Getting closer!

(oops, originally posted to the wrong blog!!)

Baby now has a visa to enter the UK and a ticket home.

Mr Messy and Drama Teen are back with Janet and the littlies.

Lots of celebrating, lots of relief, they're back together and coming home soon!

News from Janet

(This is Kate, not Janet - despite what the signature line!)

I've had several emails from Janet this evening and thought that I would precis them for the blog.

Mr Messy and Drama Teen are still of visiting Baby's home area (hence the lack of updates from Addis, when the technical expert's travelling the blog is put on hold, hopefully Janet's still typing even if she can't post!) It must be a very emotional trip for them, hopefully they'll get lots more information for Baby . I think that they've got another day there before travelling back to Addis on Friday.

Meanwhile Janet is left holding Baby and Little Prince and I think that that's quite a juggling act when you're so far away from home. Baby's Visa was applied for on Monday but still hasn't come through - Janet's considering intimidation by small children, taking B and LP to the office and sitting there until the Visa people would rather issue the necessary paperwork than have there any longer. Hopefully the Visa will be issued tomorrow before the Littlies have to be brought in, but it sounds as if there's still quite a lot of paperwork shuffling to do first.

Nappy rash has been a big issue for Baby. Luckily Janet knew about this before they travelled and took the necessary supplies, especially lots of cream. Janet reports that Baby's rash was a lot better, until they ran out of premium nappies - she can only get Baby sized nappies in a local brand that aren't so efficient, so once again they are battling nappy rash but for now they're winning!

I think that they're doing tremendously, thanks for checking up on them and I'll let you know if I hear any more.

Finally Changed the Travellers Cheques - (Monday 8th June)

First thing in the morning I rang the Visa Application Centre to see
if the biometric systems were working now. The lady who answered the
phone sounded extremely surprised that we had done all the Visa
paperwork and not done the biometrics, but I explained that the system
had not been working last Friday. She checked for me and the system
was now working and suggested we make our way down there. I asked how
long the Visa might take, and she said it would probably be 3-4 days,
but could be longer (FANTASTIC NEWS). We rousted out the children,
got a bag of baby supplies packed and set off to walk to the Visa
Centre. It only took about 10 minutes, but it was VERY hot,
especially carrying baby in her sling!!! When we got there we were
ushered to the front of the queue to see the same lady we had checked
the documents with the first time. She shuffled our papers, printed
out some labels and then sent us to sit down and wait for the
biometrics room to be free. We jumped the queue and were next in that
room too!! As it was a tiny little room I went in with baby on my
own, the lady checked the labels, printed out a receipt and asked me
to sign it. She underlined the case number on the receipt and their
phone number and said that when we come to pick up the Visa we HAVE to
bring this receipt (OMG don't lose that piece of paper!!!). I took
baby out of her sling expecting her to be fingerprinted and
photographed next, but the lady said that they don't do that for under
fives!!! So why did baby have to come to this appointment??!?! No
idea - but I've given up arguing and just do as I'm told!!! To
celebrate our "victory" at finally having put in the application we
visited Saay Pastry for breakfast. Little Prince had two chocolate
donoughts and was thrilled with them, Mr Messy and Drama Teen chose
giant ring donoughts, but Drama Teen didn't like hers!! While we were
sat eating and chatting we got a phone call from the Visa Application
Centre saying that baby's photograph was the wrong size (it needs to
be 45mm x 35mm) ours was too big!!! So we walked back down to the
Friendship Mall and took baby to have MORE photographs taken!! The
display on the glass counter only noted the passport photo sizes in
inches, but the photographer asked which embassy it was for and knew
what size we needed. We took baby into the studio and out of her
sling and then waited for ages, and it was even hotter in there!! The
photographer eventually came in and said he'd been waiting for us,
trouble was we didn't know that and had been waiting for him lol. He
had four or five tries to get a photograph where baby wasn't either
being sick or had her eyes closed, but eventually got an acceptable
one (the beauty of digital photography!!). We had to hang around for
10-15 minutes for the photos to be printed and then we went back to
the Guest House. We got the Manager to arrange a car to take us to
drop off the new photos and then to take us to the Head Office of the
NIB Bank, where Mr Messy had successfully changed travellers cheques
previously. I stayed in the car while Mr Messy took the photographs
up to the Visa Application Centre (its up three flights of stairs!!)
once that had FINALLY been sorted out we headed off to the bank,
hoping that we would be just as successful on this errand!! Luckily
we were :-) We are finally flush with cash again :-) Which means
that Mr Messy and Drama Teen can finally make their trip to where baby
comes from tomorrow. Unfortunately for my sleepy teen they have to
set off at 6am - yes Drama Teen there ARE two 6 O'clocks in one day
lol.

