Embassy Here We Come!! (Thursday 11th June)

Baby woke up at 4.30am for her feed, which woke Little Prince up as his bed was flat again. So he had to get in bed with me, I'm getting sooo tired with all the night feeds, restless sleep once Little Prince joins me and then constant vigilence all day to try and head off more mischief!!! Baby woke up again at 5.30am and needed to be hugged back to sleep, which she managed until 6.30am at which point I gave up and she had her next feed at 7am.

At breakfast A once again held Baby while I ate, but Little Prince objected violently to this and tried to kick her, thinking she was taking Baby away. A didn't help the situation by saying she WAS taking Baby home, and at one point got her coat and bag and pretended to leave!! This sent Little Prince into violent hysterics - I wish they could understand NOT to wind him up!!! Once he was sufficiently calmed down and happy that I was holding Baby at about 8am, I tried ringing the VAC again. Guess what?? The Visa still isn't ready!! The manager I spoke to yesterday won't be in until 9am, and I was asked to ring back then. However, she rang me and said she had spoken to the Embassy and they said they would know whether or not the Visa would be ready after 12 noon, and asked me to once again ring them back then. I was very very upset as it was becoming increasingly obvious that me and Baby wouldn't be going home with the rest of the family as planned :-( I decided I had nothing to lose by visiting the Embassy in person, along with the children - one of which will probably cry and throw up and the other causes chaos wherever he is! They will give us the Visa just to get rid of us!!! I asked the Guest House manager to arrange a car to take us to the Embassy and then ran round packing a changing bag for baby. When the taxi arrived the Guest House manager said he didn't know the driver and sent him away!!! Aaargh!!! However he arranged for one of the Guest House staff to drive the owners car and take us to the Embassy, thank you so much K :-)

The guards at the entrance were very polite when they noticed me and the children in the back of the car, which does annoy me as they were acting quite differently until they saw us!! They directed us to the door I had gone to on my first trip to Addis, where I obtained a letter from the Embassy that MOWA required in the Court Dossier. At the guarded entrance I explained that I wanted to see someone in the Visa Section, the guard asked to see my Passport then took my mobile phones (then gave them back and asked me to switch them off) and checked if I had a camera or electrical equipment. I didn't have my camera (knew they didn't allow them so didn't bring it) but Little Prince had his DS - she took that!! He SOBBED, I'm not sure he understood that he could have it back when we left, despite my explanations!! She searched the changing bag and asked us to walk through the scanner. Then she sent us down the long corridor to Window 3. It was the same lady in the office as when I originally visited. I explained to her that I needed to know when we would get Baby's Visa, she was surprised and said the guard had told her I was there about a Passport, but that she would try to help us. She went into the back office and when she came back said the Visa still wasn't ready yet and could be up to a MONTH before its ready!!! That was so totally unexpected, and I was so upset at the thought of staying behind without my family for a month or more that I burst into tears!! The lady looked very shocked. I apologised for crying and snuffled into a tissue, she went back to the back office and when she returned she asked me to take a seat and someone would come and see me. Little Prince was very scared and worried that Mummy was crying. I tried unsuccessfully to reassure him but he was still very upset when we were called back to the window. The Vice Counsel who checks adoption Visa applications said he had just looked at the file for the first time and everything looked OK. But they needed confirmation from the DCSF before the Visa can be issued and that the DCSF can be slow!! Little Prince was crying throughout this conversation, and I was trying to comfort him while talking to the Vice Counsel at the same time. The VC said he would contact the DCSF straight away, and if they respond fast enough they may possibly be able to issue the Visa tomorrow!!! I told him that I had already pre-warned Paul K at the DCSF to look out for the Embassy's email and that PK had assured me he would respond immediately. The VC then explained that they only worked on Friday mornings so there would not be time to send the Visa to the VAC, so I would need to return to the Embassy at 9am in the morning and be prepared for a possibly long wait, but that he would try his best to sort this out. I thanked him profusely and could have kissed him, bu that wouldn't be very British would it lol.

