Day 4 in Ethiopia

After our first night sleeping in a room with mosquito netting we were off back to Addis. I forgot to mention a couple other things about the day we met our birth family. Ethiopia is known because the Christians and Muslims are about 40% and 40% of the population. They live side by side in peace. While driving we saw it first hand too. On the top of their thatch huts they’d "advertise" their religion with adoration to their faith. As we were leaving our birth mothers house we could hear someone speaking from a loud speaker. We thought it was a Muslim mosque. I asked the uncle and he said no they were preaching the gospel. I asked if it was a Sunday service and yes it was. I asked if it was on speaker because people couldn’t travel and he said no. The church wasn’t big enough to hold everyone who attended. It was nice imagining my children in their backyard playing and hearing the gospel.

The other thing I left out was our children’ father was Muslim. He converted just prior to marriage. His whole family was Muslim when growing up. The uncle who was with us said he was Muslim too but now a Christian. I asked how he converted. He must have interpreted my question as why. His answer, "Because Jesus is the truth." All four of us said Amen.

On our drive back we saw a few people selling things. One guy had a python skin and a Cheetah skin. Many others were selling "coal" to burn in your house. We saw many boys hurding cattle. Some seemed to be as young as 7 years old. At one point there was a roadblock to check vehicles. We stopped to get breakfast. When I went to use the lady’s room there was no TP. I was so mad at myself because I knew better. The breakfast was nothing to write home about but again the coffee was great. How could it not be? They grew it, roast it, grind it and brew it right there. One can not get fresher coffee than that.

When we got back into Addis the traffic was terrible. You need a special license to drive in Ethiopia. The horn is used a lot. We were late arriving to Horizon House.

All the families in our group were they’re waiting for us. See this was the day we all went for our children VISA appointment. We had some paper work to do together prior. We were supposed to have brought a copy of our income tax return and we didn’t. It was a bit tense because no one knew how that would effect us. Rick filled out the paperwork and I ate very quickly. Then they brought us our boys. It was Monday and we hadn’t seen them since Saturday, which also was the first time, we met them. Taking them to the US Embassy made us a bit nervous. Just when they brought them to us I noticed K needed his diaper changed.

As a side note, K needed his diaper changed often. We nicknamed him "Squirt" because when he went it squirted out everywhere, on his clothes and on you. He has two parasites: Campy and Giardia that caused the diarrhea. Happy to say all better now. Now we call him Hoover because he eats everything.

This was the first time I changed his diaper and the driver was standing right over me. We were late and he was frustrated. So was I. K was in a cloth diaper with a plastic bag tied around him. I felt like a surgeon performing an operation. "Bag I need a bag to put this in." I said in my not so happy tone of voice.

Diaper changed off we all went and piled into the van. We went through US Embassy security. We all sat in this room watching something like CNN on TV. One by one they called us. The boys were fantastic. No problems and no crying. They called us. Rick, the boys and I went up the seemingly very long flight of stairs (I carried K who weights 22 lb. but feels like 50). We stood in the correct line and hoped no one would notice we didn’t have all of the necessary paper work. The employee asked us a couple of questions and then said, "Congratulations on your adoption." That was the point I thought I was going to loose it. Here we were holding our boys, in Ethiopia and someone verified they really are ours. Some how I barely contained myself and back down the stairs we went. As we entered the room I told everyone (about 50 people-obviously not all from our group) we passed. Everyone cheered. Then we cheered every time someone from our group came down.

Later that night we all went out to dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant. They have dancers who do the different dances from the different regions in Ethiopia. It was a nice dinner. At some point I ate cow intestine. That will teach me not to ask what I’m eating prior to putting in my mouth.