Day 3 & Day 4

Sunday, December 3 


This day was spent playing with the kids, holding precious babies, eating delicious food, napping and getting to know our sweet sweet son.
Other than just being with my son, the highlight was seeing Betty, Dagim, Yodahe, Hermon and Balem....missed Betty so very badly was thrilled to see her and the children.  She was Abinet's mommy for 13 mths and Dagim came and played with him, often.  I am forever grateful for them and for their love.


Monday, December 4


EMBASSY DAY!

Today is the day.  We come down to breakfast and find Abinet peaking in the door.  Woudneh is there, as well.  We had to leave early because Embassy is on the other side of the city and with the 10,000 extra people, traffic was horrible.

We ate breakfast and gave Abinet some juice and some toast.  Woudneh wanted to know if we had confirmation from Embassy and we didn't.  All we had was their intention to see us, not a solidified time :/  Woudneh made some calls and he said that it should be okay, if it isn't, then to have them call Woudneh.  Panic.  We didn't have confirmation and Woudneh would not be going with us.  He was sending one of his workers...whom we had never met :/  


To ease my nerves, sweet Betty came.  I just love her. We piled up in the van with Ashu, a wonderful driver (I'm sure I butchered the spelling of his name).  Betty asked if we had bags, in case of vomit.  Uhm, my thought was heck no....I don't do vomit.  Panic, again.  She got us a couple of bags and sent us on our way.  Abinet was not thrilled about the seatbelt and the I was thrilled about the knowledge that he hadn't been in a vehicle in over a year and had just eaten.  Traffic was beyond horrible and the fumes are hard.  I kept the window open and eventually.  He kept pulling at his seatbelt and looking at me to save him.  I told Big Daddy that I felt he was fixing to puke and before we could get the bag open, projectile.....out and all over him.  We stopped, to pick up Abenezer, just as I was dry heaving to myself.  I kept my head turned and tried to pull out my supply of wipes and toilet paper.  *note to self:  toilet paper sticks to vomity clothes, don't do that again.*  We set off again, and luckily, the embassy wasn't too far from Woudneh's office.  I was kicking myself at A)not holding the bag tight enough and B) not bringing him some extra clothes.  Ashu said not to worry, that he would clean it all up.  He was amazing.  


We got to the embassy and wiped off the chunks.  The wind was blowing, a bit, so I know that Abinet was cool.  We got in, no trouble and waiting for our number to be called.  It was number 400.  The sign was on number 143 :/  Big Daddy took Abinet to the bathroom and to attempt to clean him up.  We weren't sure where our interview would be held...at the window or behind closed doors.  We sat by a play area and Abinet was perked up enough to go and play.  Abenezer was called up to the front and when he came back he said their was a problem...that Abinet's medical had expired and that they could not issue his visa until that was done.  


They finally called us up, explained the situation and said that we needed to get him into the office, today.  He had to have a TB skin test and that takes 48-72 hrs to process and we were leaving on Thursday.  She asked us a few questions and then she shared what the interview contained with Abinet's birth mom, Tadelech.  It hurts my heart.  Her sacrifice and where she and the other children might be today.  We are shown his passport and then told that we couldn't have anything else until after his medical.


We head out, feeling anxious and relieved, all at the same time.  We stopped, on the side of the road, and a lovely woman came up to take Abinet to the office, with Abenezer and they were heading to the clinic.  We couldn't go with him, so Ashu took us back to the transition house.  We took pictures of our room:

and then we took a nap.  We ate lunch, loved on the other children and attempted to skype and email.  We didn't leave the transition house other than for Big Daddy and the Bambricks who walked down to a market to get some bottled water.


Abinet didn't return until about 4:30p, so he had had a long long day.  We immediately took him upstairs and cleaned him up and changed his pants.  Let's just say, he didn't want to wear the puke pants (understandably) and he didn't want to wear the pants that he had on, from the transition house.  He wanted a new clean pair of pants.  Big Daddy wasn't back, yet, so I had to deal with a serious meltdown over these pants.  I didn't have enough for the rest of the week and the pants that he had had on were clean.  He fought me, he threw himself in the floor.  He walked around with his pants half on and half off.  He is a strong little sucker and he was not happy. Lots and lots of big tears.  He was exhausted and it showed.

This was of him trying to get his pants off.  He wouldn't let me take any other pics...he kept turning his head. Finally, Big Daddy got back and I informed him that "his son" was having a moment and he needed to deal with it.  This is how that played out:

A tickle fest, ensued and all was well, in the world.  There wasn't much left, at the end of the day.  Supper for little man, bath (which consists of the kids sitting on the sidewalk and a nanny coming with a bucket, water and soap.   They washed their arms, legs and face..then lotioned them up).  Then bed.  It was a long day.