Aslynn's First Bath And First Night Sleep With Us

“Ye shall have just balances, and a just ephah, and a just bath”

Snug as a bug
Look at her holding her hands! Precious
Love the belly!
I look half dead, time zone so tired, but hey, gotta give a bath in a sink

The first night we got to take Aslynn back to the guest house I got her into the sink and scrubbed her down. the water first turned brown. They have never bathed her before. They have only given her a "wipe down" they told me. She was filthy. I shampooed her hair about 3 times, she splashed in the water, had fun, and I tried to get every inch of her body. When I combed through her hair, there was piles of DIRT, black stuff, and just caked on cradle cap that was old and hard. The next day we stopped at a drug store and got some special shampoo and a soft brush to scrub it off with. When we came back home to the states, at 3am I stuck her in the bath again here. The water again was dirty. I decided to not even go for the baby wash, and just use the dove bar (the doctor agreed the best thing ever) and I soaped her up SO GOOD, got the q tips out (children's ones) got more in depth with cleaning now that I was at home and had my own stuff and was able to spend more time and detail in all the right areas. FINALLY we have a clean baby. She looks totally different from the first time they handed her to me on the video, to the picture on the opening of my blog. Its like not only did she get a good scrub down and 6 months of dirt removed, but also she has put some weight on, smiling, showing us that she is just overjoyed that she is here and WOW she must be in a state of shock.

I think that the only thing that frightens her so far is when the 2 kids come up to her fast. She is not use it it, and they want to talk and talk to her and she does not understand English or them, or her name. So she looks for me for comfort. I have to explain to them to take it slow, they understand and have been doing well. I think that toys also have to be introduced slowly. She cant be given all these things, too overwhelming. Little at a time! When I placed her in the swing she had the biggest eyes and was in shock with the motion and music, so I turned it down and the music off and she settled down.

I see that she wont take a pacifier, which my doctor is trying to get me to get her ON. She has found comfort all these months at the orphanage from not getting a "response" from crying or "need" that she sucks on her wrist as a comfort mechanism or out of panic. Its sad, when she does, I give her extra snuggles, take her hand out of her mouth and give it kisses, replace with the pacifier and tell her it will be ok.

On the plane she was great, when she heard other babies cry, she would wake up, jump, and kind get nervous, go right to her arm, make a rocking motion, I would whisper in her ear " Mommy and Daddy are here, you are going home, you don't have to go back there, you will always be with me" she would listen fall asleep. As she falls asleep she opens her eyes fast and "checks" that I am still here, I tell her " mommy is here" and she closes her eyes, grabs my fingers and falls deep asleep.

She needs love, something she has never had, she needs comfort, she needs a sense of security, something she longs for and anyone and everyone needs in life especially as a baby. I am here, I am here for her, for Jon, for Logan and Makenzie. It is my Job, I take pride in it, and I do it well and will continue to do it until the day I die and after that, I will watch over my children for eternity. They are my life, and I love them all the same and equal.

Logan and Makenzie just love Aslynn. They want to wake her up and play with her, its cute, they want her to be more "interactive." I have to explain that she is a baby and she will grow up and believe me, she will play! Who knows, if a 2nd one is in the near future, the age we get and the personality he or she will have, hopefully it fits like a puzzle piece like Aslynn does. We all mesh well together, its a warm feeling.

NOW, if I can just get my TREE, and my laundry done, and caught up! HA HA OH and on the right time zone would help too!

GOD BLESS YOU ALL, ALL THAT SUPPORTED ME, ALL THAT PRAYED, ALL THAT WATCHED COMMENTED, AND READ, THANKS.

More Pictures from Trip

“Poverty is the worst form of violence.” ~Mahatma Gandhi

AA Girls, Tania, Me and Lisa

AA Girls again, Tania, Me and LisaJon thought this was so interesting (his line of work), sticks for the buildings and rafters
Sitting, waiting,looking
Orphanage sign

famous blue gate
house
This sister was so proud of the little girl she was holding up to us, waving and talking, it was too cute!
The drive up to the gate for the first time
Street kids

nannies doing the laundry, they asked me to mail them the picture!
The famous Toukoul sign!

Bananas hung and fruit sold everywhere, the water is undrinkable, so even the locals walked around with bottled water

The streets were full of people, half built buildings, clusters of walkers just walking in the streets in front of the cars not caring if they get hit or not. Kids roaming around, people with dead animals over their shoulders, I assume dinner just killed for that nights super. Pollution was horrible, the smells of urine and feces and vehicles, gasoline. People urinating on the streets in front of you, was a bit shocking. It was hard to have the children come and beg for things, if you give 1 person something it would start a riot and so we were told not to give anything to anyone on the streets. HARD to do, as they would come to the windows, begging, sticking their hands in and touching us and the baby. A different world, so far away, but so close as Aslynn sleeps next to me and it is and has been all she has known. I wish I could save them, help them all. I wish I could build, teach, and help their country grow and give them the tools to survive. It's hard to see and watch daily while out driving around, and then to come back into our gated compound where its NICE, clean, flowers, home feeling, and safe from what lies behind the walls. I would lay at night listening to the Muslim prayer and just thinking how people survive, and some don't, how mothers live daily, and some don't, and how they have the strength to get up the next day, and some don't. Our problems are so minor compared to others in other parts of the world. I have seen this before as I have traveled around, but there in Africa, that region, it was different. Maybe because I was taking home my daughter, maybe because we possibly will be taking another one home. Its a different feeling, one that cant be put in a blog or on paper, its in the heart and the soul, tattooed forever and in the mind ever time I blink.

