life in Ethiopia - December 15th, Tuesday

Today came and went. We had tickets to fly out again tonight but couldn't again. Our travel agent is trying to get us something for Thursday night, but right now those flights are full. We still do not have Abrham's Visa. It's crazy. Remember how "Christine at Window 7" (that's what we call her) was going to do an investigation into whether Abrham's birth father was really who he was? Well she started the investigation, and from what we can tell all went well with witnesses from his village...but they had to write witness statements and fax them up here to the ebassy at the capital. Well, the fax machine at the embassy was down today, so no fax!!!! So we had to give up our flight out of here tonight, once again. It's just crazy how things are working out, but we are sticking to our "walk by faith, not by sight." When I initially put that on the blog I was referring to the process before this, not the Ethiopia part. I guess I thought we were done with the process once we got here to pick him up. Nope, it's been hard!!! He is so fun, though, and we love him a lot already - so worth it! We just want to come home. We want all 4 of us to step foot into that plane. Who cares about the day and a half we will have to travel, we just are looking forward to heading that direction.


Well, here's a little about today:

First of all I had a knot in my stomach all day as to whether we were going to get Abrham on that plane tonight. I woke up with it and it lasted until Christine at Window 7 told me over the phone about her fax problem. Oddly enough, once I talked to her, the knot went away...even though that was at 5:00 pm. We were supposed to head to the airport at 6:30 pm. I was actually in the van - just me, "T", and David. We were flying (and I mean flying!) through the city headed towards the embassy in a last ditch effort to meet with Christine at Window 7 because she hadn't returned my calls. She said we would talk at 3:00, but she "got busy"...errrgh! We were almost to the embassy when she called to talk to me on T's cell phone. She told me about the fax problem, but really encouraged me with these words - "I am very optomistic that all will be fine once I get the faxes. I just can't say yes to his Visa until I have them in my hand. Hopefully they will come through tonight or in the morning." I am hanging on to those words!!!

So we turned the van around, and I told T and David..."are you ready for my next problem?" That's when I told them that Ted had only eaten meat all day so that he wouldn't have carbs, and that he is an inuslin dependent diabetic....and that his insulin is almost gone.

Well, that started "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride" as they flew me through the town to get a prescription from the Transition Home doctor (yes, one of the ones that put the wrong age on Abrham's paperwork!!!). It was about a half hour ride of blazing around up and over things, in and out of little spaces, close misses of people and donkeys, off road, and wrong ways on streets to get me back here to pick up Ted. It was actually fun...they had a great attitude and were laughing the whole way, while sticking their heads out the window yelling "sorrrry" to people as we went.

We got back here to the guest house and they traded me for Ted, and went walking to a "pharmacy". That means a little shack along the street where people are trading their goods. And guess what..he got insulin!!! I feel way better about that. We will take a picture of the pharmacy for you!

This morning we were trying to keep our minds off the wait to hear from Christine at Window 7, so we called David to come and get us and take us "anywhere". We ended up going to lunch and then to the lion zoo. Abyssinian Lions...the ones with black manes. It was pretty cool. We had to pay a buck each to get in, then had to pay 2 bucks for our camera! Funny. It's crazy how close they let you get to a lion here. A person could stick their hand in the cage and touch it. One guy that worked there would blow on them as they were sleeping to get them to jump up and roar. Scary! Ted had one do that to him as he walked by. Minutes later the lion sprayed the people watching him. Gross!

Tomorrow we really want to find another pool or park to keep us busy. We miss everyone, but realize we are still getting the bonding time with Abrham that he and us need, so it's OK that we are still here.

Keep praying for Christine at Window 7 - and her fax machine!!!