Introducing Mikias Henock McKinney!!

In Benjamin’s words…

What a great day! We went to the Adera orphanage this morning to pick up our son. It was incredible. The orphanage was quite nice. We met with the director in his office for a few minutes and then a caregiver appeared holding our little boy. He was wearing the outfit we sent for him. Of course we both started crying right away. The first time I held him is definitely something I’ll always remember. Mikias smiled for Joanna almost immediately.

In Joanna’s words…

Wow! Does life get any better than this? The orphanage was amazing and Mikias is beautiful. When they placed him in my arms, he smiled and I melted. As I watched Benjamin hold him, I knew our lives would never be the same (for so many reasons). He was so well cared for! The nannies were all so wonderful, the director very warm and all of the staff very welcoming. We received a tour of the orphanage and were able to be with all of the children for a little bit. They sang to us and we sat in the middle of them. They kept kissing and hugging us. Leaving was difficult for many people, including us.

From both…

The rest of the day, we have spent trying to get to know Mikias and replaying this morning events. We have recapped the crazy, and I mean crazy, ride to the orphanage talking about everything we remember seeing. The roads were so busy with cars, people, animals and our driver only took out a couple of curbs. There was a man carrying this very wide basket on this head. Another man was herding his cattle along the highway and there were many people out and about just sitting in front of their stores. Not too mention, the roads were not even roads. They looked more like compacted mud hills that we had to navigate through.

Mikias has been a joy. It is really strange trying to figure out what a baby needs without having access to much. The orphanage sent us with one warm bottle and that is all we had for a bit. Alemu was able to get us formula for the meantime. We will worry about more of that later. It is interesting trying to find the house cook to boil water to let it cool down to prepare a bottle. The cook actually just gave us a thermos of hot water so that will help us make his bottles through the night. We put his first diaper on backwards and are nervous as all get out to try and bathe him in a shower that’s not the easiest to use.

We think we’ve figured out that Mikias must be able to distinguish familiar sounds or color very well. He seems to be comforted a little more by the workers at the guest house than by us. He’s getting used to us just like we’re getting used to him!

We’re not sure what tomorrow holds for us. We’ll have to talk to Alemu tonight about what the schedule is. We’re sure it can’t possibly be as thrilling as today, but you never know!