Day Five- Second Half

The last couple of days have been really good. I finally feel like Ruby is trying to settle into a routine. She isn't sleeping through the night or anything, but she is a little easier to put back to sleep once she wakes up and she is taking a couple naps everyday. I am really thankful her sleep habits seem to be improving.

The past weekend with Mark's parents was great; I have pictures I will post, but I figured I should finish up my updates about Ethiopia first.

So, back to day five. After the embassy we drove to the hospital to talk to the doctor and see Ruby. To our surprise, the doctor was ready to discharge her! This meant today was the day we would take her back to the hotel with us. We were hoping this would happen, but we were still a little surprised. It was exciting, but also scary and overwhelming to think of taking this tiny, fragile little bundle home with us. Before we left with Ruby, the doctor pulled us aside to share with us some concerns he had about Ruby's development. He said her muscle tone made him wonder if she had any neurological problems; he didn't have the resources to test her in Ethiopia, but he told us we should get a thorough evaluation of her when we got home. This was very scary to hear, but we knew that her little body had been through so much. We couldn't judge her development yet; we needed to give her time to heal first.

Next, we packed up Ruby's few things and left to take her back to the hotel. We promised to bring her to the hospital twice each day so she could get antibiotics. Before we got back we stopped at two different pharmacies to get the syringes and medicine she would need. It seemed crazy that we were buying syringes for a hospital, but their resources are so limited that they didn't have any so we had to buy them.

When we got Ruby back to the hotel, Mark and I laid her on the bed and just looked at each other. It was an incredible feeling, knowing we had waited for this moment for the past year and a half and now it was here. We started off by giving Ruby a "bath". It was a little scary to see her naked for the first time because she was covered with a rash, her diaper area was flaming red, she had an abscess on her shoulder, her belly was a little bloated and her legs were sticks. I realized that we were dealing with a sick little girl who needed lots of love. After the bath we slathered her in diaper rash creme and lotion and then put clean clothes on her. Everything we brought with us was way to big on her, but at least it was clean. We also clipped her fingernails and toenails, which were super long. Then we wrapped her up tight in blankets and held her and cuddled her for the rest of the night. That night we thanked God for the blessing we were finally holding in our arms.

First moments with Ruby at the hotel: