We went downstairs to eat breakfast, however the dinner the night before (the hamburger and fries) did not agree with me, so I was quite bloated and did not eat much. I did let out some really good burps all morning long though, but they added little relief.
After breakfast all of us piled back into the van and drove over to the care center to meet with the nannies and social workers. Our agency wanted us to spend some time with them to ask questions and learn more how they were cared for over the past couple of months. So we were brought back to the big room where we had the farewell ceremony the day earlier and met with one of Abera's main nannies and a social worker, who worked as translator. The nanny told us how she liked how Abera looked into her eyes, she said they went right to her heart. She said he was her favorite in the room (how could he not be but we did not ask others in our group with the same nanny to see if she said the same thing). She told us he is easy going, does not cry much and is a good boy who is growing really well. We then got a nice picture with the nanny with our family.
We stayed at the guest house most of the morning, playing with our kids while waiting for all of the families to meet with the nannies and social workers. We were told we were going to be meeting with the doctor but this never happened. We figured Abera was doing well, so this was not a big deal.
Around noon we got back into the van and headed to the guest house for lunch. Again I did not eat because I was still bloated (I got others worried thinking I had other stomach issues and soon they might be getting it too). After lunch Michele helped organize a shopping trip to the Hilton in the afternoon, convincing the house leader that they needed to go "check their flight status" and the van driver should take them to the Hilton to do. So about half of the group left while I stayed back with Abera.
I tried to get him to nap in our room but he would not relax enough to fall asleep. It was a really nice sunny day, so I brought a blanket, Abera, and my Obama book outside to read and let Abera play. Well I laid him down in the sun and in a minute he was fast asleep. This gave me a great hour to sit outside, read and relax, something I rarely ever take the time to do. It was a great afternoon. While reading, one of the house workers noticed Abera's blanket and thought he needed something more comfortable, so they brought me a much bigger and softer blanket for him. So I switched him and he snuggled in and continued to sleep. It was sweet of the house workers to do this (but in my defense I think the blanket that he was on was sufficient :) ).
The ladies got back from shopping around 4PM and we basically relaxed for the rest of the afternoon, doing nothing exciting. We talked outside with our other housemates, played in the dining area with our kids and relaxed in our room. Around 6PM we went downstairs for dinner and I had a great conversation with Mike and Cindy's parents. Mike & Cindy live in Dubai and had adopted a child a couple of years earlier. Cindy's parents are world travelers, so it was not a big deal for them to travel to Ethiopia. They live in Washington, near Seattle, and they told me about some of their adventures (including sleeping in the desert with an armed bodyguard). They were an interesting pair and provided interesting conversation.
We put Abera down to bed around 7:30 and we read in bed until around 9 when we got up to go downstairs to eat some cookies and get something to drink. We had a nice quiet conversation in the dining hall, then we went back to our room and were asleep by 10:30.
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