It would have been weird for us to fall asleep too, so we stayed awake. And filled out our paperwork. The kids slept throughout. Once we had finished filling out the paperwork, the staff from our adoption agency had a traditional coffee ceremony for us and the four other adoptive families who had Embassy appointments the next day. This is a big part of Ethiopian culture, and is an example of the wonderful hospitality of the Ethiopian people. The coffee beans are roasted in a pan, then ground with a mortar and pestle. The coffee is then brewed, and served with sugar. Guests are also usually offered popcorn or cooked barley to munch on as well.
Since the kids were still asleep, Jeff and I were thankful for the shots of caffeine that we would inevitably need to get throughout the rest of the day. We also had a good time meeting and talking with the other families.
Eventually Juan Pablo woke up, which was nice because several of our agency's staff, including one of the case workers and the psychologist/counselor, remembered him. We were glad that they got to see him in action and talk with him. The counselor sat down with us to give us information that she had about Ana Luisa. She started going through the evaluations she had done over the last couple months. She kept talking about how Ana Luisa was happy, active and sociable, and was always smiling and laughing. We told her that this had not been our experience thus far...although Ana Luisa had spent more time awake than the day before, she still was mostly just sleeping and eating a little bit at a time. I had also realized that since we had picked her up the day before, she had not had a wet diaper. We were starting to worry. The counselor assured us that the transition is difficult for many children, and it was probably just stress, but she set up an appointment for us to see the doctor at the orphanage later that afternoon.We returned to our guest house for a few hours, then were picked up again to go to the doctor. As soon as we arrived, Ana Luisa had a blowout, so one of the staff took me into the orphanage so I could change her. When we had been there on Sunday picking up Ana Luisa, things had been very calm. The older children were all at church, so only the babies were there, playing on a rug on the floor. On Monday afternoon, things were totally different. The orphanage was bustling with activity. Little girls ran around everywhere (the boys are at a different home). There were so many babies crying that it was hard to hear what people were saying. One of the nannies took Ana Luisa from me, and began to change her. Ana Luisa started to cry, but stopped as soon as I was able to pick her up again, which I took to be a good sign. At least she had come to see me as a source of comfort sometime over the last 36 hours. When we went in to see the doctor, she told us that she had diagnosed Ana Luisa with a stomach flu the Thursday before. It was flu season in Addis, she said, and a lot of the children had viruses. She gave us a medication to give Ana Luisa twenty minutes before feeding her to keep her from vomiting, and as well as an antibiotic, I'm not sure what for. She asked if we had tried giving her oral rehydration salts. We had, but Ana Luisa had refused to drink them. I don't blame her, they tasted disgusting. She told us to force them down, because Ana Luisa was clearly dehydrated. Still no wet diaper, and when she cried, there were no tears. However, when a child has a cleft palate, you can't force things down because they just come right back out the nose. I told the doctor this, but she just shrugged and said to keep trying.
We were discouraged when we got back to the guest house. Ana Luisa did not seem to be getting better, and the doctor had not been overly helpful. We gave her the medications, and tried to feed her, but still could not get much into her. We were very worried at this point. I thought she really needed an IV, but had no idea where we could take her in Addis Ababa that would be safe. And if we took her to a hospital, who knows how long they would want to keep her there, and I really didn't want to miss our flight out on Thursday. I wished we could just fast forward so we could get on our flight, go home, and take her straight to the emergency room.
In the meantime though, Juan Pablo continued his efforts to try to cheer her up and get her to play. We propped her up, and he brought the toys.
It didn't last long. She was too tired. So instead, we tried to give her a little more formula, and Juan Pablo sang her a lullaby as she fell asleep.
To be continued...
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