Meeting the kids and travel to Addis!

So, I left very early on 1/27 from NYC to meet Mark in DC to Addis. As i left the hotel at 4am the check out clerk asked me where we were going. He had a beautiful Jamaican accent. I told him I was heading to Ethiopia to pick up my kids. He loved that and said he also would love to adopt. The shuttle driver was hanging out with him. As I walked away he said the cutest thing which sounded even sweeter with his accent . He was talking to the guys standing with him. He said "when God can't come, He always sends somebody." I obviously over heard him and it brought tears to my eyes . It felt like a sweet little blessing. I got to Laguardia and the woman was not going to let me on the plane because she insisted that I need the Ethiopian visa prior to going there. I told her that was absolutley not true. She said that she would not let me on the plane. I started to freak out a bit. Eventually after my insistence she checked with several supervisors and found out she was wrong. So the rest of the trip was uneventful. Because I had stayed awake the night before I was exhausted and was able to stretch out on three seats on the plane. I slept so much. We arrived in Addis. We were picked up by a driver and went right to the Ritmo guest house. Then Gail (the director from the orphanage) met us within 20 minutes to go to Layla to get the kids. I actually had wanted over an hour to prepare the room for them and clean up. BUt we were scurried off to Layla house. I had thought for sure that we would be in a room and then the kids would all come to us. Instead we followed Gail around the compound and we were led to Kidist's room ...She met us and looked radiant. She gave me a huge hug and then embraced Mark. She then grabbed my hand and started to speak to me in English. I was surprised because I didn't think she knew any. Then we walked around the compound. The women were yelling "ejigay", looking for Ejigayehu. Finally she ran out of one of the rooms into my arms and would not let me go. We hugged for a good three or four minutes. She then hugged Mark. Then we were all walking around the compound holding hands looking for Yared. We found him and he was in his class with 7 other 4 and 5 year olds. He came to us immediately. The kids were all more beautiful in person than in the pictures and were amazing. They walked us to their rooms to pick up their stuff. And then 1 hour after arriving to the guesthouse we all came back to settle in. First we gave the kids back packs. Yared was very quiet and kept the back pack on and grabbed things out of the suitcases to add to his backpack. He was especially taken with my belt. He hung on to it for 3 days. We unpacked...the kids then tried on all of their clothes. Yemi and Ban's sister Pucci and her husband Getish showed up and gave me their cell phone for the week. They had made a point of meeting the kids at the orphanage the week before. That day we walked over rocks, muddy puddles avoiding livestock in the streets and taxis and buses and beggars and went to have a soda and for Mark to check email. The email and connection was very slow. The sodas were a mistake. Apparently, the kids reacted to one Pepsi the same way others would to having 5 cups of espresso. That night we had Pizza..they went to bed at 8 and slept. Someone who bumped into us said the kids had looked like they belonged to us and had been with us for years.
We could not believe how beautiful, sweet and perfect they were. They kept saying THANK YOU and we love you mom and dad........