We're just under two and a half days out.
You'd think the drama would be over, but not with this adoption. It's gonna go all the way until zero hour. Our adoption agency has seen to that.
On Monday, our US Embassy appointment in Addis Ababa for Monday the 29th was confirmed. We're set there, a big relief. But, last week we were told we needed to fill out an addendum to our immigration adoption paperwork (allowing us to bring an orphan into the US) saying that we're okay with adopting a 1 year old since we initially requested a baby under 6 months. This was something we were unaware was needed (and are still unsure why it's needed. We requested under 6 months, but didn't say anything about rejecting over 6 months...plus we were matched with Chloë back when she was only a month old). It certainly could've (correction: should've) been filled out anytime in the prior 6 months (hell, we officially accepted her when she was 7 months old, that seems like a perfect time to file such an addendum). But, we weren't informed of it until last week. Someone screwed the pooch. You'd think our files would be reviewed more often, or further out from travelling than a week.
The addendum needed to go to the Salt Lake immigration field office. It was overnight Friday and got there yesterday. It was requested to be expedited, but even that doesn't seem to be fast enough as things haven't progressed at all in a day, and now our adoption agency has contacted one of our senators for help.
We won't know if he'll be able to assist us in any meaningful way until this afternoon at the earliest, and likely not until tomorrow. I suppose we can only prepare as if we're flying out in two days and hope everything can get squared away between now and than. There's a pretty good possibility we'll be travelling to Ethiopia before anything gets resolved, and perhaps even land in Ethiopia before we'll know for sure if we're good to go. Julee's mom arrives tonight (she's staying with our dog so he won't have to be kenneled since he's so old now) and we're hoping it wasn't for naught.
The last time we were overjoyed about this thing was back in May when we were matched with her. It's been nothing but a nightmare since. Seems we still can't catch a break.
My guess is we get on that plane in two days. And will not really know if things are good to go until we land in Ethiopia. We can only hope that everything gets worked out and we're able to proceed, and not told to fly back home. That would be really bad.
Keep your eyes peeled on Saturday for any kind of international incident occurring in Addis Ababa. If you hear of something to do with an American couple misbehaving at the Addis Ababa airport that might just be us being told we need to fly back home.
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2 comments:
I've gotta reiterate what I've suspected in the past-- these last few months since the acceptance have been some sort of elaborate psycho-social experiment to see how well you can withstand stress. To see if you'll be good parents; or like guppies, which I think might eat their babies before they can grow up. I think you're getting on that plane. And I think you're coming back with the cutest baby in all of Ethiopia. I KNOW IT!
Thanks Gina.
Things move fast here. We're getting on that plane. That's been confirmed. There still may be a problem when we arrive, but we will not be turned back. The worst case is we have to go back to the Embassy a few days later (Wednesday or so) but that's fine because we'll still be in country then. We're hopeful for the first time. I still can't sleep, but that's not really unexpected.
Now, I just gotta make it through these flights.
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