After a decent nights sleep we had a chance to see our guest house in the daylight... Needless to say we liked what we saw.
Once we finished breakfast we asked our guest house to call a driver so we could do some sight seeing. We had been told before we left that we would not be able to take Elias out in public with us (apparently there were a few cases of people spanking their adopted children in public so people have been asked not to take their kids out) so we wanted to see as much as we could before we met him.
Well, after two hours of waiting our driver arrived and took us out on the town. We got to see the Trinity Church and do some shopping. We also learned that if you see someone holding a large semi-automatic gun, don't take pictures - it's a political site and pictures are off limits. Also, the African Union was in town, so there were way more angry looking guys with guns than normal. Our translator from the guest house was a very nice guy and kept the conversation flowing very well. I was surprised when he asked me if I voted for Obama - they LOVE Obama there. They seem to think he will solve all of their problems, I hope they are right :). We also got a feel for their government... very different from ours.
Trinity Church
After the Trinity Church we did a little shopping which I found very strange, I wasn't ready to buy things yet, but boy was Adam (he bought lots of things).
When we arrived back at our guest house, we realized we had an entire evening with nothing to do, so we decided to pick Elias up a day early and called our Agency to come and get us. It was just before dinner when we got there and we were hurried into the dinning room where Elias was brought to us. Now I would love to tell you that this meeting was all warm and fuzzy, but it was not. Almaz (the director's wife) brought him to us, literally dropped him in our laps and left us. Elias screamed and cried and seemed to be on the verge of throwing up. I held him and sang to him and he started to calm down. Then the cook (his favorite person there) came into the room and the cycle started over again. About that time, another family (The Browns) came in for dinner. They were so sweet and told us that their meeting was the same and that it will get better. Their words were so helpful. I knew it may not be all roses, but it was still hard to feel like you were kidnapping a poor kid who just wanted to go back to the playroom with the others.
Anyway, after a long and emotional dinner, we were back at the guesthouse with our new little guy. We were able to finally get him calmed down and ready for bed. When we put him down that night he didn't make a sound, he just closed is eyes and fell asleep. I think he was petrified and hoping he would wake up at the House of Hope. Luckily things got better :).
Pics of our first meeting, notice how we are smiling and he isn't :)...
This was the look we got for the first 24 hours
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