No More Ethiopia Smell

Gabriella's right ear has smelled like Ethiopia ever since the day we met her. We always thought it was just God's reminder of her birthcountry. Silly us! A few weeks ago, Gabriella failed two hearing tests at school. Both times, the report said that her hearing was fine but inner ear problems were suspected. Hmmm....we never thought the smell was the problem until we took her to a specialist. Since we knew none of her history as far as ear infections and we knew her birthmother had hearing loss, we immediately took her to a specialist at Children's. He looked at it & took a smell of it, and asked us how long it had smelled like that....Oops! We felt pretty dumb! She had a lot of "gunk" in her ear, way down close to her ear drum. He prescribed her some drops and within a couple of days, the "gunk" was coming out & guess what...it smelled just like Ethiopia! We went back for her recheck this week & her ear looks much better. She does have some areas of scar tissue near her ear drum...probably from years of chronic, untreated ear infections. Thankfully, it does not seem to be effecting her hearing at this time. The doctor is going to continue watching her to make sure it doesn't become a problem. We are so glad that now she has access to healthcare that will prevent her from future hearing loss...healthcare her birthmother didn't have when she was growing up. We are a little sad that we can't smell Ethiopia in her ear anymore though. If you've been there you know it's not a pleasant smell, but it was a sweet smell to us b/c it was the smell of our daughter's birthcountry.