Nicholas the Great

Meeting Nick, Day 2 (8-6-08)
· Well we had a great day again today. Nick is so cute and good (well, at least so far). Toward the end of the day, we laid down a blanket (thanks Rick and Kris) and he was able to push himself up to his knees and hands and rock (unfortunately, I didn’t have the camera on for this part) – jeez, won’t be long before the crawling starts. He was also able to rollover. And then the Raspberries War started between Cindy and Nick. Cindy would blow raspberries on his belly, and then he would blow raspberries at her – this went on for several minutes and we got some great video of it.
· Tomorrow, we are checking Nicholas out from the Orphanage (keeping him for good) and getting his Visa from the US Embassy – ought to be an interesting day – we’ll keep you posted.

· What a GRRRRREAT Day – It was just like St. Nick brought us a present, but Little Nick was the present himself.
· First though, the trip. We flew first class from Denver to Dallas and then to New York and then stayed at the Newark Hilton. The Flight Attendant on the flight from Dallas to New York was a trip – she was fantastic, and is quite upset that she won’t get to actually meet Nick since we fly home through Chicago and not Dallas. However, much of the staff at the Newark Hilton is excited about getting to see Nick when we stay overnight there on our way home.
· Next we flew to Dubai on Emirates airline – although the plane got a bit warm sometimes, the flight crew was fantastic and the personal entertainment system is incredible (and free).
· We had to stay the night in Dubai, but the airline puts you up free at their own hotel. While there, we met another couple that is adopting from Toukoul too (Kris and Rick). We also met three Ethiopians: two children (Aash & Lawgaw) and their guardian (Nunu). We had so much fun talking to all of them at the hotel at dinner that night, so we didn’t get much sleep on our 13-hour layover. The next morning we had our first snag on the trip. There were so many people trying to get to the airport that they didn’t have enough shuttles. So they brought in more and rushed us on telling us to leave our bags, so we foolishly did, and our bags (along with the bags of Nunu, Aash, and Lawgaw) did not get on the bus. We figured they would be on the next bus, so we waited and waited until I decided to check if they unloaded that bus someplace else – which is exactly what happened. FORTUNATELY, Rick and Kris were on that bus, and watched all of our bags, taking them into the terminal for us – they really saved us that time (we owe them big time).
· Finally we flew into Addis Ababa, and after checking in at the Sheraton, went to the lawyer’s office to take care of the paperwork. This is where we hit our second snag – we forgot to bring our $400 for the Embassy fee. Fortunately, there was a taxi driver who was able to take us back to the hotel – he was gooooood, getting us there and back very quickly. By the way, driving the streets of Addis Ababa is a true skill – I would either kill somebody, be killed, or simply have the most dented car in the world (it is worse than New York).
· After taking care of the paperwork, we finally went to Toukoul. Although this was so real, it all seemed so surreal. When we pulled in Cindy got all choked up, and Jim did too, but didn’t show Cindy. Oh, by the way, we rode to the orphanage with another lady who is adopting (Josie) who lives in New York and her aunt (who lives in Miami).
· We were meeting with one of the administrators when all of a sudden here comes Nicholas from around the corner – I had the cameras out, but it happened so fast that I missed about 4-5 minutes of video. But we got some great video (which we will upload when we get back to the states) and some awesome pictures (which are included on the site now).
· Josie’s baby came in too, and then we went to the family (bonding) room together, and how great it was to see Rick and Kris there too with their two babies (oh, and they already have two biological children – ages 3 & 5). It was kind of nice having an experienced couple in the room at the same time (besides the fact that we just really seemed to bond with everybody).
· Nick was sooooooooooo great – not only did he tell us quite a story right away, but we are quite sure he said “Hi Daddy” several times (okay, we know this can’t be the case, but this is our story and we are sticking to it). He does have some congestion, but all the children are a bit sick right now, related to the weather (it is rainy season here). Other than the congestion, he did so grrrrreat today. Cindy and Jim took turns holding him, but it made Jim so happy to see Cindy bonding so well that he let her have more time (although Cindy tried to be fair and said Jim should hold Nick more).
· Anybody reading this who has an idea how to clear the congestion, please email Cindy because we cannot read the blog in Ethiopia (Nene is updating it for us while we are here).
· Wednesday, between our visits, we plan to go visit a safe house – this is where Nunu works and Aash and Lawgaw live and go to school. They told us such a heartwarming and amazing story, we just had to go visit.
· That’s all for now. We will update later this week.