During the afternoon Little Prince decided to have a completely crazy
and naughty time!! He drove me to tears with all his antics! He went
into either the Manager's room or a store room and emptied a bag of
powder all over the yard, then paddled in it and covered himself with
it!! I dragged him in for a bath, a change of clothes and a stern
talking to!! He was very contrite and promised to be a good boy. He
must have forgotten because he emptied out most of our lip salve and
bum cream down the toilet when he said he was charging his DS upstairs
in our room!! Later we found out that he had also emptied most of the
Russian UN worker's sun cream down the downstairs toilet too!!! By
this time I was LIVID!!! I shouted, threatened, cried and got so
upset with him!!!! I even cut his comfort blankie in half (knowing we
had a spare) it was either that or wallop him, and I figured he'd
recover quicker from the blankie wrecking!!!

Mr Messy was a star and sent me and Drama Teen out to the supermarket
for drinks and snacks for them to take with them, and then to have a
relax in Kaldi's before coming back to the Guest House. We managed to
find a few snacks that Drama Teen found acceptable, and then went to
look at the sweetie counter! We found Mars Bars, Bounty and Milky
Ways, but the lady behind the counter wouldn't let us buy any of them
as they were doing an inventory count!!! The only things she would
allow us to buy didn't appeal to Drama Teen, so we gave up and paid
for the things we had managed to find and walked over to Kaldi's. I
had wanted to eat there, but Drama Teen wanted spaghetti bolognaise at
the Guest House so we just had a drink and a cake. Drama Teen didn't
want a cake, but managed to pinch quite a lot of mine!!!!

We had a bit of trouble getting back to the Guest House, as it was
dark and we hadn't brought a torch and my night vision is pathetic.
Once we had finally got back (without breaking any ankles either) we
found a fairly stressed Mr Messy with baby who had screamed blue
murder the whole time we were out!!! I picked her up and she was
asleep in minutes, sorry Mr Messy :-) He then took Little Prince to
bed, and I just hope he goes straight to sleep and doesn't mess with
anything else!!!!

Guest House Manager has just come in and asked Mr Messy if setting off
at 5.30am is OK?? Me and Mr Messy thought it was a fantastic idea,
but Drama Teen was disgusted lol. She is now cheering herself up by
eating her caramel cake we brought back from Kaldi's.

I won't be sending any more blogs until Mr Messy and Drama Teen are
back from their trip as I write all this waffle offline on our own
laptop, Mr Messy puts it on his iPod and transfers it to the Guest
House comptuer and sends it off on its merry way to the internet!!!
That is WAAAAAAAY too complicated for me to deal with, especially with
Little Prince in the mood he's in!!!

Three Babies for Lunch - (Sunday 7th June)

