Ethiopia Trip Day 3

I guess I should have finished Day 2....we landed in Addis around 7 pm and made it through the airport with relative ease. Thankfully I had my notes from an online seminar with our adoption agency, and -specifically- I knew that once we went down the escalator, but before immigration and luggage, the place to get our visa would be to the left. It was a small door, seemingly inconspicuous, but it was where we needed to get our visa. There was only one person in front of us and we were able to get our visa in minutes. When we exited the little room, the line was LONG and just about every American from the plane was in it! We made it to our hotel around 9pm and although we were EXHAUSTED we found it very hard (try impossible) to sleep that night. I'm not sure if it was the excitement/anxiety about the next day, the dogs barking somewhere outside (actually they bothered Jamie more than me) or the adrenaline rush needed to take our luggage up 4 flights of stairs!

So we woke up Monday morning (after our nap-seriously felt like that) and needed to be ready for the driver from CWA by 9am. We had a quick breakfast downstairs (our guest home served meals and we ended up eating all of ours there, no time to go out with a baby!) and then it was back upstairs (4 flights...I wish I counted how many times we went up/down a day...it must be why my own stairs don't wind me with a 18 lb. baby attached to the hip!) to pack the baby bag. Due to lack of sleep and trying to drink as much coffee as they had, I was a jittery mess doing this. I think throughout the whole process of adoption, there are always so many details to keep you busy at each stage that I hadn't done any thinking about this next one...and it was minutes away! We also knew that we would be with Joshua for a couple hours, so I frantically tried to make sure we had anything we might need.
Diapers and wipes-check
Bottles, formula, and bottled water-check
Change of clothes (for Joshua that is), make that 2, make that 3-check
Bibs-check
Toys-check
Blanket-check
Changing pad-check
Pacifiers, two types-check
Embassy paperwork-check
Black pens (for said paperwork)-double check (v. important-black ink only!)
Passports-check
US $$-check

After picking up the other family staying at the guest home's other location, we were on our way to CWAE! (Christian World Adoption Ethiopia) We were three families total in the van and we were the only family picking up an infant, and the only family just picking up one child! As we are driving we were taking pictures of Addis Ababa - and these would turn out to be the only pictures we took outside our guest home. When we arrived at the CWAE offices, the children were waiting for all of us. (The children being adopted, that is) The other two families's children came outside for a teary introduction (all us adults being the teary ones!) and we entered the office to see a little baby sleeping on someone's shoulder. I couldn't believe it....this was it!! And like that, they handed baby Joshua to me. He just fit on my shoulder and kept on sleeping. It was a very surreal moment....this baby is ours, from now till forever. He kept on sleeping, even being passed back and forth from Jamie to myself as we completed paperwork and final details.

The pictures here are of those first moments. I'll never forget, he seemed so little! With all the pictures we got through email, I could never tell how big he was. But just curled up on my shoulder, I was speechless with wonder of this little guy.

To be honest, I don't really remember much of the rest of the day. They took us to see the boys and girls homes and we saw the little bed where Joshua had been those past few weeks. I noticed he was in the girls home...I never asked why, maybe that is just where all the babies were. I don't remember seeing any other babies there that day. Lollipops were passed out to the children who were there. (They were all waiting for their new parents....they are moved from outlying CWAE orphanages to Addis once their parents pass court) Joshua got lots of hugs and kisses from the nannies who had taken care of him and I could tell by his smiles for them that he was loved and loved on!

We went back to the guest home and spent the rest of the afternoon just getting to know each other. Jamie and I got lots of practice making bottles (Joshua ate every two hours, even through the night!) and changing diapers...and just spent time gazing into those beautiful brown eyes and eliciting a smile or laugh.

Ethiopia Trip Day 1 and 2

Well, here it is...my attempt to finally put on our blog our trip to Ethiopia. It was filled with lots of ups and downs, lots and lots of prayer and the longest continuous amount of time we were without sleep!

We left on Saturday, February 14th (surely a Valentine's to remember!) from Charlotte, NC. Our flight was mid-day so after arriving at the airport with plenty of time to check in, we had a leisurely sit-down lunch at the airport Chili's and then enjoyed relaxing in the airport rocking chairs. It was a nice breather before our long journey!