When we got back to the Guest House I felt wrung out and so so tired. Luckily Little Prince was being very good :-) I texted LMS back at home to use my email account to send a message to the DCSF harrassing them (politely of course) about replying QUICKLY to the Embassy's message. I had to do it that way as once again we had no power, so no internet!! Later on the Guest House manager put on the generator and when I checked my emails I had a lovely message from Paul K at the DCSF saying they had heard from the Embassy and already responded. Fingers crossed that means the Embassy will be able to issue the Visa - I might not have to stay in Addis on my own with Baby :-)

We had arranged to possibly meet the UK family with the 3 boys for lunch, but it got later and later and we hadn't heard from them so we ordered lunch from the Guest House. The supermarket has no cheese, so Little Prince couldn't have a cheese sandwich, but happily ate an egg sandwich instead. Soon after we had ordered the Dad of the 3 boys rang, so I reluctantly had to cancel our lunch meet up. I contacted the UK family adopting 2 children to see how they were getting on and see if we could meeet them later in the afternoon. They were just off to the Hilton to cancel their flight tickets, and the Dad is ill so they won't be able to meet up either! Little Prince was very disappointed. I told him we could go out for tea and he could chose where we ate, which cheered him up :-) He went out to play with the guard in the yard, but started messing with the hosepipe and Little Prince ended up soaked. I got him changed and had him doing some quiet colouring and then playing on his DS. I was too tired to go out to eat so we ordered tea at the Guest House. Just as it was ready Little Prince and the young Guest House manager had a GIANT water fight, the young Manager eggs Little Prince on and Little Prince gets very very hyper!! Little Prince lost - he was drenched, totally and utterly wet through!! The younger Guest House lady A helped me with Baby while I sorted out Little Prince. There were puddles all over the Guest House and his clothes were sodden even after I'd wrung them out!! We had a fairly cold tea and then I got Little Prince to bed and then went back downstairs to get Baby to sleep and write my blog (in a notebook as Mr Messy had taken the laptop). The UK Mum with 3 boys texted to say the boys were too tired and they wouldn't be able to come over and play :-(

Heard from Mr Messy that they had met the lawyer in charge of women and children's affairs who brought Baby to Addis. He was a lovely man and they had got his name and contact details. He is the man who chose Baby's name. He is bringing another baby to the orphanage tomorrow at 7am and would love to see Baby again. They met other significant people from Baby's very early life and got many photos of the area. They saw an approximately 4 week old baby being brought in to the Police Station this morning :-( When they were having lunch Drama Teen was getting cross and fed up with people shouting "ferengi" at them all the time. Children come over to them to shake their hands, which she thought was very cute. She does not like (and isn't coping too well with) the attention from the older boys who wink at her and beckon her to come over and she doesn't understand what they are saying which unerves her, I think she is sticking close to her Dad!! I told her to pretend they are saying she is gorgeous and they think they've seen her on TV, and its training for when she's a superstar :-) She laugh and say they aren't saying that, so I point out she has no idea what they are saying so can imagine whatever she likes!! She says she isn't enjoying being a superstar when she doesn't understand what they are saying! When they were wandering around they met a boy about her age (Sammy) who spoke pretty good English so they chatted for a while. Her pasta lunch was too spicy for her, so being hungry is probably making her even more grumpy!! They looked round the market again after 4pm when it was a bit cooler. The driver wants to leave at about 4.45am Drama Teen is in shock lol. They think they should be back by about 4pm if all goes well. So that means if I can get hold of the Visa tomorrow I will have to go over to the Hilton with both kids and book Baby's ticket myself. I checked with Baby Sis (the travel agent) if I would be able to do the online check in without Mr Messy and Drama Teen's passports (they have them with them) and she said it should be possible as we only need the reference number. And we should be able to do both at the Hilton.

The generator ran out of fuel at about 9pm so I wrote the rest of my notes by candlelight. Then I had the pleasure (NOT!!) of making Baby's bottle feeds by candlelight too, not an easy task!! Made even more exasperating when the power came on about 15 minutes after I'd finished them!!! You've got to laugh or you'd cry!!!