Ethiopia Trip - Day 8

The day after court was a low-key day. Thankfully there wasn't too much on the agenda. We spent most of the day at the guest house playing with him and spending time with the other families getting ready to fly out that night. We returned back to the market area we went a few days ago to finish up shopping. We were able to get a few new things that we wanted. I don't remember too much about this day except shopping and playing. That evening we all loaded up the vans to take 2 families to the airport and we went to dinner after that.

I held my emotions in check for most of the trip....until we got to the airport to drop off the other families. We said goodbye to them and I climbed back in the van. While waiting to leave the airport parking lot to go to dinner, I observed what I can only think was a mother giving up her child at the airport. I don't want to jump to conclusions but the scene before me was 2 women in the parking lot. One was much older (grandmother?) She had luggage and a back pack. The other was a younger women...maybe my age. She was sobbing hysterically and hugging a little baby. The older women was reaching out her arms to take the baby and the younger women just kept shaking her head no, and sobbing. Finally after a few unbearable moments, I saw this younger women kiss the baby goodbye and handed the baby off. It all seemed to happen in slow motion before me and yet happen in the blink of an eye as well. It took me a moment to process what I think I just witnessed. I'm not sure....but given the number of times we saw so many women desperate and poor with babies strapped to their backs begging pleading with us "whiteys" as they would call us, my heart ripped open. We left the airport and started to drive to dinner. I was speechless....still not sure what just happened, but then I started to cry. I couldn't stop.

I was sad..I was angry..I was so confused. Each time our van stopped in traffic, we had to close our windows to keep desperate hands from reaching in and grabbing us, just hoping for some kind of well.....hope. Ugh. Adam and mom realized I was crying. I tried to tell them what I just saw...It was too much. I cried the whole way to the restaurant. More women and children on the side of the road..More homeless people sleeping in the middle of the median. More people begging. I was done. Ready to come home. I said before that I wanted to be fully present during our trip and soak up each moment. The good and the bad. Well that included what I just saw and I DIDN'T LIKE IT! I think my heart had enough. All of the experiences of our trip caught up with me. Don't get me wrong. We had a GREAT trip and I wouldn't change ANYTHING. I knew we were going to a poor country. I knew I would see poverty. I didn't expect to not be able to escape from it. I wasn't expecting the women to offer us her children on the day we were up in the mountains. I wasn't expecting to find out so much about our sons story. Soooo glad we did and that was truly the BEST day. But the reality of it. Ugh.

We had dinner at an Italian resturant. I think I ate 2 bites of food. All I wanted was to get back to the Guest House and go to sleep...and prepare for saying goodbye to our boy the next day. Gee, like that would be fun. Oh boy...we were both about to be total train wrecks.