Our flight was just about an hour to Washington D.C. and there we had a 4-5 hour layover. While in the D.C. airport, we met up with another couple who was picking up their two daughters in Ethiopia, who were also with our same adoption agency. We had dinner together and then left on an evening Ethiopian Air flight that would make a stop in Rome (ahhhh, Rome, memories of our honeymoon...) to refuel, change crew and then head into Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The flight there was 15 hours. A nice tail wind helped us get there 2 hours faster than our return trip!

Addis Ababa is 8 hours ahead of us and so we landed in Ethiopia Sunday evening, around 7 pm local time. Neither Jamie or I could sleep on the plane, despite many tries to get in a comfortable position. I just cannot sleep sitting up! And let's be honest, that "reclining" seat you get on a coach ticket doesn't really do anything. Needless to say, we are dead tired. But it was beautiful heading in to Addis at night. It is in the mountains, and the sky was black with twinkling lights all over the city. I don't really know how to describe it, but I hope I never forget it.

Once we made it over the Atlantic, the flight was mostly during day-light hours, so some beautiful sights from air were the French Alps, the Sahara and the Nile River!

The Nile river is that squiggly line you can barely see in the first pic. and the Alps are in the second!

Some pictures from our recent snow day! It is the most snow we have had since we moved to N.C. The Volvo is Jamie's "new" car!!

Here are some pictures from the past few days....

First Doctor Visit

Our first visit to our pediatrician was today. Joshua is doing great! He weighs 17 lbs. 12 oz and is 28 inches long! (No wonder why some of his clothes doesn't fit already!)

The tough part was when they tried to draw blood. Because if was his first visit, there were so many things they needed blood for and his little veins in his arms were not detectable. Two different nurses tried but to no avail. (But plenty of wail!) It was the hardest thing to go through, as I am sure any of you parents out there know. He was just red and sweating and screaming while they were trying to get a vein....on both arms.....and then went for the heel and tried to squeeze it out of him. Finally the poor nurse said "That's it....no more." (Not that she got what she needed, but that she couldn't get any more blood and put him through it any longer) Needless to say he fell asleep in the car on the way home. :(

Hopefully when we go back in two days (to read his TB test and return his "samples") they will not have to do that again.

On a good note, yesterday was a breakthrough on eating! Finally at lunch time he seemed to understand what to do with his tongue and get that rice cereal down. :0) This morning at breakfast, he had his mouth open and waiting for the spoon!

I still will try and post a brief synopsis of our trip....hopefully later this week. It is better to wait until it is more of a memory....it was a pretty rough time.

We are back home! We made it (FINALLY) back to Charlotte about 5:15pm yesterday. Unfortunately our last flight, of which we already had a 5 hour layover to wait for, was 3 1/2 hours late. Anyway, we are doing well. Joshua has stolen our hearts. I will slowly try to post about our trip...I am still severly sleep deprived. (I cannot sleep on planes, and our travel took us over 24 hours....)

More later...

WE made it. Just a quick hi...going to get Joshua in an hour!

The day is here! We leave for the airport in a little more than two hours. Then we fly from Charlotte to D.C. Tonight we board an airline for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. From D.C. it is about a 15 hour flight.

We will meet up with another couple in D.C. who is also adopting through CWA and who is on our same flight. I have plenty of magazines, books, cards, crossword puzzles, to keep me busy while I am not sleeping. Oh, and my husband too - (smile, it's Valentine's Day). The past week(s) our conversations have been so centered on preparation for this trip that it will be nice to take a deep breath and relax.

I did happen to wake up with a "crick" in my neck. Of all days! I am believing that it will go away quickly. (Maybe carrying a backpack and carry-on bag will help-ha)

We can't wait to meet Joshua Monday morning! And now I better go!! We'll try to post if we can from our guest home. If not, we'll be back in 7 days!

Today is the last day before we leave! We got the bulk of packing done yesterday. Hooray! Today I am just finishing up with last bits and the bags we will actually "carry on" the plane. I ended up buying two duffel-type bags yesterday because I realized the ones we had were too small. We are each allotted two bags, 50lbs. each, and I have three filled to about 45-47lbs. and the last one is almost finished.

It had been exciting reading on another adoptive parent's blog this week because they are in Ethiopia this week (actually leaving to return home today) and have been staying in the exact same room Jamie and I will be staying at (and adopting through CWA as well). On one of the webboards, she has been posting various events of the days there. She even sent a heads up of things she wish she had packed, that I immediately put in our bag! So that has been fun, since we will be following the same steps this upcoming week!

