Trip journal - Day 5

Thursday, June 24, 2010, 8:40 pm

This morning, we went to the Hilton for email, while Ficker dropped our papers at the Embassy.  When he picked us up, he told another family that their medical form for their son was missing.  Yikes!  He quickly went about getting it tracked down while we drove back to the guest house.

At the Hilton, two separate Ethiopian men doted on Abel and asked us his name and where he was from.  One of the men asked if we had other children.  We were just amazed by how supportive they were of adoption.

From wake up this morning, Abel was out of his shell more.  By the time we went to our visa appointment this afternoon, he was so wiggly (like I would expect from a one-year-old! - instead of being over-cautious, as he was before) that the Embassy advisor was wishing us, "Good luck on that long flight home!"


The Embassy was a little intimidating, with its check ins at different windows, metal detectors, following signs outside to a different building, etc.  But the waiting room had a play area, where Abel had a grand time playing with Mekdes.  She made funny sounds at him and he made them back. -- Hoping that is how he is with Adrianna!


We passed at the Embassy with no problems, but the family Ficker talked with needed to stay and wait for their medical clearances to arrive -- a harrowing wait for them.  All we could assume was that if the papers did not arrive, they would not be able to leave the country with their child.  Ficker kept telling them not to worry, but they could tell even he was worried!  


Praise God!  Their papers arrived within 45 minutes.


After Embassy, we were dropped at the grocery store -- a tiny room crowded floor to ceiling with all kinds of goods.  (Think Sam's Club squeezed into a Dollar Store.)  There were probably 20 + kinds of baby cereal to choose from!  We also got carrot oil for Abel's hair and scalp (used it tonight -- works great and smells good!).  Abel tried knocking things off shelves and grabbing everything.  Ethiopian women kept helping me pick up after him.

From there, we went to a photo shop and then a cafe.  We families decided to stop at the photo shop to print a picture of us with our child to give at our birth parent meetings tomorrow.  The photo shop was frustrating: five employees and yet it still took fifteen minutes each for them to print a photo for three families...?  (They were eating their burgers, drinking their coffee from the cafe, and jamming to Michael Jackson on the radio!)  Abel was showing his one-year-old personality again (which is good, just harder to contain!), and it was getting hard to keep him content in there.

Those families who had finished with their photos headed to the cafe, so Abel and I joined them.  He was still active, but willing to sit in my lap a little.  He got a little wild with his toy car (throwing it towards the other families), so I told him, "NO."  The Ethiopian family next to me stared in amazement / disapproval (?).  But later the man picked up Abel and hugged and kissed him (as many of the Ethiopians do).


I ordered ice cream (yummy), hoping it might keep Abel happy, but he didn't like it.  (I think he's not used to cold food.)

Abel got goofy with us during dinner -- such fun -- and was so disappointed that it was bed time after that.  We're still trying to figure out if he wants to fall asleep in our arms or in his bed.  He threw a crying fit when we didn't let him off our bed -- most crying yet.  After a few minutes of crying, Scott stood and patted his back.  He calmed down enough to let Scott hold him in our bed again, and then fell asleep quickly.  He is terrific about falling back to sleep when things wake him up and falling asleep when there is a lot of noise outside his room.


It rains as I write -- a beautiful, hard rain.  There was a little lightning earlier -- the kind like we have at home, where you can hear it ripple through the mountains.  There was a brief power outage before dinner (possibly from the storm?).

Although the laugh comes at my expense, I have to share the story that goes with this strange picture.  I asked Ficker to take a picture of our van full of families from his front seat view.  He took a picture with our camera (which, apparently was on zoom), and his response was, "OH.  NO."  You may be able to see why.  Scott and I didn't get to look at it until later, when, as I say, there was much laughter at my expense (yes, I laughed, too).

We never really got quite the shot we were looking for!

Here is one of the precious children who lives near the guest house...

And Carlito helping the beautiful housekeeper (I named her "Ethiopian Julia Roberts") grind coffee.

Looking forward to the birth parent meeting tomorrow, yet a little nervous.