We had arranged to go to the Lime Tree brunch to meet up with another
UK family here in Addis, adopting their children, at 11am. We were
late setting off and arrived a little while after 11am, but there was
no sign of the other family. The cafe was almost empty so we chose a
table and sat down to wait. We got ourselves some fruit juice while
we waited. About 11.30am we got a call from the other family, to say
that one of their children was ill and they had just been to the
hospital to get child checked out and some medication. They arrived
at the Lime Tree not too long afterwards, and their child was
obviously listless and unwell, poor little thing. Hopefully the
medication will start to work soon and child will be back to their
normal cheerful self. Drama Teen and Little Prince had already eaten
by the time the other family arrived, so that sat at the other end of
the table playing on their DS's or playing cards (only Go Fish, not
poker or anything lol). We adults chatted and compared notes on where
we were both up to in our post adoption processes, and had a
thoroughly enjoyable few hours. We definitely recommend the Lime Tree
brunch - all you can eat (breakfast sort of foods) for about 85 birr
per adult and about 45 birr for the children. But don't count on the
wireless internet working, this is the fourth time we've taken our
laptop down there and its not worked yet!!! The other UK family did
mention that The Imperial Hotel (Bole Road near the airport end) has
free broadband intenet, so we will be trying that another day.

The food at the Guest House is very good, but it is a very limited
menu and after two weeks of it we HAD to find something different!!
Me, Mr Messy and Little Prince (Drama Teen didn't want to come) went
for a wander down the Bole Road to see what we could find. We went to
the Bole Mini (American Diner style cafe, near to the London Cafe
which is the one with the plane outside!!). Mr Messy ordered steak
and chips (for 40 birr - about £2.50!!!!) and said it wasn't the best
steak he'd ever had but it was pretty good for £2.50!! Little Prince
wantd hotdogs, but he only ate the sausages!! As I had baby in the
sling I had to go for finger food and just had some skinny (McDonald
style) fries. There was another little boy running round and round
the cafe while we were eating, and as soon as he'd finished Little
Prince begged to join him. As none of the staff or other customers
seemed at all bothered by the running boy we let Little Prince join
in. Both boys had a great time running round and round making cowboy
whooping noises, or hiding from each other. The Ethiopian people seem
generally very tolerant of children's behaviour, so it didn't seem to
cause a problem. We eventually managed to persuade Little Prince to
sit down for some ice cream - two scoops of mixed, rainbow coloured
ice cream - I've never seen BLUE ice cream before, but Little Prince
gulped it down and said it was all delicious :-) Then he was off and
running with his new friend again, for a last mad 10 minutes before we
headed back to the Guest House. As we walked we passed a mother and
small child begging and Little Prince was thrilled when Daddy gave him
some birr to give to her, he said it made him feel very good to help
someone who had no money. He is a very kind and compassionate young
man :-)

Don't bother with Traveller's Cheques!!! - (Saturday 6th June)

We decided to go to the HIlton Hotel to change some more Travellers
Cheques today. Me, Mr Messy, Little Prince and baby set off in the
taxi arranged by the Guest House. We arrived at the plush HIlton
Hotel just as a wedding party was entering. The bridesmaids and male
attendants were dancing round the bride and groom, singing and
ululating and holding the bouquet above the bride's head. We made our
way round the bridal party and entered the hotel. As usual we were
ushered through without being searched or going through the security
check, but Ethiopian (ie black) people were being searched and sent
through the security scanner. Mr Messy has started to go through the
security scanner as a matter of principle, but even though he "beeps"
he is still not searched! We found the bank and went in and asked if
we could change Travellers Cheques - NO!! When we queried this they
sent us across the hallway to another bank, who were very apologetic
but their system was down and they couldn't change our cheques!!!
They suggested we visit the Sheraton Hotel, so we went outside to find
our driver and asked him to take us to the Sheraton. He wasn't
allowed to drive into the grounds and had to drop us at the gates, and
we walked down the pathway to the entrance. It was fairly surreal to
pass a British red telephone box and the security guards were wearing
English Police style helmets and the doorman was wearing a bowler hat.
We had to search around to find the bank,and eventually gave up and
asked the concierge who directed us straight there. We asked the bank
teller if we could change some Traveller's Cheques - Yes!! BUT and
its a BIG BUT!!! Only if we had a receipt that exactly matched the
format she showed us!!! Of course we had a different format and that
wasn't acceptable, by now baby was screaming for her bottle, Mr Messy
was stressed up to the eyeballs and everyone was fed up!! I tried to
demand to see the manager, but Mr Messy was too fed up and stressed to
try that and dragged me out and back to the car. We had spent about
an hour and a half in a boiling car and got, precisely NOWHERE!!! So
don't bother with travellers cheques, they can be convenient and
secure, but they can also be a royal pain in the arse!!!!

