Tuesday in Addis

Today, Tuesday, we were scheduled to visit the Mother Teresa Orphanage and the ALERT Hospital in the morning and then go back to the Transition Home to pick up our kids.  Flexibility seems to be a necessity for a trip of this nature, but everything works out well in the end.  As we loaded the bus we learned we would in fact be touring a coffee factory.  This was actually a great time and was very informative.  We got to see every step of the process.  The farmers' beans go through a series of sieves and conveyer belts which finally end up in a large room of ladies who sort the beans even more.  We learned the size of the bean correlates to the quality of the coffee.  They then bag some for export and others they roast before exporting, but not before the professional coffee taster (I might have missed my calling) roasts small batches to determine the final overall quality of the batch.  We were able to sample their wares and purchase some bags for the road.  The time passed fairly quickly so we were behind schedule and Apryl's stomach was quite upset, so we decided to skip the lunch out, head straight for the Transition Home, say goodbyes, pass out gifts and take our kids.  We then proceeded back to the hotel; some folks ate, but we decided to give our gullets a well deserved break.  Fetya required some extra pre-embassy medical attention, so she went with Fortuna to the Dr.'s office while we brought Josiah back to the hotel.  He is such a sweet baby, he took a nice bath and had some lunch.  The only time he's cried to date is when Apryl was a little slow on the draw with the bottle.  Fetya returned shortly before I had to meet our group in the lobby to complete the forms needed for our embassy appointment tomorrow.

 

(This is Apryl from here on out…Seth's leaving the hard part for me!)

I don't really have the emotional fortitude to recant the story of Fetya's mysterious health condition.  We got an email from Rachel many weeks ago about a medical concern, but it was somewhat resolved when an American pediatrician visited the home.  He allayed our worst fears and gave us something else to think about.  His diagnosis wasn't in agreement with the Ethiopian doctor. 

 

Evidently, we aren't completely in the clear for Fetya's health.  When the doctor for the embassy checked her out, he needed more information.  After seeing her for a third time, he wrote up the medical with details that will deem her 'special needs'.  He agreed with the initial diagnosis...the scary one.  We have been flooded with emotions; not really sure what is really going on with her. 

 

In order for our kids to leave the country—they must get visas from the embassy.  We have to have permission for them to come into the US.  We will only get permission if everything we said last year in our dossier matches the little tykes who show up at the appointment.  If anything is amiss, paperwork needs to be redone.  You see where I'm going?  We find out that our daughter is 'special needs' and if our homestudy doesn't match our kid—we can't leave for a while.  Seth came bursting into the hotel room searching through our homestudy trying to find where the child request statement would be.  As he looked he told me that we would need to contact our social worked to write an addendum to the homestudy and need another 171 from INS (this is the elusive document that takes weeks for families to get).  He assured me that it would go faster, probably requiring me to stay in Addis with the kids for another 5 days.  Before I could dwell too long on what he just said, he found the two most fantastic words in our homestudy "special needs".  We had asked our social worker to put in a statement about special needs, but weren't specific with any details.  I'm so glad that was there!  All is on target for leaving Friday night!

 

On the attachment/bonding front…Fetya has cried numerous times today.  She didn't want Fortuna the nurse to leave her, she didn't want Selam (friend who is being adopted and at the Hilton) to leave, or Rachel…and she was even willing to go off with the waiter who spoke Amharic to her in hushed tones while trying to calm her after her Daddy made a funny face that scared the jeepers out of her.  Thankfully, she's willing to bear being with me.  She's not so happy when I refuse to let any of the above people take her away.  I'm getting a lot of shoulder shrugging and averted eyes, but I'm being persistent.  She's my daughter and I need her to start understanding it.  Her Daddy had to learn a hard lesson tonight.  She refused to sit near him, look at him, or accept food from him after the whole "funny face that terrified me" incident.  We made a relatively quick exit from dinner and she relented a bit before bed.  He was allowed to sit next to her on the bed while we read books, but no touching, please.  We have high hopes for tomorrow.  Swimming and the playground in the morning then embassy in the afternoon.