Thanks for visiting our blog about our journey to adopt our son from Ethiopia! It's been a long process and we are finally blessed to share the stories from the other side of the earth, in beautiful Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Catch up on previous post to this series by clicking Part 1 and Part 2 Meeting Our Son and Part 3 Warming Up and Part 4 Company and Culture, and Part 5 Seeing Growth. Don't miss Part 6 Taking Custody!
Before we are able to travel home to the U.S. there are many steps that still need to take place. We have decided to stay in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia while these steps are happening. Todd must go back to work after 2 weeks stay, but our daughter and I can stay a little longer if we need too. Now that we made the decision to take Tarik out of the foster home, my daughter and I will be in country for as long as it may take to get Tarik home. This could be a month, maybe more, maybe less depending on all things that are not in our control. Our current flight out is on Saturday giving us one week to get all our papers ready, embassy approved, and fly out together.
The stress being in country was more than we imagined. The unknowns, the lack of control or schedule, and hopes to just be finished and be home together- it was intense. There were so many obstacles still lined up in front of us that we felt like we were once again standing with our toes in the Red Sea and only God's power was going to part these waters in front of us. Toes in! We had to call on faith and just believe that God was going to pull through. Now, after years of prayer, was go time.
In order for us to get home, we need to first have the birth certificate, passport, doctor clearance, and the court decree. We had already had the birth certificate picture taken, the passport picture taken and now for the doctor clearance. Tarik and I were taken to the doctor appointment. The prayer request here is that Tarik passes as being under two years old. He is under two years but very close to turning two. What's the big deal? Under two years and the tuberculosis test is read same day versus older than two years and the test has to be sent away and can take 2 more days to clear. This is time we just don't have to wait. God steps in and gets us to the right doctor that allows us to pass under two years old physical. Thank God!
Next, we need a certain number from the US immigration. Problem being? Internet in Ethiopia is very, very sketchy and even when we can get information emailed to our agency in the U.S. there is the time lapse issue. We are at night and day differences so when offices are open in the U.S. they are closed in Ethiopia. This was very difficult. God steps in and opens this door! Our number comes through in time for the next step to begin.
What's next? We get news that our court decree is completed and has been submitted to the US Embassy for review. Problem. The embassy found a wrong date on the court papers. Start over.
Now we need a new court decree. This is easier than it sounds. Paperwork is a nightmare. Getting a new one, I can't imagine the run around. Getting what paperwork we did, means driving it there, getting into an office appointment, hoping the people you need to see are in, getting approval, then driving the new paper to translations. And yeh, can I add that after collecting all these important as gold papers then driving up to a literal shack made of orange tarps and it's the "translation office," um, I was near hyperventilating over it all. Plus, it was raining, pouring rain outside to deliver this new court decree. Tomorrow, it should be corrected and ready for pick up.
Next we face the U.S. Embassy. After the new court decree was turned in and accepted, we can have all of our paperwork submitted to the U.S. Embassy to review again and then call us in for an interview. Problem: Our agency can only submit to the embassy on Mondays and Wednesdays. You miss Wednesday and yes, we wait the rest of the week and weekend until next Monday. Already, we missed our flight. Prayer and plead: Lord please let our papers get to the U.S. Embassy on time and on Wednesday! GOD DID IT again and got those papers to the embassy despite many many road blocks that are too confusing to mention. Just know, it was awful and impossible.
The Internet is not our friend. We get barely any service and when we do, you should see the families in the guest house make a mad dash for their phones! About 5 minutes at a time of Internet and maybe 15 minutes if lucky! Best time for Internet service was in the evening. Worst time to try to communicate with the embassy over email - they close. No phone calls aren't an option as the embassy will only communicate via email. You miss your email, you miss your interview, you miss your ticket home.
So let me recap, Wednesday we got submitted to embassy after a paper mistake was redone. Friday the embassy is closed and Saturday is our flight out together. We need an interview and then 48 hours for Tarik's visa to process before we can leave. Impossible again. We pray.
All Thursday we are waiting for the internet to come on. It doesn't signal until near 6 in the evening. The good news? Embassy emailed us and we have an interview for Friday morning! WHAT?? This rarely happens and Friday usually means no visa processing. Ok, thanking GOD for this, but can I ask more? We need our visa on Friday too and not to wait over the weekend, or we miss our flight out together. Up against the impossible.
