Meeting Meron at the House of Hope
One of Meron's nannies
House of Hope in Addis Ababa
Day 3
Tuesday, December 16
Around 11:30 Ethiopia time we arrive at the House of Hope, which is the transition home Meron had been staying at since her referral in October. When we arrived we met Tsegay, who is our in country representative. He represented us in court and handled all of our paperwork. We were brought into a sitting area and waited to meet Meron. Words cannot even express the excitement and anticipation we were feeling right then. After about fifteen minutes, one of Meron's nannies brought her in to meet us. She was so beautiful. We had studied her picture for months and couldn't believe we were actually looking at her face to face. Her nanny handed her to me and immediately she started wailing. I wanted to be able to comfort her but she had no idea who I was. After holding her for a couple of minutes I handed off to dad, and she continued to wail. Thank goodness we had prepared ourselves for this, and it was a small comfort at the time to remember that we were told that it was a good thing if she cried and didn't want anything to do with us at first because it showed that she was attached to her nannies and in time would be able to attach to and bond with us. Eventually we were able to distract her with toys and she would calm down a bit, until she looked at us then she would cry again.
A short while later, it was time for lunch. Although eating was the last thing on our minds right then. It is tradition to all sit down together and have lunch. Selay, the cook, prepared us a wonderful lunch of fried vegetables, beef with Ethiopian spices and injera (traditional Ethiopian flatbread). Throughout lunch, Meron would play with her toys then look at us and cry until we distracted her with a toy again. We had lunch with Tsegay and Amy and Jennifer. Amy had just met her daughter a couple of hours earlier, and Jennifer, her sister, came to Ethiopia with her. It was a little awkward at first because we had just met all of them and Meron would cry and we didn't know how to sooth her. It all was a little overwhelming, but everyone was so kind and throughout our time there we were able to spend a lot of time with Tsegay, Amy and Jennifer and create great friendships. After lunch, Tsegay took us to our room we would stay at for the week. We were very fortunate to be able to stay at the House of Hope because they can only accommodate two families at a time. Additional families have to stay at a hotel or guest house. The time we were able to spend with Meron experiencing her environment was priceless. It was also beneficial to her to be able to get used to us while still in her environment with people she knew. We were able to spend the afternoon in our guest room getting to know Meron and relaxing. By later that afternoon, dad was able to get her first smile.:) Meron transitioned to us very well over the next few days.
