Gotcha Day!

We awoke to the smell of something burning...only to find out it was Ethiopian coffee (Robera). At first, I didn't like the smell of it at all, but by the middle of the week, it was comforting to know that these loving women were hand roasting and making our special coffee for each meal of the day. Robera tastes like SUPER strong American coffee. I usually added some water to mine as well as some powdered creamer and sugar to sweeten it up a bit.


The women at our guest house (Lalese and Abynish) made us three meals a day, plus, room delivery of either homeade chips or homeade french fries for an afternoon snack, each day. We felt like we were royalty!! In addition, they babysat for Amelia anytime we wanted to go sightseeing, as it was not acceptable to bring her out in public until our embassy date on Thursday. Two of the guest house workers, Abynish and Girba (the gatekeeper and bodygaurd), lives in a little shack behind our guesthouse. The other worker, Lalese, lives in an apartment with her brother (our case worker in ET) Korsa. When guests are in, Lalese stays at the guest house with them, to cook, clean, and care for the baby.

After our breakfast of pancakes (more like crepes), fresh mango juice and robera coffee, we met with Korsa and the director of Better Futures (ET) to discuss our plans for the week. Then, we were off to get our little Amelia. After driving through the gates, we were met by lots of little ones, running up to meet us. They all wanted to hold our hands and get attention from us. We were first taken on a tour of all of the rooms in the orphanage and then, all of a sudden, one of the nannies brought Amelia to us. We brought some items to donate that Noah gave to the orphanage director and then he got to hand out suckers to all the kids. The director said that there are 40 kids in the orphanage righ now. It is heartbreaking to see all those little ones who don't have forever families yet.



After we got Amelia, we went back to the guest house for the day. We spent the afternoon playing and getting to know her. Lalese brought us our first afternoon snack of homeade potato chips and braided Amelia's hair for us and fed her. She even slept with her the first night so that she would be more comfortable and we could get a good night of sleep.

Ethiopia, Here We Come!

We were packed and on our way....however, our first flight, out of Milwaukee was cancelled due to weather. So, we pitched in with a few other people and got a limo to drive us to O'Hare so we could make our next flight in time. Grabbed some lunch at O'Hare and then we were off on our 2 hour flight to DC. And, finally, our 16 hour flight to Ethiopia, with an added hour for refueling, cleaning the plane and loading more meals, etc...at our stop in Rome. We couldn't, get off the plane, though, so all in all, it was 17 hours on the same plane! Yikes!! We were pooped by the time we arrived in Ethiopia! Next, we had to wait in line to get our Visas. Glad we waited to get them there, as they were only $20 (US) verses $70 (US) if we had gotten them in the US. Steve changed our money to Ethiopian Birr (1 Birr = apporximately $8) and then we found our Better Futures Sign and new friends. Got the luggage and loaded into our new vehichle for the week.
Van similar to the one we used.

Barbed wire on top of gates and fencing.

As we were riding to our new home for the week, I was thinking, "Boy, this is really a God thing....to be able to trust that these three Ethiopian men, who don't speak much Eglish, are truly employees of Better Futures, and that they really will take us to the Guest House and that we will be safe. We were the only family in our travel group (unlike when we got Emma...we had 15 other families with us). As we drove to the house, we were a bit in shock. Along the entire roadside, there were small, run down shacks with little lighting but tons of people standing around inside and in front of them....extremely run down!! We turned onto a very bumpy dirt road, which was the street to our Guest House and then the driver had to honk so that the gatekeeper could open the gate to the Guest House. All of the homes are gaurded by either a steel gates and fences with barbed wire on top of them or a gate and broken pieces of glass on top of the gate/fence to keep people out. Sort of scary looking, especially when it was dark and we were really overtired after our long flight.

Lalese, one of the workers at the Guest House, showed us to our room. We asked about a bed for Noah, as there was only a King sized bed and a crib in our room. She led us across the hall to show us where Noah could sleep....but none of us felt comfortable with that, so all three of us squished into the King sized bed and that is how we slept the rest of the time we were there! We woke to the sounds of dog fights about 3:30 a.m., followed by this strange singing that was broadcast on speakers around the city. We found out later this was Muslim prayer, which is done three times a day. By the end of the week we sort of looked forward to it. But on that first night it was pretty freaky! The dogs, we found out, were wild dogs....and they are EVERYWHERE in Addis Ababa. They just roam the city, along with sheep, cows and donkeys. On Monday we will meet the Better Futures Ethiopia Director who will take us to the orphanage to get Amelia.

Muslim temple speakers....

Wild dog sleeping.
Donkeys

Visa 37...finally at the Embassy!!

After two weeks of craziness...we are finally cleared to bring Amelia home!

Dear Ms. Fidlin,

According to the National Visa Center, the Visas 37 in your case was uploaded to Share Point (the computer database) yesterday. It is now available to Embassy Addis Ababa. I hope this information is of assistance.

Sincerely,
Ruth
Adoption Divison,
Office of Children's Issues
Overseas Citizens Services
Bureau of Consular Affairs
U.S. Department of State
Washington, D.C.

Three Days Till We Become a Family of Six!!

I'm finally back!! Sorry for the large gap in my blog, but I tend to post on FB as it is quick and easy to post little snippets. I am ready to start updating my blog more often now that we are ready to travel to get the newest Fiddlebug.

There are many things that are on my mind right now....
*Visa 37...will it arrive by tomorrow morning so we can travel?
*Praying for safe travels for us & safety while we are in Ethiopia.
*Hoping it will be a fun week for Caleb and Emma.
*Wanting to soak up all of the culture we can, so we will be able to teach others.

And the things on my heart....
*I pray that God will use this trip in a big way. I know this trip is not just about our adoption, but that God has an even bigger plan in all of it. I can't wait to see how He uses it for His Kingdom!!
*I pray for Amelia and all of the big changes that are about to happen in her life. I know God has it all worked out, but I pray that it goes smoothly.
*I pray for Amelia's birth family. We will likely get to meet them and I pray that God gives me the perfect words to say to them. How do you thank someone for the gift of their child?
*I pray for the other orphans at the orphanage and care center that we will meet. I pray that they will be in forever families soon.
*I pray for the staff of our adoption agency and all of the work they have done and continue to do for the orphans in Ethiopia.
*I thank God that He has placed the desire to adopt so heavy on our hearts, and that through the adoptions of Emma and Amelia He has reaveled to us more and more of who He is.

Blessings to you all!
Gina

Homeade Applesauce

Wow! Have a been a slacker with my blog, lately! Here are some photos of Caleb and Emma helping make homeade applesauce. Emma had so much fun cutting the apples all by herself. Our house smelled wonderful as the apples cooked away in my big slow cooker and after peeling and cutting two big bags of apples...we have only three containers of applesauce in the freezer. I can't believe how much the apples cook down!

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I am never in photos....and finally, this vacation, I ended up in some. I have way too many photos from our vacation to post this way. So, I wanted to post some photos of me with my family. I will post more vacation photos when I get a chance to put them into a slideshow.
Emma zonked out on our long bike ride in Marquette.

Emma and Mommy just a swingin'!

Me and my first baby Fiddlebug!

What a handsome young man!

Emma and Mommy.

Me and my man! ;)

Mommy and her Fiddlebugs!

Me and my sister, Becky.

Me and Caleb...ain't he cute?

Me, my little sissy and our dad!

Help Bring a Child Home

My friend, Terri, has a good friend who has an immediate need to raise money to bring home their daughter from Taiwan. Please consider donating to their adoption fund or check out Terri's raffle on her blog. All raffle money will be donated to the Johnson family's adoption. Also, please keep this family in your prayers.

Moving Along...

Here is the latest update on our Ethiopia adoption...straight from our agency:

Hello!
Just an update for you. Your dossier has been sent from our office to Washington D.C. yesterday, August 4, 2009. There it will be authenticated and then sent to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Once in Addis, the documents will need to be authenticated then translated into Amharic and then authenticated again before it reaches our office in Ethiopia. Please allow 2-3 weeks for this process. When your dossier is received in our office in Ethiopia, you will then be “officially waiting”. If you have any further questions feel free to contact us at any time. We hope you have a wonderful week!

Molly

Great news! We are praying for the health and safety of our daughter and her caretakers. We can't wait to get a referral with photos, soon, to see God's perfect match for us! Please continue to pray for our daughter.