Praise God we received another unexpected donation! Well, I guess God was planning it all along, but isn't it good to be the recipient of His blessings! I am therefore headed to bank and Target for one last time! :) Hopefully while there this morning, I will get a phone call that I want to get, telling me that yesterday's issues have been cleared up. I have a peace that this will be fine.

I'm not sure if I will be able to post any updates while we are in Ethiopia. I know the Guest Home does have access to the internet, however we are not taking a computer so I am not sure if we will have access to one. Who knows?

We are hoping to meet some family members of one of Jamie's students while in Addis Ababa! I really hope we get the opportunity to meet them. When visiting any foreign country it is always better to see it from a local perspective!

Adoption is not for the faint of heart! This morning, as I was in Target picking up yet more things for our trip I received the phone call I did not want to get. I had heard this could happen, had seen 'from a glance' on other people's blogs, etc., and KNOW that there are bumps along the way. I just wasn't expecting one this late in the game. What is it you wonder?

Our case worker was notified that the embassy in A.A. has claimed not to have received our approval notice from the National Visa Center. This is a very KEY part of the paperwork as we cannot take our son out of his birth country without their say so - and his visa. Now, we have been approved (months ago) and have paperwork saying they were sending this information to the appropriate offices in A.A. (Which is their responsibility).

What does this mean?

Well, it means after I hurried home from Target I called my US State Senator's office. I requested that they help me expedite a cable being resent ASAP stating our USCIS approval. I then raced to the closest fax machine, at Staples, and sent them the paperwork I have showing approval on my end. The woman in the Senator's office is then sending it ??? wherever it needs to go and after she hears from them, she will contact me.

I decided from the very beginning that this was a test and I am trying very hard not to completely panic and flip out. Even writing this post is an attempt to stay relaxed and methodical about this. Needless to say, it is not helping my ability to pack, which I absolutely have to do today. I am not going to sleep this evening until it is DONE. So, if you are reading this and would like to pray for us, please pick any of the above! :)

We leave for the airport in less than 48 hours. This has to get resolved in the next 24.

I am still praising God!

The nursery is done. Check. The baby clothes is washed. Check. The car seat is in the car. Check. The suitcases are packed. UNCHECK. Can you guess what I need to do????

Who can resist this face??? We just received some more pictures of JWH. I didn't think we would get any more before we travel, since we leave in 11 days. What an unexpected blessing!!

I am finally getting excited!!!! Today our adoption agency had a conference call for all families traveling in the next few weeks and it was good to hear some of the details of what to expect on our trip to Addis Ababa. (Funny enough, I have recently realized that I have been pronouncing the capital's name wrong - with an accent on the middle syllable [in Ababa], instead of the accent on the first syllable!) I got to "meet" some wonderful ladies that are in one of the web-board's I'm in. And even more fascinating is that everyone that was on that call is staying at the SAME guest home. Although we are not all traveling the same week. If you want to check out the website, it is: www.ethiopiaguesthome.com We are very excited to be staying there!

Now that is not to say that I have not been excited since passing court. That day was right up there with the same excitement I felt when we got our referral. The kind of day you just can't eat or sleep because you have so many good endorphines rushing through your body! I think that since then I have had so MANY emotions going on that none of them were really dominant. Excitement would be there one moment and then fear would rear it's head. Anxiety would stop by and peace would pop in. Relief would be quickly followed by nervousness. And any others that you can think of ;). But today, excitement got a big push ahead and is currently in the lead!

If you are wondering, I made a dent in the nasty paperwork I talked about earlier. I consider myself half-way through the revolution and will prevail with complete domination (hopefully) tomorrow!

We are very close to being able to completely finish this adoption without going into debt and as Jamie and I talked this evening about where we are financially and what our costs will be over the trip, we were buoyed by what the Lord has done for us so far. So many people have been so generous to us with their prayers and gifts. I feel like all our friends and people at church and people from work are now honorary family members! To think that our little boy is half-way around the world and has no idea how many people love him.

I think that is all for now. Just a silent shout out to my friend who checks this blog daily. You know who you are :} I owe you a mocha latte!

