Day 2 at HH - Trip 1

On Thursday, we headed back to Hannah's Hope to spend some more time with S. The staff didn't have a van available at the time they were scheduled to pick us up, so while we waited in the lobby, Yikealo taught Mr. F to play "Ninja"...a game that seems to consist of striking "fighter" poses and making up rules as you go along.

 

On this particular day, we traded out S's little shirt for one that we had brought along. When we were shopping for Y's Easter outfit a few weeks earlier, David had seen "Big Bro" and "Little Bro" shirts that were clearanced and just happened to be the right size for our boys. He insisted on buying them for a photo op on our trip. Y and S actually played together quite a bit on that day. S was fascinated with some Ethiopian birr coins that Yikealo had in his pocket.

 

 

We repeated a lot of our activities from the day before: we played with rocket balloons and bubbles and spent lots of time looking at books and swinging with the kids.

 

 

 

 

I discovered that S loved looking at himself in the windows, and he also liked tickling my toes...and then laughing hysterically.

 



We saw the children playing games with their special mothers and eating lunch. It was really delightful to just relax and watch a "normal day" happen around us at the transition home.

 

I spent some time taking photos around the home:

 One of the baby rooms

rows and rows of laundry, hanging out to dry

 A few potted flowers and the tiny strip of grass in the laundry photo are the only sights of green around HH. The children are surrounded by brick and concrete.

 blankets and toys for the baby "sun-time"

 Office space for several of the staff members. The doors and windows are ususally open, but after we brought the annoying rocket balloons out, they were shut fairly quickly!

 This is where S sleeps...on the bottom bunk.

 His room is equipped to hold 8 older boys...there are currently 3 there.

 The swing-set

 The "Spiderman" themed lunch room

Shoes for the special mothers, drying in the sun after being washed

 The entrance to the house where all of the children sleep.

This picture stopped me in my tracks and made me cry.

The F family took our first family photos...and sorry about the smiley-face, but just picture a really cute little boy behind it! :-)

 

One of our highlights that day was seeing Tom, one of the guards, arrive at work and meet Yikealo. Tom and Yikealo had been great buddies at HH back in 2009, partly because they spoke the same language, but also because Tom is just a super, loving guy. Here are a couple of photos of them from three years ago:

 

Tom was so excited to see his little buddy again and kissed Yikealo over and over.



As we headed back to the hotel that afternoon, we watched the Fs say goodbye to their 6 year old son. They were so strong, but it was still hard to see. I understand the need for this whole 2-trip policy, but it is really, really tough to leave your child behind on the other side of the world while you wait for an unspecified amount of time. We're praying that we can all head back to Ethiopia very soon.