Friday morning we arrive at the U.S. Embassy and the offices look like a piece of American Heaven. The bathrooms are lovely after what we have been used to, and can I say that there was green grass in the court yard too! It made me long for home! We wait to be seen. The man calls us up to the counter after we waited a very long time. Turns out the fellow who called us in for a Friday interview, got called out on an emergency. Thankfully, this other fellow was going to take our case. He asked us questions then asked us, "did we meet our son before court?" Oh not this again. Problem is, if we weren't approved, then Tarik would enter the U.S. a non-citizen and we would have to apply for citizenship. No more paper work please! THANK GOD and this time I cried, since we both appeared before court together then we were approved for the type of visa that would allow Tarik to be an automatic citizen when we touched U.S. soil! THEN, the visa situation. Now we could have been told that it would take another 48 hours to process the visa. NOT with GOD! - the fellow said, "things are going well today, so wait about 20 minutes and we'll have that visa for you." ONLY GOD! PRAISING THE LORD!! Crying again. So very grateful!! We can go home together tomorrow!!!
Or can we? After total excitement and coming back to the guest house to pack up, I get this sense that we should check on Tarik's plane ticket home. I tried to email our travel agent in the U.S. but hadn't received a response. Who knows if he got the request. We called the airline and they said we had to go to their office and this couldn't be checked at the airport. Thank the Lord for friends. We called our friend Tamiru and asked if he could help out. We needed a ride to the airline office at the Hilton Hotel and we needed his help in translating our need.
Tamiru saved the day and drove us to the Hilton. A beautiful hotel and resort area we found airline's office. Asking about Tarik's flight ticket, we come to find out that yes, our request for a ticket was made, but there was a mistake. Tarik's name (we are still going with his given name Rebira at this point) was spelled wrong. This means, his ticket doesn't match his passport and he will not be allowed to board the plane. Oh. my. good. God. please get us out of this one!! The embassy had to be called and all kinds of arrangements cleared and made so that the ticket name could be changed. Can you imagine if we didn't find this out until Saturday when boarding the plane? We would have missed our flight. Embassy is closed on Saturdays and we would have been back at the guest house waiting. More than that, flights are so booked being that everyone is traveling back to the U.S. for the end of summer, that flights were closed and fully booked up to 2 weeks out. Thank the LORD he helped us out of this mess again!! Move those waters!!
Only our great big God could've helped us home. After this very long Friday, we had a wonderful dinner with our friends before packing up the guest house room we have called home.
More to come.... Read our part 8: Sight Seeing where we capture some of the places we visited before part 9: Coming home!!
Thank you again for all the prayers lifted up for our family! Can you see how God worked?? Amazing and we are ever grateful to Him for carrying us through it all!
Before we are able to travel home to the U.S. there are many steps that still need to take place. We have decided to stay in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia while these steps are happening. Todd must go back to work after 2 weeks stay, but our daughter and I can stay a little longer if we need too. Now that we made the decision to take Tarik out of the foster home, my daughter and I will be in country for as long as it may take to get Tarik home. This could be a month, maybe more, maybe less depending on all things that are not in our control. Our current flight out is on Saturday giving us one week to get all our papers ready, embassy approved, and fly out together.
The stress being in country was more than we imagined. The unknowns, the lack of control or schedule, and hopes to just be finished and be home together- it was intense. There were so many obstacles still lined up in front of us that we felt like we were once again standing with our toes in the Red Sea and only God's power was going to part these waters in front of us. Toes in! We had to call on faith and just believe that God was going to pull through. Now, after years of prayer, was go time.
In order for us to get home, we need to first have the birth certificate, passport, doctor clearance, and the court decree. We had already had the birth certificate picture taken, the passport picture taken and now for the doctor clearance. Tarik and I were taken to the doctor appointment. The prayer request here is that Tarik passes as being under two years old. He is under two years but very close to turning two. What's the big deal? Under two years and the tuberculosis test is read same day versus older than two years and the test has to be sent away and can take 2 more days to clear. This is time we just don't have to wait. God steps in and gets us to the right doctor that allows us to pass under two years old physical. Thank God!
Next, we need a certain number from the US immigration. Problem being? Internet in Ethiopia is very, very sketchy and even when we can get information emailed to our agency in the U.S. there is the time lapse issue. We are at night and day differences so when offices are open in the U.S. they are closed in Ethiopia. This was very difficult. God steps in and opens this door! Our number comes through in time for the next step to begin.
What's next? We get news that our court decree is completed and has been submitted to the US Embassy for review. Problem. The embassy found a wrong date on the court papers. Start over.