Early Start - (Friday 5th June)

Mr Messy had arranged to be collected from the Guest House at 8.30am,
but no need to worry our small alarm clock woke us up in plenty of
time to get her fed and for Mr Messy to get ready. When Mr Messy
arrived at the Orphanage, Assistant wasn't there as her baby was ill.
In the end our driver took him to the Passport Office and went in with
him in case he needed any translating. Luckily as soon as the
Passport Office workers say Mr Messy they produced baby's Passport and
handed it over. The driver brought Mr Messy back to the orphanage
where he talked to the Orphanage Director about his trip to where baby
comes from. She was extremely helpful and gave him all the details he
will need to be able to photograph significant people and places from
baby's past, and also gave him baby's complete case file, which
included our homestudy document from the UK (which was asked for at
the Visa Application Centre). Guest House, where he collected me,
Little Prince and our British Visa folder full of all the documents we
need. We went over to the Visa Application Centre, which is right
next door to Saay Pastry (not quite as good as Bilo's, but still very
nice). We had to walk up three flights of stairs (no power again
today) at the entrance to the Visa Application Centre we were
searched, told to turn off our mobile phones and had to sign in with
Mr Messy's Passport number. While we were sat in the waiting room
baby decided she wanted her bottle, so Mr Messy was feeding her when
the Security Guard came over to say that we were next. There were
plenty of other people in the room, but I think we, as British
Citizen's. were allowed to jump the queue (not very British is
it?!?!). I went over to hand in our forms and documents, while Mr
Messy continued to feed baby. I got a bit impatient with him when he
admitted he had forgotten to bring my notebook with the Guest House
name/address/phone number in, as this should have been noted on the
form. However, the Visa Centre lady said giving the name of the Guest
House and our hired Ethiopian mobile phone number was sufficient. We
had come over to apply for the Visa in such a hurry we had forgotten
the advice of the previous adopter to photocopy everything!! We had
baby's birth certificate, Court documents and case file and did not
want to lose the originals of these. The Visa Centre lady said it was
ok to go and get them copied once we had been to the Bank on the
ground floor and paid for the Visa Application (currently over 11000
birr). So we went downstairs with the note in baby's passport
provided by the Visa Centre lady, queued up and paid the fee then went
out of the building turned left to the end of the block and up the
stairs to a copy centre. It only cost 50 Ethiopian cents per copy and
was pretty quick to get all the copies we needed. Mr Messy gave me
some money and sent me, Little Prince and baby into Saay Pastry while
he took the copied documents back upstairs. Little Prince was
thrilled to find they sold donoughts and ate two chocolate ones!! We
were just finishing our cakes and drinks when an out of breath Mr
Messy reappeared saying he needed baby to have her biometric scans
done (fingerprints and digital photographs). I handed baby over still
wrapped up in her sling, completely forgetting I had stuffed the money
Mr Messy had given me earlier in there!!! I just had to keep my
fingers crossed that Mr Messy would notice and not drop the money all
over the place!!! After about half an hour he and baby reappeared,
the biomentric system was down and so they couldn't complete that part
of baby's application. The Centre said they would ring our Ethiopian
mobile once the biometric system was up and running again and we would
have to pop back with baby, they couldn't say when it would be ready
though (could be an hour could be Monday!). Mr Messy ordered himself
a drink and cake and we sat chatting while he finished those, before
walking back to the Guest House. We were approached by quite a few
beggars and street salesmen on our way back and Little Prince showed
his empathic and kind side, he asked many questions about what the
people were doing and why they didn't have enough money. First he
wished he had brought his money box with him so he could give them
lots of pennies, and then he said he wished he had LOTS of money boxes
to help everyone. Then he decided when he is a grown up he will work
hard to get enough money to help lots and lots of people. I had tears
in my eyes for my kind and compassionate little man.

