Saturday December 7, 2008

Joseph
Joi and I


Bole International Airport

ETHIOPIA at last!! So we arrived in Addis Ababa, and as we were flying in, amazed at how dark the sky was. Don't get me wrong, there were lights, but for a City of a couple of million people, it was fairly dark. I can honestly say that we were both excited and anxious. It was late at night, we were in a strange country, and did not know what to expect. I had heard stories about the Bole Airport, but things went smoothly for us. We departed the plane, proceeded to immigration, had our passports stamped and ended up outside of a small room where they issue the visas. That was interesting. After about twenty minutes we received our visas and while Joi went to claim our bags, I exchanged some currency. A little side note, we did not know whether or not anyone was going to meet us at the airport, as we were having troubles contacting and wiring money to the travel agent in Ethiopia. We didn't even know if we had a hotel that evening, but we didn't care, we had made it, and would have slept in any hotel if we needed to.

Anyways, we were heading out the door of the airport (A beautiful airport by the way), we saw a man in a crowd of at least two hundred people waving his sign frantically at us. The sign read "Mr. Brad." We figured it was our driver, and it was. His name was Joseph, and he was a super cool guy. We learned that we would be spending the next couple of days with him as we traveled Addis, but here it was 8:00 at night, and we were wide awake. Joseph informed us that Yetnayet, our travel agent had made arrangements at a new hotel since the hotel that we had requested was already booked for the national holiday on Monday. On our drive to the hotel, there were thousands of people in the road singing and dancing, although we had not yet heard the language, so we had no idea what they were doing." We were worried until Joseph told us that it was a muslim celebration, and assured us that we were entirely safe. It took us two hours to go less than five miles because of the crowds. It was really cool.

Friday, December 5th

So it was the night before our journey to Ethiopia, and both Joi and I were highly motivated. We were going to be leaving for Ethiopia in less than twelve hours, and to top things off we were going to be spending the evening with some of our favorite people in the world for Jade's 40th birthday party at McMennamin's Edgefield. Krista, our sister, had set the whole thing up. It was a surprise birthday party that was disguised as a get together with Joi and I for drinks prior to our trip. She rented a house that they rent for large parties, and decorated it. Jade was sick, and thinking about bailing, but I called and harassed him. I don't really think that he was going to bail, but there were a lot of people in on the surprise. It was a lot of fun, but I definitely did not want to be drunk or hungover on a long international flight, so Joi and I had a great time and turned in early. Our friends Sam and Morgan drove us to the airport at 4:30 the next morning. They weren't sleeping anyways. We boarded our United flight to DC and fell asleep. We were off to Ethiopia. I have to admit that there were a few times when we both confessed to each other that it was a very emotional flight for us, and we thought about Graham a lot. I don't remember a lot of the flight over given that we were in the air a lot, the shades on the aircraft were pulled, and I was watching movies on Matt's little I-pod.

Finally!!!

Hello Everyone,

I have been trying and trying to get "BABA" to update the blog. For those of you I have not met yet, my name is Graham Dawit Kilby, although, my official name is Graham Bradley Kilby until my new folks get off their lazy butts and readopt me in Oregon. Anyways, people call me Graham, and I recently moved here with my new parents from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. I can't wait to meet everyone. Until then, here's my story as told to me by "BABA" (AKA Brad).

Hey Everybody,

Graham has threatened me with a sleepless night and a dirty diaper if I don't put this out today. Given that he is now eating baby food, and Joi is not around, I figured that I should comply, so here goes. As I said before, we had an amazing trip, however, after spending two healthy weeks in Africa, we all returned home and within the first week, all three of us were sick. I will attempt to put all of this information into several blogs by date, but I'm not sure how much I'll be able to post before he wakes up. Read on!!!

What an amazing adventure. I haven't written in a while because we didn't have access to our blog while in Ethiopia. The internet connection was not strong enough. We are back, and are the proud parents of our beautiful baby boy. This will be short as I have not been feeling well. Once I am feeling better I will post our story.

Six Days Away

Wow, just six days away, and it feels like we have so much to do before we leave. Unfortunately, Joi's feeling under the weather, so I'm hoping that she gets better before we fly, and that I don't catch what she has. So let's see, where are we. All of our reservations are confirmed, and someone will be at the airport to pick us up, or so we think. It's kind of funny, some of the hotels want a deposit, and when asked how I should put the deposit up, they won't answer. We are working with a gentleman named Netyanet from Alltours. He asked me if I knew anybody in Ethiopia, I replied that my son lives there, but he currently is unemployed and doesn't have any money! He had a good laugh at that I'm sure. Netyanet is very nice, and I am hoping to meet him when we get to Addis to thank him for all his troubles. Thanksgiving was awesome...too much turkey and stuffing. We're so excited.

13 Days

We spent today getting things in order for our trip. We bought coloring books, crayons, and candy to give to the kids in the orphanage. I deflated eight soccer balls that we plan to give to the orphanage in Addis, and the orphanage in Awassa. That's where Graham spent his first couple of days before being transferred to Addis. We are allowed to take two checked bags and one carry-on each, and plan to pack them as full as possible, and empty them while we're there. Every time we get something for the trip, I think about all of the people in our lives that made this possible, and want to take another opportunity to thank each and every one of you. Oh yeah, on Friday, we had homeade Ethiopian food with eight of our closest friends. My new friend Shamissa cooked it for us. What a great time. We are going to take some perfume to Addis for Shamissa's family.

Seven Months Old Today

Graham turns seven months old today. I am so grateful for every photo and medical update we are provided by the orphanage. A couple of days ago we got a new update on him. He now weighs 7100 grams (15.65 pounds) and is 65 cm in length (25.6 inches). They say that he drinks 180-210ml milk 3 times per day and he has also started supplementary feeding. He sits with support, transfers objects from one hand to other, babbles and reaches for familiar people.

There is another family flying to Ethiopia on 11/20 that is going to the same orphanage. We asked if they would take a photo book to Graham for us and they said that they would. I hope that he will be able to keep the book and be shown our pictures often over the next few weeks so that we will seem a little familiar to him when we get there. I am so excited to hold him in my arms and to see his smile for the first time!