Now we need a new court decree. This is easier than it sounds. Paperwork is a nightmare. Getting a new one, I can't imagine the run around. Getting what paperwork we did, means driving it there, getting into an office appointment, hoping the people you need to see are in, getting approval, then driving the new paper to translations. And yeh, can I add that after collecting all these important as gold papers then driving up to a literal shack made of orange tarps and it's the "translation office," um, I was near hyperventilating over it all. Plus, it was raining, pouring rain outside to deliver this new court decree. Tomorrow, it should be corrected and ready for pick up.
Next we face the U.S. Embassy. After the new court decree was turned in and accepted, we can have all of our paperwork submitted to the U.S. Embassy to review again and then call us in for an interview. Problem: Our agency can only submit to the embassy on Mondays and Wednesdays. You miss Wednesday and yes, we wait the rest of the week and weekend until next Monday. Already, we missed our flight. Prayer and plead: Lord please let our papers get to the U.S. Embassy on time and on Wednesday! GOD DID IT again and got those papers to the embassy despite many many road blocks that are too confusing to mention. Just know, it was awful and impossible.
The Internet is not our friend. We get barely any service and when we do, you should see the families in the guest house make a mad dash for their phones! About 5 minutes at a time of Internet and maybe 15 minutes if lucky! Best time for Internet service was in the evening. Worst time to try to communicate with the embassy over email - they close. No phone calls aren't an option as the embassy will only communicate via email. You miss your email, you miss your interview, you miss your ticket home.
So let me recap, Wednesday we got submitted to embassy after a paper mistake was redone. Friday the embassy is closed and Saturday is our flight out together. We need an interview and then 48 hours for Tarik's visa to process before we can leave. Impossible again. We pray.
All Thursday we are waiting for the internet to come on. It doesn't signal until near 6 in the evening. The good news? Embassy emailed us and we have an interview for Friday morning! WHAT?? This rarely happens and Friday usually means no visa processing. Ok, thanking GOD for this, but can I ask more? We need our visa on Friday too and not to wait over the weekend, or we miss our flight out together. Up against the impossible.
Friday morning we arrive at the U.S. Embassy and the offices look like a piece of American Heaven. The bathrooms are lovely after what we have been used to, and can I say that there was green grass in the court yard too! It made me long for home! We wait to be seen. The man calls us up to the counter after we waited a very long time. Turns out the fellow who called us in for a Friday interview, got called out on an emergency. Thankfully, this other fellow was going to take our case. He asked us questions then asked us, "did we meet our son before court?" Oh not this again. Problem is, if we weren't approved, then Tarik would enter the U.S. a non-citizen and we would have to apply for citizenship. No more paper work please! THANK GOD and this time I cried, since we both appeared before court together then we were approved for the type of visa that would allow Tarik to be an automatic citizen when we touched U.S. soil! THEN, the visa situation. Now we could have been told that it would take another 48 hours to process the visa. NOT with GOD! - the fellow said, "things are going well today, so wait about 20 minutes and we'll have that visa for you." ONLY GOD! PRAISING THE LORD!! Crying again. So very grateful!! We can go home together tomorrow!!!
Or can we? After total excitement and coming back to the guest house to pack up, I get this sense that we should check on Tarik's plane ticket home. I tried to email our travel agent in the U.S. but hadn't received a response. Who knows if he got the request. We called the airline and they said we had to go to their office and this couldn't be checked at the airport. Thank the Lord for friends. We called our friend Tamiru and asked if he could help out. We needed a ride to the airline office at the Hilton Hotel and we needed his help in translating our need.
Tamiru saved the day and drove us to the Hilton. A beautiful hotel and resort area we found airline's office. Asking about Tarik's flight ticket, we come to find out that yes, our request for a ticket was made, but there was a mistake. Tarik's name (we are still going with his given name Rebira at this point) was spelled wrong. This means, his ticket doesn't match his passport and he will not be allowed to board the plane. Oh. my. good. God. please get us out of this one!! The embassy had to be called and all kinds of arrangements cleared and made so that the ticket name could be changed. Can you imagine if we didn't find this out until Saturday when boarding the plane? We would have missed our flight. Embassy is closed on Saturdays and we would have been back at the guest house waiting. More than that, flights are so booked being that everyone is traveling back to the U.S. for the end of summer, that flights were closed and fully booked up to 2 weeks out. Thank the LORD he helped us out of this mess again!! Move those waters!!
Only our great big God could've helped us home. After this very long Friday, we had a wonderful dinner with our friends before packing up the guest house room we have called home.
More to come.... Read our part 8: Sight Seeing where we capture some of the places we visited before part 9: Coming home!!
Thank you again for all the prayers lifted up for our family! Can you see how God worked?? Amazing and we are ever grateful to Him for carrying us through it all!
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