Days 3 and 4 in Ethiopia

Day 3 - Monday we had our embassy appointments. We had to go turn in paperwork and our $ without our babies. Then we ate lunch and went to the orphanage to pick up our babies for our actual embassy appointment. We went to pick them up and they were given to us with their bottles. This was the first time we got to take them out of the orphanage, feed them and change them. The roads are so bumpy and we were feeding our babies and poor Jeff (our traveling buddy) got vomited all over by his baby girl. Who would have thought the adults needed a change of clothes? Then we got there and waited outside for our lawyer and meanwhile Josiah started flailing and screaming. It was nap time, but all of the Ethiopians on the street didn't know that and I felt helpless while everyone looked at us with concern. Everything went pretty smoothly with the appointment, although there was a scare that the embassy did not have our traveling buddies' paperwork - so we stopped and prayed and they found it. The wait was pretty long in a hot room and then it was finally our turn. We were actually interviewed by an embassy worker who spoke a few languages and proceeded to interview us in Spanish. We then dropped our babies back at the orphanage and went back to our guest house.

No pictures are allowed at the embassy, but here are some things we saw from our car.


Day 4 - Since going out around town with your adopted children is highly discouraged, we tried to get everything done around town on Tuesday so that we could check out our boys for good on Wednesday. First we went to Kidane orphanage where my dear friend, Andrea's children are. We just loved her 4 yr old children, Biruk and Hiwot. They aren't just beautiful, but they are also so sweet - true gems. We got pictures and videos and brought them a little envelope of goodies from their mom which made their day. This orphanage was much needier than our orphanage and we did bring several bags of donations. Javier went back the next day to drop off more donations because the nun in charge explained what a blessing the first donations were since they had just gotten in 40 children from the south and were struggling to clothe all of them.

Beautiful view from Kidane Orphanage

Andrea's children

Then we did all of our shopping and came back just in time for lunch. This day we also went to the Kolfe boys orphanage which I will write about in a separate post. Finally at night, we went to an authentic Ethiopian dinner with everyone at the guest house, drivers, coordinator and lawyer. Javier wouldn't eat (it is very spicy and it is all shared food eaten with fingers which is a big "hang up" for him) but he did enjoy his coffee at the end. Janae was such a trooper. I could not believe she was trying everything! I mean most of it was pretty spicy even for me (and I love spicy) but she was such a good sport and we didn't even know what 90% of it was. I think her favorite was the lamb tibs (kind of like fajitas). Janae also looked beautiful in her new Ethiopian dress. The whole night was filled with traditional music and dancing that was so energetic and quite amazing.