We Made It!!!

We flew into Addis Ababa on Friday morning at 7:00a.m. after about 32 hours of travel. We got to our hotel and had just enough time for showers and some breakfast before we were picked up at 10:00 to head over to the orphanage. We had never been to this one because Marcus was transferred there after our last trip in October, so it was neat to see where the little man has been since we had last seen him. It was such a wild feeling knowing that we were pulling up and would be leaving WITH OUR CHILD, I was all jitters and excitement and nerves! It seems our little Marcus man has grown since we've last seen him, he seems heavier (yay!), showed off his crawling and standing skills, showed us his crazy good appetite and attached right away with me (Karly). He LOVES his Dada but isn't quiet sure what to do with himself when Mommy is out of sight. We are INSANELY proud of how well is he doing considering all he has gone though and is going through right now. It breaks our heart at the rough start of life he has had, but we are so thankful that we serve the only One who can heal hearts and hurts. We are already seeing God's amazing work in transforming our sweet boy from orphan to son. We are without a doubt head over heels in love with him. It's even more so than I ever thought imaginable, I was expecting to have the love build and grow but nope, it's full on holding-your-newborn-for-the-first-time kind of love and protectiveness. We cannot imagine ever living life without him and are so excited to go home and start our new life together with him and Toby and Jack.

Here's some things we've learned since getting Marcus yesterday...

*He is a total crack up.
*He's got some mad dancing skills.
*He's a crazy fast crawler.
*He loves to give us open mouthed kisses.
*He treats his little buddy Aidry like a sister, good and bad, she's grown up with him at both orphanages since Marcus was 4 months old
*He is still sick and really congested like last time we were here,  I can almost guarantee that he's been sick like that the whole time. It breaks our hearts to hear him struggle to get a good breath while sleeping, coughing and hacking all night and see him in any kind of discomfort or pain. We can't wait to get to good ol' USA where we are so thankful for access to awesome medical care!
*If it were up to him he'd chew and drool on my iphone all day long (the one thing that is off limits for said reasons :)
*His gas is gag inducing.
*His smiles and laughs are the best things ever.
*His two top teeth have come in since we've last seen him, one is almost in all the way and the other is about halfway out.
*He is a crazy good eater. He will eat anything we put in front of him and eat it GLADLY! (I see some good food eating lessons for his brothers coming soon!)
*He has the tinniest little old man bottom and waist with a big belly.
*He throws his head back when he's throwing a fit.
*He sometimes snorts when he gets laughing hard.

We are excited to finally be able to show some pictures of his sweet face...