toy they have there that has the ABC's at the top and at the bottom it has a place for you to trace and it lights up. He held on to that thing all day.....(it needs headphones people)....

The thing that most touched me about this morning was that he always had his photo book in sight. He got really distressed if he put it down and couldn't find it....We sat down several times throughout the morning and looked at it. He loves the stuffed animal on his bed in the picture, so we will definately take that when we return.....

It was time for lunch and he cried. He did not want to eat...BIG CROCODILE TEARS! The special mothers said, "mommy daddy here...no eat". I said, Ok and we went off and played. I had a rice crispie treat in my bag so I gave him that....You should have seen his eyes!! It was like a party in his mouth. He wanted more of course. He was digging through my side pouches and all I had was packs of anti-bacterial wipes. He thought that those were snacks and wanted to eat those too. I made a "yucky" face and explained that those are nasty....no eat.

Our driver told us that he was going to take us back to the hotel for lunch and then we could come back for a quick good-bye....Justus was crying when they told him that. Trevis and I felt so torn, so one of the girls we travelled with gave us some trail mix and a granola bar. The staff ushered Justus in to the room that the kids eat at. The driver explained that he was calming down and it's really important for him to see that when we say we'll come back, we will. As hard as that was to walk away, we got in the van and headed to the hotel. Our whole travel group ate lunch together. That was really nice, but I just kept thinking about Justus.

A couple of hours later, we were on our way back to Hannah's Hope. He saw us and his eyes lit up...We played some more and gave him some hugs....We also gave him a water bottle. A water bottle is a big deal we learned for kids there. They get a water bottle when they are school aged to take to school each day. I could tell he was bragging to his friends that were upstairs on the balcony about his new water bottle....of course, it was all in Amharic.

When we left, he did not cry this time. He had the water bottle and apparently, that made his day! It was easier to leave with him being happy.

We went to the hotel and packed everything up in a mad scramble. We only had 15 minutes before we were supposed to check out. We were all packed up and waiting downstairs. I got one last Coke from the bar and said, "Goodbye" to the other families who were not leaving yet. I was taking in all the sights on the way back to the airport.....

Oh....how I hope our phone rings soon with an embassy date......

With Much Love,