When we arrived back we noticed the American family talking to an
Ethiopian person out on the patio, it turns out that this was a birth
family member of their newly adopted child. Even though their agency
do not encourage this sort of contact, they could see that that is
what their child needed and so they had allowed child to first ring
this birth family member, and then arranged for them to meet up.
Another moment that brought tears to my eyes and touched my heart.

After the American family had eaten their lunch the Mum, Dad and Mr
Messy went for a walk to the shops, the first time the Mum has left
the Guest House compound during their stay. The children were all as
good as gold while the rest of the adults were out and I didn't have
any trouble with them. Baby had been screaming and arching her back
with colic, but she settled down to sleep soon after the others had
gone out, so we all had a peaceful time. The American's new child
wanted to play on Little Prince's DS so persuaded him by offering him
cookies and making him a drink of juice, very sweet :-) When the
other adults got back, the American Dad sneaked upstairs with the
presents they had bought, no doubt a surprise for their new child once
they arrive back home. The parents then went off to pack while the
children carried on playing for rthe last few hours before the
American family are taken to the airport.

Change of Plan Again - (Thursday 4th June)

Mr Messy was up bright and early (and even shaven!!!) this morning as
he was being picked up by the driver at 9am to go to the orphanage to
collect Assistant and then go and get baby's Ethiopian Passport.
However, at about 10 past 9 we got a phone call from Assistant saying
that the Passport still wasn't ready and that we would have to pick it
up at 3.30pm instead. She must have contacted the driver to let him
know as he didn't arrive!!

We had decided earlier in the week to try to arrange a barbeque at our
Guest House and all of us UK families to get together and chat and
relax. So this morning we talked to the Calm Guest House Manager and
he arranged for the barbeque and patio to be cleaned, to buy wood for
cooking on, and to buy the meat. The bill for the firewood and meat
was less than 300 birr to feed 14 of us!!!! WOW!!!! The American
family have said they will buy fruit juices and me and the kids are
going to walk over to Kaldi's when Mr Messy has gone out to buy a cake
between us all. It should be a lot of fun :-)

After baby's 2nd bottle of the day we put her down for a nap and me
and Mr Messy started to wade our way through the Visa application
form!! As its the same form for anyone applying for a British
Settlement Visa it is very long and has lots of irrelevant questions
and repetition, for people adopting!! There are guidance notes
available from the same site that we downloaded the Application Form
from, but we have managed to only bring half of them with us!!! It
took us a good hour to work our way through the form, and we have one
or two questions we aren't sure what we should answer, but we have
been told that the Visa Agents are very helpfull and knowledgeable so
we will ask them tomorrow when we visit to lodge our application. We
have got all our fingers and toes crossed that we do get baby's
Ethiopian Passport today, as we are getting so close to the weekend it
will delay things even further if we have to wait much longer!!!

Mr Messy has re-arranged his and Drama Teen's trip to where baby comes
from until Sunday. They will set off Sunday and drive all day, then
explore the town baby is from on Monday and Tuesday, and set off back
to the Guest House on Wednesday morning. Again this all depends on
getting baby's Ethiopian Passport today, and lodging the Visa
Application tomorrow, as Mr Messy has to be present when we apply for
the Visa (he's the one that earns the money, I just spend it lol).

We had various communication issues trying to get in touch with the
other UK families currently in Addis, so we weren't sure how many (if
any!!) would come to our barbeque. In the end one couple on their
first trip to meet their baby and sign and lodge their legal papers
made it. We, the other UK couple and the American family had a great
time chatting. Me and the other UK lady got roped in to preparing the
vegetables that had been brought along for the barbeque, which was
very funny as its our husbands who are the good cooks not us lol. We
and the Guest House ladies had a great time laughing and giggling
about it all. The Guest House ladies offered to prepare an Ethiopian
Coffee Ceremony for us, and that was a great treat, we all took lots
of photos :-) The young Guest House Manager got told off for
attempting to light the barbeque fire with petrol!!! The Guest House
ladies promptly took over and sent him away lol. We sat outside on
the patio eating and chatting until late at night, and had a great
time.