We just got JWH's birth certificate...it's pretty exciting to see the official document stating us as the Mother and Father! And there is the cutest little picture of our son with this deadpan, straight ahead, serious look on his face. (Kinda like his daddy's driver's license photo! haha)

We also got our "tickets" in the mail today from our travel agent, Susan Parr. While we don't technically need them as they are e-tickets (aren't they all now-a-days), they gave us a nice, yet small zippered holder thing that will be good to keep all our travel documents in!

So now I have to get down to filling in the rest of the paperwork and making sure we have copies of everything we need for our Embassy appointment. I'll admit I am stalling even now. I started filling everything out a few weeks ago and got stuck on some of the information needed and now Queen of Procrastination Land has been reigning. We are trying to de-throne her today! Pray for a successful coup!

We purchased our plane tickets yesterday! We are officially headed to Addis Ababa on Saturday, February 14th! It will definitely be a Valentine's Day to remember! We will be flying on Ethiopian Air and I hope to have an UNeventful plane trip! It takes around 30 hours to get there (that includes stop over time in DC and Rome). We arrive in Addis Sunday evening. Since it will be so late, we will just head to the hotel and sleep. I think we will go to the care center the next day to see/get Joshua! Our Embassy appointment is the following day (Tuesday). Then, we leave to return home late Friday evening, finally returning home on Saturday afternoon. We debated whether or not to get a seat on the plane for Joshua on the return trip. Finances weighed out over sanity, so hopefully the plane will not be full on the way home and no one will be sitting with us, therefore giving us the extra seat without the extra fare (which was pretty significant!). I hear that the airline has a bassinet in the bulkhead that they give to parents traveling with infants, however they will not reserve them and it is first come, first serve when you check in for your flight. There are three available on the plane. We'll see what happens there!

Now we are getting down to the business of preparing for the trip. I need to start packing so I can figure out how to pack what we need in the amount of luggage we can bring and keep the bags under 50lbs. I have gotten used to driving and just packing the whole house in the back of the car! We also want to take over donations for the orphanage in Addis. Our case worker let us know that there are shortages of diapers, wipes and formula in Addis. This then drives the price up for the small supply they do have. We are planning to take a bag of just these items and then have that "extra" bag space to bring back things we may purchase there (coffee!).

Slowly but surely we are getting ready!

Welcome Joshua Wazema!

Pictures go from youngest to oldest (most recent from Dec.)

I can't figure out how to get them in reverse order, or how to move this text to the top. Haha!

But I really don't care! :)

WE PASSED COURT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Court date has arrived!

This is our rallying "call to arms." Our adoption court date in Addis Ababa is this Wednesday. Due to the time difference, we are asking for your prayers today. The reality is that 50% of cases pass the first time. There is nothing we can do to control the outcome of this. But we do believe in the power of prayer and are asking that if you happen to think of us as you go about your day, please say a prayer that we would have the opportunity to be united with our son as quickly as possible.

Thank you so much. We will send word as soon as we hear something!

8 days and counting.....that is, until our court date! We are asking friends and family to pray that we will be successful and can bring our son home soon! Since Ethiopia is 7 hours ahead of us, I hope to hear something before lunch time (???) on the 14th. Jamie was called for Jury Duty that whole week, and I will be his "sub" at school. So unless he gets let go from that earlier in the week, there is a good chance I will be working. Now we are not supposed to answer cell phones in the classroom (OBVIOUSLY), but I am hoping to get an exemption for that one call, and that I can get service in the room!

I can't believe how fast the month of December went by. Yesterday I went to Passport Health to get more vaccinations (my total count is 7 so far, and I will get one more in a month!). None of them hurt, but you do get that achey feeling in the arm for a day or so. I wish I would have known about that place before we went to our doctors....as expensive as it is, it is much cheaper than the doctors. Our insurance is still "pending" but seeing as it hardly covers basic visits, I can't imagine it paying for my typhoid shot!

Today I am working on moving closets. We have every nook and cranny of our house filled. I don't think I will clear out the whole closet in the soon-to-be nursery, but I want to get enough room to put the little dresser my sister is giving us in the closet and have the hanging space above it for a few clothing items. Luckily we are adding a son, and all the cutesy clothes temptations are narrowed significantly! (who can resist smocking and peter pan collars on the little girl dresses-I know not me)

Well, I better get back to work....I've got to go to work (school) later this week and today and tomorrow are my only days free!