Sharing the Rest of the Story...Part 1

So, hi there.  You probably thought this poor, neglected little blog was a thing of the past, and to tell you the truth, some days I thought it just might be.  Then I realized that even if no one else cares I want to document the details of the last part of our adoption journey to bring Simmie home.  And these posts will be filled with lots of details.

So here it goes- in several parts mind you.  My days are filled in a different sort of way now, and blogging is definitely not a top priority.

However, this is a pretty great story, and again, if no one else reads it, someday I will be happy that I took the time to write it....

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We passed court to become Simmie's parents during our first trip to Ethiopia on July 30th.  At that time is was becoming typical for families to expect to travel for their second trip to appear before the US embassy in 6-8 weeks.  Of course we were hoping for closer to 6, making it mid- September when we could return to pick up our son.  We actually did great the first month we were home, and then we began to miss him more and more everyday.  The baby showers began in late August and they found me sharing about his personality and how much we adored him.  The gifts we received and the baby "gear" we were collecting started taking over the house.  I had to get serious about decorating the nursery.  All the preparations highlighted the obvious- he wasn't home yet, and we didn't quite know when we would be.

The weeks kept piling up and the delays in getting our case to the embassy (so we could obtain the all-important visa to bring him to the U.S.) were adding up.  The prime minister of Ethiopia died, so the medical clinic was closed the day Simmie was scheduled to have his last exam for the embassy- so it had to be rescheduled.  Then once that paperwork was ready to be submitted the day our agency is assigned to appear (once a week) the embassy was closed (unannounced) for New Years Eve (New Years is Sept 11th in Ethiopia).  They were able to submit the paperwork a few days later, and we *thought* everything was OK, but when 3 working days (including a dreaded weekend) went by without word from the embassy we inquired about whether things were alright and found out that the embassy was requesting copies of our visas.  By this time we'd lost almost 2 weeks- UGH!  Once the visa copies were received we DID hear from the embassy via email stating that they were reviewing our case and would be in touch!  A couple of days later we received another email from them saying that they were requesting an interview with a key person in our case and it was set for 2.5 weeks away.  We were expecting the interview to be requested but were hoping it would be sooner than this.  The slight disappointment gave way to excitement since this meant that immediately after the interview our case should be complete and we would be CLEARED to travel and go get Simmie!

The interview was scheduled for Oct 10th, and we thought we would likely hear from the embassy that day or the next about our case.  This was to be the FINAL hurdle in our adoption!  We looked at flight options and decided to book changeable/ refundable tickets because even if things didn't go well and the interview needed to be rescheduled there would be three work days to do so between the interview and our desired flight that Sat. the 13th.  So, we focused on finishing up our fundraising, getting things set at work, and preparation to become parents in those two weeks leading up to the embassy interview.  We packed, and incessantly talked about how we couldn't wait to finally GO. GET. OUR. SON!  Anticipation for heading back to Ethiopia and getting ready filled our thoughts because the interview was just a formality. Right?!?

During the day on the 9th I anxiously waited to hear the news that the person to be interviewed in our case had arrived in the capital of Addis Ababa and was ready to head to the embassy the next morning.  Instead we found out that they did not make it to the city (as planned) but would be sure to be at the embassy and meet our staff representative at 7:30am the next morning.  This was not what we had hoped to hear, but we had to trust that all would be well and they would make it there as promised.  Since the time zone in Ethiopia is 8 hours ahead of CST where we live, the interview was scheduled to take place at approx 11pm on Oct 9th our time.  We prayed and that it would go smoothly and rallied many of our family and friends to join us in this request.  I was anticipating hearing via email from the embassy as early as that night, so I woke up several times throughout the night and checked my phone for the email we'd waited to receive for almost three years- the email that essentially said "all is well, come to Ethiopia to pick up your son!"  That night the email did not come...

To be continued...