We're here!

(This was written on 11 Sept - we've only just been able to send it).

Well, we've arrived. Was it really only three days ago? It's hard to
know where to start, except with the obvious:

We have met the babies! They are delightful. Both of them are swaddled
very tightly, and wrapped in two layers of blankets, so they really
look like a log of fabric with a face. But in each case, it is a very
very cute little face! Baby girl's is very mobile and expressive, and
when she's not happy she pulls the most magnificent
I-can't-believe-you-are-persecuting-me-like-this frown. Baby boy seems
more placid, and spends much of his awake time staring at whoever is
closest and quietly trying to figure out what is going on. They both
have enormous feet (we looked under the swaddling when the nannies
weren't watching). When they are next to each other, the differences
are easy to see, but they do look very similar and we spent all of our
second morning telling a baby that she was a beautiful, beautiful girl
before one of the nannies told us that BG was actually the sleeping
baby and we were talking to BB. I'm sure he will recover.

Both of them are TINY. We knew they would be little, but it was still
a bit of a shock to see how little. We know that they are eating, but
they have a very long way to go before either of them have any baby
fat rolls. We can't wait to get them home and start Project Chubby.
In the meantime, it is strange (and quite difficult) to see the
children who will be ours under someone else's care. Intellectually we
knew this wouldn't be easy, but it is even more difficult than we
expected to put our sleeping babies down in a cot and know that we
won't be there when they wake up. We had hoped to be able to spend
most of each day at the orphanage, and do a large part of the caring
for our babies, but this is less possible than we had originally
hoped, and we are re-adjusting our expectations. Fortunately, the
care they are receiving is good care, and we know that other babies
who have come in quite tiny are now thriving. We keep telling
ourselves this each time we have to say goodbye to them.

We are staying in a guesthouse that is only a few minutes walk from
the orphanage, which is fantastically convenient. It's great to be
close enough to get around on foot - this is an incredibly interesting
place and we are enjoying getting to know it. Today was New Year
(Melkam Addis Anet, everyone!) so yesterday there was a LOT of
livestock being moved around the city in preparation for celebrations-
this not a good time to be a chicken or a goat in Addis.

We are missing everyone, but really glad to be here. More later!

Lots of love

John and Caroline