Meeting Aslynn

The moment, it was such a feeling that one could not put into words.

Our first time spent together

God...is able to do far more than we would dare to ask or even dream of-infinitely beyond our highest prayers,desires,thoughts or hopes.

Ephesians 3:20

After the nannies gave Aslynn to us, we went into this room with Tania and Lisa (with their babies too). We got to spend some time and see them full on, the first thing I did was TAKE OFF THE PLASTIC BAG that was used over her cloth diaper, it was tied on so tight and she was sweating hot, I took a picture so you get a idea of what I am talking about. We spent some time with them, then the nannies took them back because it was feeding time, then we went back after their nap and spent more time with them.

I put lotion on her, changed her diaper, let her lay on the floor on a blanket, talked with her, and she was just babbling and cooing and very excited. We just were in AWE over how she CLICKED with us and she is a perfect match to our family.

Meeting Aslynn

A baby is God's opinion that the world should go on. ~Carl Sandburg

After we got out of the van we walked over and waited for the nannies to walk the babies to us, Aslynn was all ready to go, I grabbed her and just gave lovies! She smiled, Jon had to grab her too, it was such a moment that I cant even describe. I have created this bond with her from the day we got the picture, and then I am standing in this country that is out of my realm, and this little person that I have grown to love, care for, plan for comes into my arms, it was a moment for the books. What a feeling I get and got from her, I wish I could have brought all the kids back, so many babies, so many faces I see every time I blink, forever in my mind, forever in my heart.

PUT THE MUSIC ON PAUSE~

Wisdom is a tree of life, to those who embrace her;happy are those who hold her tightly. Proverbs 3:18

If you pause my music, you can hear me talking... here is our first "waiting" moment of arrival at the orphanage.

The Guest House

"Perhaps the best thing about the future is that it comes just one day at a time."

Gotta love the turtles

Had to post for ya Tania and Lisa

The guest house

Jon,Tania,her mom and sister all waiting for the driver

The guest house was nice, we enjoyed the cooks, drivers,everyone that worked there. The surroundings were pretty, green, lush, turtles walking around. Of COURSE I took a picture with it, and then the 2 turtles "got frisky" everyone was taking pictures, SO I DID OF COURSE, and said I WOULD put on the BLOG, I don't think you thought I would Tania, BUT I DID HAHAHA

The flight and the beginning.. oh my

“Let your mind start a journey thru a strange new world. Leave all thoughts of the world you knew before. Let your soul take you where you long to be...Close your eyes let your spirit start to soar, and you'll live as you've never lived before.” ~ Erich Fromm

Jon on the planeOur room at the guest house


Stop in London



Leaving AZ, half asleep!

Our feet, Syria

Ok I have traveled a lot and all over the place but this trip had to be the longest and the most exhausting. We left Friday, got to Addis on Sunday at 3 am after going through the longest line in the world for our Visa, then the driver was not there to get us, so we had to call and wake him up. We couldn't figure out the phone system and a taxi driver let us use his phone, it was nice. Then we got picked up and headed to the guest house, we decided not to even sleep since we got in, unpacked, and then it was time that everyone was waking up for the day and we wanted to head to the orphanage as soon as possible.

I got to meet Tania and Lisa from the AA board, it was really neat to meet them in person and experience the adoption with them. We all got our girls at the same time, it was great, and going to the Embassy together. The time just flew by so fast, 1 day we were at the orphanage, the next at the embassy, then it was time for us to fly home, after our Visa got processed early for Aslynn. There was glitches in the paperwork, some bumps in the road, but in the end we got our baby.

We went to the doctor when we got home yesterday... she has a hernia, chicken pox, earache, a cold, and the list goes on.

I had to scrub her down at the guesthouse and home because she was dirty! They said they don't give them baths only wipe them down, SO I BROKE OUT THE BABY SOAP and gave Aslynn her first bath in the guesthouse sink! She was splashing and just loved it!

The orphanage was a shock, when I got Aslynn she has a plastic bag on over a cloth diaper, she was hot and has a huge rash under her neck. She is so calm, happy and just excited to be out of there. She took to Jon so great, they were attached and the whole flight home she slept,played and was the perfect baby.

Makenzie and Logan just love her, they give her love kisses and hugs and just want to play with her, we are trying to get on AZ time, so its a work in progress, but if we get baby #2 I don't think I will fly there. I am so burnt out on the flight, we had little layovers only about 1 hr was the longest, it was the flights that were so bad. The one leaving Addis to London stopped in Syria for pick up and refueling, OMG the whole plane smelled like B.O. the bathroom was stinkin, and then they locked it for half the flight, and Aslynn had diarrhea,people were throwing up, and they had no COOL air blowing. It was the worst flight in the world, besides having the security go through the plane, getting told Jihad was in Ethiopia, getting searched, frisked, taken out of the car at check points in Ethiopia for them to search US the CAR and driver. It was the strangest thing, and I guess US warning on high alert there.

Fast pace to and from places, our driver was wonderful, the guest house was nice the cooks and staff were a joy, we had a good time, but KNEW we were ready to head home the minute we unpacked.

I feel like there is so much to tell so as the day goes on, I will write and post and update...

Packing up and saying Goodbye

Map out your future - but do it in pencil.

The road ahead is as long as you make it.

Make it worth the trip. ~ Jon Bon Jovi

Friday morning we headed off after making sure everything was packed, the car was loaded and giving the kids loveys goodbye. It was hard to leave them, but the trip went by so fast, most the time was on the plane. I am so glad to be home, I need to post and update and tell all about the experience. WOW... we are home now, good to be home!