1 Month Down...........................

We have been home exactly 1 month today. I realized that I have not shared with you all what our first meeting with Ben was like.
We met him on a Friday. Aiden and I had flown in the night before and slept very well after our long two day journey. I made sure to take Melatonin to sleep because I knew how hard it would be, I was so excited.
We woke up early and showered and ate breakfast trying to keep ourselves calm and busy. We just wanted our driver to hurry up and get to us. Ayele, our driver, who has driven so many of my friends to meet their children, was there right on time. We drove the 25 minutes to Hope's Place. We had a nice talk and Ayele said he remembered Mintesinot (Ben) from his previous visits.
We weaved in and out of tons and tons of cars and people walking that are a constant on Ethiopian roads. We finally got to the neighborhood of Hope and started down the narrow dirt roads that lead to it. I couldn't keep still. I was so happy and Aiden was very talkative, his excitement obvious. We turned onto the road that Hope is on, a dead end with the orphanage sitting at the very end.
I was leaning forward in my seat to look up through the windshield to the multi-story structures along the road. As we pulled closer to Hope I could see it, that beaming smile of his. I recognized my son leaning out of the second story window, watching for us. I started waving frantically. My window was rolled down and I could hear Ben yell "Mooooooooooooom!". He rushed from the window and out of sight.
It was all we could do to unbuckle our seat belts and get out of the car without falling flat on our faces. We tried to wait patiently as one of the caregivers opened the gate to the orphanage. I politely said hello to the man on the other side of the gate but really I wanted to push him out of the way to get to my boy. And then.........there he was.............waiting just on the other side. Ben jumped into a hug with Aiden and I. He said "Hello Mom, I love you!". Then he looked at Aiden and held him at arms length. I'll never forget the look on his face as he took in Aiden, "Oh my goodness, Oh my goodness." he said. Right then I realized that he had been longing for this as much if not more than we had.
I have no pictures or videos of this moment. Some people would be so sad about that but to be honest I'm not. I have this precious moment just for myself. Aiden, Ben and I are the only three people in the world that have the pictures of this meeting. They are in our heads and I know they will stay there forever. It was better than any meeting I had imagined.