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.
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