It's Official

The trip to the Embassy was pretty interesting. First of all, four families, and the director of Layla House, all piled into one van for the ride there. There was the usual honking and swerving on the way there. Ethiopian driving is just basically a series of near misses. Signals optional, horns mandatory! There are surprisingly few accidents though.

The security is pretty high at the US Embassy. We were not allowed to park in front, so we had to park about a block or so away, and walk back. We had to go through a couple security check points, and had to have our camera locked up in a locker. No pictures there! The room that we had to go to was upstairs. We learned the phrase "heat rises", is no joke. It was sooooooo hot up there!! The lady that we needed to meet with was in a meeting at first. Good thing we had Gail with us to move things forward. She just went about collecting the money from each family for the exit visas and made sure to let the people behind the windows knew that adoption takes first priority with the US Department of State, and that we would be waiting. That must have accomplished something, because it wasn't too long before things started moving. It was great to see each family walk away from the window with completed paperwork. It means so much more than it seems when you consider that a family has just been formed. The other families clapped each time one of us finished up.

After the Embassy, we went back to Layla House. We delivered some letters that we brought over for some of the children of the other waiting families. We also spent lots of time visiting with the babies and toddlers and taking pictures. They are absolutely precious. They love to see the back of the digital camera after we take a picture. I guess technology has officially made it to Ethiopia! After I finally wiggled my way out of the swarm of children, we had the chance to meet the film crew that is here to tell the story about older children that are adopted from Ethiopia. They will actually be following them back to the US and into their new families. It should be a pretty cool documentary.



We met a super nice family from Arkansas when we went to the Embassy today. They are here to bring their 13 year old daughter, Winchet, home. We ended up inviting them back to the Hilton to have dinner with us. It was great to have a chance to talk with another family that totally understands what we have been going through for the last year and a half. Grace was napping at the beginning of the meal, but when she woke up, she was ready to perform. We had three or four different tables of people talking to us and asking questions. She is quite a ham!