We are here! We have a son!

Sorry for the absence! Nick and I flew to Dubai last Thursday. Emirates Air was rockin' out. I watched about 6 movies, slept, drank some white wine and POOF, we were in the Middle East. Dubai is everything people say about it - hot, new, rich, ostentatious, fun. We had a great time at our hotel, had a chance to go on a desert night safari and enjoyed some couple time together.

We got bumped to biz class on Emirates on our way to Addis. That was really nice. Flying from Dubai to Addis is major culture shock. You could eat off the floor in the Dubai airport. It's to fancy and sparkly and there are tons of stores. Then, you arrive at Bole Airport in Addis and there are goats near the runway. Serious.

Agitu, our agency director, picked us up at the airport. We flew in around 12pm and she told us we were going to get Jost at 3pm. Needless to say Nick and I were totally crazed with anticipation and anxiety and nerves. We are staying at a guest house with another adoptive mom, Melissa, and her friend Amy. They have been such a godsent because this is Melissa's second adoption from Ethiopia and both Melissa and Amy work with kids.

Ok, back to meeting Jost. Nick and I were taken by care to his orphanage, Kidane Mehret. It's only about 15 minutes from the guest house. We were escorted to a room where we met the orphanage director, a wonderful nun whose name I am spacing on right now. Then, they brought Jost to us. He looked to scared. Nick and I were petrified because he was drooling profusely and looked stunned. We have the whole thing on video, but it might take me a couple of months to recover to watch it again. We had Jost and got a tour of the orphanage. There are like 200 kids there. I can't even begin to describe how heartbreaking some of the babies looked - literally not more than 4 pounds. There were tons of older kids running around who were very interested to know my name, look at my nail polish and shake hands. I wanted to take all of them home.

After about 30 minutes we got back in the car with Jost and came back to the guest house. We went to our room and kind of stared at each other. Jost has giardia kind of stuff going on right now so I have been getting a lot of practice changing diapers. Nick is still a little freaked by the amount of runny poo but he is a great assistant.

Jost was so scared and listless for about the first 8 hours. Then, we snuggled in bed with him for awhile during the night while Nick placed a phone call to our adotion doctor in Oakland. She really helped to calm our nerves and gave us great advice. At 5am Jost woke-up to get his diaper changed and have half a bottle. Then, he and I started playing a game with his "Blah Blah" doll. We would pass it back and forth to each other. Jost was laughing histerically. He also has REALLY gotten into his "snack trap" that we have filled with Cheerios. This is his fave thing to do when he is not snuggling with us (his first fave thing to do).

He isn't walking or talking right now, but he is babbling, using a pincer grip and feeding himself. We are really optimistic that he will continue to reveal himself to us. What we know right now is that we are so in love with this baby boy and he is beautiful and likes to have tickles and likes to laugh. I will try to post one more time while we are here and will see if we can get some pictures up. The internet here is soooooooooooooooo slow.

Love to all - Sarah, Nick and Baby J