Ethiopia Journal: Day 8 (December 31) The New Hannah's Hope and the Start of our Journey Home

While we were in Ethiopia, Hannah's Hope orphanage and transitional home was in the process of moving to a new location. We were the last group of AGCI families to stay at the Union Hotel and walk up that cobblestone road and through those red gates. Through generous donor support (and lots of prayer!), AGCI was able to secure a lease on a luxurious residential compound in the outskirts of Addis Ababa. According to Almaz, because the property owner is Muslim, the fact that he even considered leasing it to a Christian orphanage was a small miracle in itself. On Thursday morning, we had the opportunity to travel by bus (about a 45 minute ride) to tour the new facility and say final farewells to some of the special mothers.

The "New" Hannah's Hope is unbelievable in contrast to the "Old" Hannah's Hope where our Miss K lived. While it had a lot of charm and was overflowing with the love of its incomparable staff, the "Old" Hannah's Hope was structurally run-down and had no frills cosmetically. The new compound consists of two fabulous houses surrounded by a wall. One house will be used as a baby house and the other for older children. A separate strip of rooms (formerly servants' quarters, perhaps?) including a commercial-grade kitchen and laundry room are situated along the rear of the property. A swingset and courtyard between the two homes provides an area for outdoor play. Combined with the care and nurturing that Hannah's Hope's special mothers are famous for--children at the New Hannah's Hope will be truly pampered as they wait for their forever families.

The New Hannah's Hope:

Baby House Foyer and Staircase: Play Room in the Baby House:

New Arrivals Room in the Baby House:

More Baby House Bedrooms:

The kitchen in the Baby House, used for bottle-making and donation storage: Spiderman-themed play room for the older children: Stairway and Landing in the older children's house:

A bedroom for older girls:

Views from the windows of the New Hannah's Hope:

Laundry, laundry and more laundry!

The special mothers whisked Miss K out of my arms shortly after we entered the baby house. She reached back toward us and cried a little when they took her--a good sign that she was starting to feel attached to us.

Goodbye, Little Friends!

After about 45 minutes, I realized I was walking around by myself. I found Hus-B in the kitchen, surrounded by the kitchen staff and enjoying a lunch of injera and shiro. Only my Hus-B! It was all made from scratch that morning and he said it was every bit as good as the shiro and injera everyone raved about at the restaurant the night before.

The New Hannah's Hope even has a separate "injera room" next to the main kitchen! Here is Hus-B's video of Hannah's Hope staff making injera (please scroll down and pause (II) the background music before playing the video):
Your donation dollars at work! haha:

I left Hus-B and his new-found friends in the kitchen and started looking for Miss K. I found her with one of the special mothers and a group of older children in the courtyard--with stickers on her cheeks and forehead. The older children were enjoying the stickers and Ranger Rick magazines delivered by one of the traveling families. They liked sticking the stickers on their faces and were including Miss K in the fun!

The always-cute R handing out stickers and magazines:

The sweet boy in the red and his precious big brother just came home to the E Family!

(Photos courtesy of the M Family)

The Sweet Vs, hanging out with and reading to some of the children:

(Photo courtesy of the M Family)

K playing cards with some of the older children:

(Photo courtesy of the M Family)

After a couple of hours, we headed back to the hotel so that everyone could pack and prepare for their journeys home. All of us would be leaving on one of three international flights out of Addis that evening.

Miss K was all smiles while we packed:

Treasured, indeed!

We were permitted to travel with one carry-on each, one "personal bag" each (mine was a tote-style bag with paperwork, camera and camcorder, travel items, make-up and my journal; Hus-Bs was his laptop bag with his laptop and all of the cords and chargers for our electronic gear), and two checked bags each. We learned our lesson about checking too much after our bags were lost on our last trip to Africa (we spent 2 weeks on safari in Kenya with nothing but computer and camera equipment and, literally, the shirts on our backs). For our trip to Ethiopia, we took the largest carry-ons permitted by the airlines and crammed several changes of clothes and all necessities into those (thankfully, our carry-ons were never weighed!). We each checked one bag on the way over, containing extra clothes, orphanage donations, snacks and non-essential baby gear. We also packed a rolled-up, large duffel bag, which we planned to fill with souvenirs and use as a checked bag on the trip home. For the return trip, Miss K's fare permitted us to also carry a diaper bag on board. Extra space was created once we gave all of the donation items to Hannah's Hope; we also donated all diapers, formula, baby food and other baby items we didn't use while in-country and didn't think we would need for the trip home. We used clothes to pad our purchases and counted the Mesob table as our fourth checked item.

We were packed to the max. There were rumors that the airlines had reduced the permitted baggage and carry-on limits in light of the "Christmas Day Bomber" incident (which occurred during our journey to Ethiopia but of which we heard nothing about until A mentioned it a couple of days after we were in-country), so we were holding our breath that we wouldn't run into any problems with our luggage.

Of the flights that our group was taking, our plane was the first to leave, departing Bole International at 7:30 p.m. While we waited for our ride to the airport, we were treated to a farewell coffee ceremony in the lobby of the hotel. As we rode to the airport, we tried to take in all of the sights, sounds and smells of Addis one last time. It was hard to believe that we'd only been in Ethiopia for a week. The country had already become a part of us. It had started to drizzle and, as we approached the airport, we noticed a rainbow crossing the sky above the city. It seemed to be a symbol of hope. Promise for a brighter tomorrow. We will miss you, Ethiopia! Goodbye for now. We will be back! Security had indeed been increased at the airport (it turned out that Bole International had been one of the Christmas Day Bomber's stops along the way to Amsterdam). Our driver tried to help with our bags but was not permitted to go any closer than the edge of the parking lot (apparently he'd taken numerous people to the airport before and had always accompanied them all the way up to the check-in area). We had no trouble with our luggage other than that, by the time it we had it "saran-wrapped", our Mesob table looked like a squished-up sombrero. We crossed our fingers that it would survive the journey and pop back into form once we got home.

We went through two separate security checks before arriving at the gate to board the plane for our 3 hour flight to Dubai. Miss K only had a "lap" ticket (meaning she would be traveling in our laps and not in a seat of her own), but we did get assigned to one of the coveted bulk-head seats with a bassinet. All this time, Miss K was her usual bouncy, happy, smiley self. Until the plane started its taxi down the runway. Then the screaming began. It was past her bedtime. She couldn't get comfortable. She didn't like that she couldn't stand up (she was buckled in my lap) or turn around to lay on my chest. She was not happy and she wanted everyone on that plane to know it. Everything we did to try to console her or distract her just seemed to make her more upset. Across the aisle, several Arab businessmen peered at us out of the corners of their eyes. A youngish, college-student-looking Ethiopian guy sitting diagonally behind us put his hand up on the side of his face (to shield himself from us?) and peeked at us through his fingers. Oh no, I thought. Now I'm going to be "that woman". The incompetent American woman who doesn't know how to calm, comfort or console her Ethiopian baby. And my lovely Miss K is going to be "that screaming kid".

Thankfully, as the nose of the plane tilted up for lift-off, Miss K let out a final whimper and then collapsed in sleep. Despite several flight attendants' offers to help move her to the bassinet, we didn't dare disturb her peaceful slumber. She slept quietly on my chest for the entire trip.

Our flight arrived in Dubai right at midnight and we descended amongst numerous fireworks displays which were part of their New Years' celebrations. It was beautiful. Miss K woke up as we were disembarking, back to her usual adorable self. Leg one of our journey home was over. We considered it an overall success. The real test would be the 14-hour flight from Dubai to New York. . .