Day 8 - The Embassy

Ethiopia Trip – Day 8

The Embassy

Yesterday was our scheduled trip to the US Embassy. After we ate breakfast we waited for the driver, Mulat, to come collect us and our gear and take us to Horizon House. He also took all of the donations our dear friends sent with us. We had one VERY full suitcase and 7 cans of powdered formula. Thank you to everyone for such generocity.

We spent more time with Sela and then Brian went to the main guest house to finish filling out our paperwork. I played with Sela a bit more and then decided to join him. When I walked in, Brian told me of the HUGE coincidence in our family group. Turns out that one of the adoptive mothers is the former wife of one of the men who started the company Brian used to work for. What are the chances?!?!

So, everyone worked to finish paperwork and then we ate a fabulous lunch prepared by the cook at Horizon House. Then we were off to the Embassy.

We all crammed into two vehicles, children and all. There are no baby car seats here. As a concerned parent you just have to realize that this is the way it is done here and hold on tight! Sela had a bottle and then fell asleep on the way over. Once we got there, we had to sit outside and wait our turn to even go inside. Finally, we got to go through security and head up to wait some more. The place we waited was hot and crowded, but only crowed by seats – they wouldn’t let anyone stand.

While waiting to be called, I met a nice gentleman from Chicago. He is originally from Ethiopia, then married a girl from the U.S. He was there adopting their second baby from Ethiopia. He was very nice. Finally we were called up to the window. We had to answer a bunch of questions about our daughter’s background and how she seemed to be interacting and we were done. The paperwork was given to a representative from the orphanage so he can finish getting the visas, but for all intents and purposes, we are done. Oh, in case you were wondering, we are not allowed to bring any electronics into the Embassy, so we couldn’t take any pictures.

We headed back outside to wait for the rest of our group to finish, got back into the van and the driver dropped the three of us off at the hotel. Sela spent most of the rest of the afternoon sleeping and Brian and I played on the internet. It was great – finally starting to feel totally real.

We were collected around 7:30 to go to dinner. Brian had to go back up to the room to get something one of us forgot, so I just sat and watched people come and go. (The driver hadn’t arrived just yet, either.) While I was waiting a man came out of the hotel. His hair was pretty wild, he had on a striped button-up shirt, jeans and low-top Converse shoes (Brian says they are Chuck Taylors, but that means nothing to me!). I had NO idea who he was, but he just LOOKED like someone famous, like a rock star. I didn’t think too much more about it and didn’t even tell Brian at that point.

The driver (Solomon) and Brian both finally go there and went to drop Sela with the nanny and join the other families. We all piled into the vehicles again and headed to dinner. The place that we went is much like the orphanage – a beautiful place situated behind a gate in a neighborhood you would NEVER guess housed such a place. It seemed like it was in a back-alley slum, but turned into this terrific spot.

Remember when I said I didn’t tell Brian at the time about my “rock star” sighting? Well, the guy was at this restaurant!! Turns out he was actually on a flight with two of the families and someone ELSE on their flight thought he was Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones. Well, someone in our group (I am not going to name names, Brian) thought he was Nikki Sixx and someone else thought he was Ron Wood. After Brian and I returned to the hotel that night, we looked up both and pretty much decided that he is Ron Wood, bassist for The Rolling Stones. But, we can neither confirm nor deny that as we have not talked to him.

So, the dinner was a traditional dinner with tons of food – some of it spicy – that was brought out in huge round containers. While we ate there were dancers and musicians to entertain. Each of the dances had an outfit and style to represent the region of Ethiopia that it came from. The moves were absolutely impressive and athletic. At one point one of the singers went around to each table and tried to get someone at the table get up and dance with her. I tried to make my dancing friend, Soo-Jin, proud of me by getting up and doing my part. After the meal, we had STRONG Ethiopian coffee and headed back to the hotel. We made plan to go shopping the next day and said good night.

We have two more days (plus the flights) to tell you about, but we won’t have access to the internet to make any posts. We will do our best to complete our blog as soon as possible after we return.

Lori