Day 4

Day 4

I know that I blogged this one out of order, but thats because it was the hardest to talk about. Not because it was so busy or anything, but because there were so many emotions going through my mind.

Today was the day we left the city and headed out to Durame. This is a city that is about 5 hours outside of Addis. It is 10 miles off the highway on a dirt road, and is very isolated. The reason we went there, is that is where the intake center for Holt International Ethiopia is. What that means, is that is where the kids that are adopted  live before they come to Addis and the Transition Center. This is where they undergo the medical testing, and the court procedures that make the free for adoption.

This is also where the boys lived before, well close to it. They lived about 20 miles away in another village. This is also where we got to meet the birth Mother. This was a bittersweet experience for us. We were nervous, but also excited. We walked into a room with about 8 other birth parents. We looked around, trying to find which one was the boys birth Mom. But we did not see her. We had to wait about 20 minutes, until it was our turn to go into a back room and meet with the 2 translators-Kimbatta to Ahmraic to English- and meet her face to face.

Our first thought was, it is clear who the boys look like. She is a small woman, and she was dressed like a traditional Ethiopian woman. From the moment we sat down, she was already crying.  We asked her some basic questions, and discovered what time of day the boys were born, and how and why their birth Father died.

But she was most concerned with the idea that the boys needed to come see her someday. She told us that relinquishing them was the hardest thing she ever did, but she has no choice. She told us more about what she meant by that, and we understand how hard it was for her. I think the thing that hit us the hardest, was the fact that this village the boys came from was about 20 miles from the intake center. They told us that she walked all that way, carrying the boys knowing that at the end of her trip they would stay there, and she would return home empty handed. I cant imagine how she felt, or how hard that was. She told us she did it save their life, and I am sure that is true.

It was a very emotional moving day, and very hard, but very good as well.