Ethiopia - 2nd Trip - Day 4

February 28, 2011


Today was the day that we had been waiting for since the day we passed court....Embassy day!! I wasn't nervous but I wasn't excited either because we had been prepped by Almaz of what to expect. My main concern was making sure the 3 of us would all be ready to go by 8 am. We left a little bit after 8...after all, we had to take pictures.

It was so gorgeous to see 5 families all with their little ones load the bus to head to the U.S. Embassy. Our appointment was at 9 am and we got there 10 minutes before our appointed time. Everything went so smoothly. The 1st small building we went into was security. They notated our passports, x-rayed our bags and then we went out the back door through a courtyard and into the main building. In this main building there were about 7 rows of chairs, 20-25 chairs long with about 9 or 10 windows of Embassy reps. We had an AGCI rep as well as a Hannah's Hope rep accompanying us. All 5 families were taken over to Window 15 where our specific Embassy rep interviewed us. Each family was called to the window one at a time. Our passports were checked. We were sworn in. Our interview lasted about 5 minutes each and we all walked out of there with our child's Ethiopian birth certificate, court decree, MOWA letter and Contract of Adoption (with Bethzatha). That's it....we are officially official!! There was no stress, no worries, no glitches.

And on top of that, Eva did beautifully. No fussing. No crying. She was totally content on the bus ride over and during our time in the Embassy. On the ride back to the hotel, she even fell asleep.

On the way back to the hotel I decided that I wanted to do some shopping. Three of the four other moms decided they wanted to go too. We got back early enough to the hotel that we were able to get breakfast and then up to the room where I was able to get a 2 hour nap. I was hoping to able to slip out of the room before Eva woke up from her nap. No chance! She cried and cried when I left but I knew John would cheer her up.

We went to the same shopping markets as on our 1st trip. I was able to get some items that I missed the 1st time around and then bought stuff that wasn't planned on. I was WAY below my budget this time around! We got all of our shopping done in about 90 minutes and headed back to the hotel. It was good to be out with just "the girls" while the Dads stayed and bonded with their kids. This was the first and would be the only time that we would bond like this on our trip. It was very significant to me and I loved the time that we were able to spend together.

When I got up to the room, Miss Eva was not at all happy to see me. Imagine that :-) It was so wonderful to hear from John how they bonded in those hours. I was so happy for him. The rest of the night was spent with the 3 of us hanging out in our room....doing that bonding thing that we do.