Happy Monday!

Sunday November 13, 2011

Our first night with Zeland and he slept through the night. Once again we are blessed. He is so much like is big sister. Lily was a great sleeper from day one. Zeland also loves his friend-feel (Lily's name for her blankets with silk edges). This morning at breakfast we met a couple from St. Paul Minnesota. They are here to adopt a 12-year-old boy and they have a 17-year-old daughter back home that they adopted from Ethiopia five years ago. They were headed to pick up their son Bereket after breakfast. They were very excited.  On another note at this point we have still had no word on our luggage despite several attempts at phone calls and e-mails so I decided to be proactive. I hired a driver to take me to the airport so I could check in person to see if our luggage had arrived. Sure enough it was there in a room with about 1,000 other bags. I crawled over bags until I found ours and then I was back at the guesthouse in time for lunch. It was like Christmas we were so excited to go though our belongings. After lunch we all took naps. When we woke up the couple we met at breakfast brought their son by to meet us. He is a very handsome sweet boy and seemed very excited about living in the US with his new family. They invited us to join them for dinner to celebrate the new additions to our families. We took them up on their offer, as we were ready for a night out on the town. They have been here several times before so they chose a place they had been to in the past. It was a restaurant located in an art gallery. The food was great and so was the art. It was an eclectic place like so many here in Addis. We had Nile perch and a pepperoni pizza, although I am still not convinced it was pepperoni. We had great conversation over dinner with our new friends. Bereket devoured a small pizza all by himself to be 12 again. After dinner we strolled around looking at all of the art on the walls and then it was time to return to the guesthouse. The driver took a scenic route back that brought us up a mountain that had fantastic views of the city, which was all lit up. Once back at the guesthouse I tried to find a channel with NFL games but I had no luck. I suppose I am better off since I needed the sleep and kick-off for the 1:00pm games was 9:00pm here. It would have made for a late night.

                                                       My First Bath

                                                                        New P.J. s

Happy Monday:

Zeland once again slept through the night, as did we. It was much more peaceful than the previous night, no dogs, planes or other interruptions. We woke up early to prepare for the big event our visa appointment for Zeland. We were told that it would be a long day so we packed enough for an overnight. While eating breakfast at the guesthouse we watched an eighties classic and one of my favorites "Pump Up The Volume" not a bad way to start the day. Once our driver arrived we began our journey to the USE here in Addis. It was a long drive to the other side of the city with many things to see along the way. Once we arrived at the USE we received a number and found a place to stand in a room packed full of Ethiopians and adoptive families. We met a couple from Canada that had been in Addis for five weeks waiting for approval, which I must say made us a little nervous. Then we saw our friends from the guest house Charles, Sarah and their son Bereket. They were on their way out after receiving their approval. Our wait was over very quickly, after only 30 minutes they called our name and we proceeded to the window.  It took just minutes and that was it Zeland is cleared for travel to the US. The woman at the window told us that we are one of just three adoptive families that have cleared in the case of abandonment over the past several months. We felt lucky, thankful and sad for our friends that we trveled with in July who have not yet received their clearance from the USE. On the way back to the guesthouse we asked to the driver to stop at our favorite coffee shop Kaldi’s for caramel macchiatos. They were just as amazing as we remembered. Once we got back it was lunchtime for Zeland. He love his food as you can probably tell from the bath photo now its naptime stay tuned for more!