Getting through the airport in Addis was sort of hectic, but it helped that we knew what we were doing, having been through it before. We bought our tourist visas, cleared customs, got our suitcases (which both made it all the way there! yay!), and found our adoption agency's driver who had come to pick us up. We had actually met him when we were in Addis two years ago, and he remembered who we were, which was nice. When we got in the van, he handed us our schedule for the week, which had us going to pick up Ana Luisa at the orphanage the next day, Monday. What?! Even though we were exhausted and could have probably used an extra day to rest, we were disappointed that we would be in the same city as our daughter for an entire day without getting to see her. When we expressed this, our driver, Zewdu, made a couple phone calls, and arranged for us to be able to meet Ana Luisa that day! He had planned to take us to our guest house first, but we didn't want to wait another minute, so instead he drove us straight to the orphanage (with a quick stop to pick up one of the case workers on the way). When we arrived at the orphanage, we could hear a baby crying inside. The case worker who was with us said, "Do you hear her? That's your baby!" By the time we got inside, one of the nannies was holding her, and Ana Luisa had quieted down. The case worker told the nanny who we were. The nanny handed Ana Luisa to me...and she started wailing again! The poor baby was not quite as excited to see me as I was to see her! The case worker went to get a bottle so that I could feed her, but by the time she came back, Ana Luisa had already quieted down in my arms.
Juan Pablo had fallen asleep in the van on the way to the orphanage. Usually when we have to wake him up from a nap he is either almost impossible to wake up, or will wake up but be cranky and whiny for a while afterwards. But not this day. As soon as we woke him up, telling him that we were going to meet Ana Luisa, he perked up. And meeting her made him the happiest little boy in the world. 
Aside from meeting his little sister, Juan Pablo thoroughly enjoyed playing with the other babies at the orphanage. He gave out plenty of kisses and made the babies laugh and smile. One of the nannies there had actually been one of Juan Pablo's nannies, and she remembered him. She was very excited to see him, and how much he had grown.
After such a long time waiting for this little one, and so many dark moments throughout the adoption process when we didn't even know if it was going to happen, I didn't want to let Ana Luisa go. So I hogged her for most of that first day. But I did let Jeff hold her a little bit. Obviously, he was just as thrilled to meet her as Juan Pablo and I were. Within two seconds, this little girl had her daddy wrapped around her little finger.
What I remember most about those first few moments meeting Ana Luisa is just being shocked at how tiny and fragile she was. We knew from the measurements that we had gotten for her that she was tiny (the size 3-6 month clothes that I had brought for her were too big!), but I don't know that anything would have prepared us for what that would look like. I guess I had expected her to look like a healthy baby who was just small for her age. In the pictures that we had gotten of her, she seemed very active, goofy and feisty (which we now know that she is). But that day, holding her for the first time, it felt like she was barely there with me. She wasn't holding her head up on her own. She could barely keep her eyes open. She was breathing very rapid, shallow, raspy breaths. The idea of taking her with us was terrifying, simply because I had no idea what to do with a baby like this. But leaving her at the orphanage a moment longer was not an option. So we took her to the guest house with us.
The rest of that first day is a bit of a blur. We got back to the guest house and all fell asleep for a while. I tried to unpack while Juan Pablo ran around, not sure what to do with himself. Jeff and I took turns holding Ana Luisa, and trying to figure out how to feed her so that she wouldn't spit up all her formula. Juan Pablo smothered Ana Luisa with kisses whenever he got a chance, and tried to play with her and bring her toys. And Ana Luisa slept...and slept...and ate a little...and slept. She slept almost the entire day, waking up every couple hours to have a little bit of formula, then falling back asleep. She still wasn't holding her head up, and she wasn't responding much to any of us. Juan Pablo would kiss her and try to play with her, and she would just lay there staring blankly, or her eyelids drooping until she fell asleep again. Jeff and I would try talking to her, try to make eye contact, try to do anything to get any sort of reaction out of her, with no luck.We were worried, although not too worried yet. Moving from the orphanage to their adoptive family is a huge transition for these little babies. Most of them have never seen a white person before. Everything sounds different, looks different and smells different. And although different children react in different ways, one of the common responses is for the child to withdraw for a while. So we fumbled our way through the "full-service kitchen" (definition: a couple burners and a large pot) to make some ramen noodles for dinner, and hoped the next day would be better and that she would start to come out of her shell.
Ana Luisa kept up her mostly sleeping/eating a little bit routine throughout the night. Juan Pablo was up almost all night, not wanting to leave her side. He was just too excited to sleep, and any time he heard Ana Luisa make a sound, he would jump out of bed and run around to where she was and start kissing her and talking to her. Jeff and I could have used some sleep, but between the two kids, that wasn't really going to happen. We somehow made it through the night, I'm still not sure how, and vowed that the next day we would sleep whenever the kids were sleeping. Haha.
To be continued...
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