Ring Ring Ring the Embassy (Wednesday 10th June)

Baby didn't have a very settled night and woke up to be fed at 3.30am and woke up again at 6am thinking it was playtime and wouldn't go back to sleep and I ended up feeding her at 7am!! Little Prince also woke up at 3.30am and couldn't get back to sleep as his inflatable Ready Bed was flat (can't remember if I mentioned he'd stabbed it with his DS stylus earlier in the week and the Guest House manager had done a puncture repair on it). I had to put him in bed with me, and luckily he didn't do too much wriggling!! After getting everyone dressed and having breakfast, thank you so much S for holding Baby so that I could eat :-) we said goodbye to the US family. Little Prince was not impressed!!

I tried to ring the British Embassy again but couldn't get through. The Guest House manager found me another number, which was engaged! So I got Baby asleep in her cot and got Little Prince in the bath. Baby woke up while I was bathing Little Prince :-( Once we were back downstairs I tried the new Embassy number again, I asked the receptionist for the Visa Section but was put through to one of those robot "press this/press that" answer machines and whatever combination of pressing I did, I couldn't get to speak to a real live person!! Urgh!! I rang the Visa Application Centre and they said Baby's Visa wasn't ready and to try ringing again after 3.30pm. Double urgh!!!

Rang the UK couple with the poorly child to see how child was and how they getting on with getting their children's birth certificates. They had been at the Record Office for THREE hours with both children, which was very hot and chaotic and understandably, they didn't feel up to meeting for lunch. Which was probably a good thing considering what happened next!! Baby did something I've never seen a baby do before (stop reading if you are squeamish!!) - projectile pooing!!! It was green and squirting out at a fair rate of knots!! She got it all over the WHITE bed sheet and all down my WHITE top!!! I had to send Little Prince running off to get A to help me, as I couldn't get my top off without making the mess even worse, and I couldn't pick Baby up and put her in her cot without covering her in it too!!! A took it all in her stride, reassured me that "got lights can wash" (people say they've got or not got lights, to mean if the electricity is working or not) and helped me remove my top and deal with Baby - she's a STAR :-) Me, Little Prince and Baby went to Kaldi's for lunch, I needed the break after all that drama!! On the way to Kaldi's a man just pulling away from a parking space stopped to ask me if there was a baby in the sling I was wearing, when I said yes he wanted to see her. He was very friendly and dressed very smartly and driving a pretty nice car, so I thought no problem and showed her off. He then asked if she was "half-caste" (his words and not a phrase I'd ever use!!) when I looked taken aback (at the phrase he'd used although he didn't seem to realise that) he asked if my husband was Ethiopian! He seemed very shocked to hear that she was Ethiopian! When I explained that we were adopting her he thanked me, which made me feel very uncomfortable. He then talked about when he had visited London and asked us a little about where in England we were from. Altogether a very strange encounter!! When we finally got to Kaldi's we had a lovely lunch :-) When we got back to the Guest House I contacted yet another UK couple currently in Addis with their birth children (3 boys around Little Prince's age). We arranged for them to come round to our Guest House at 3pm for the boys to play together and the parents to chat together. Little Prince was very excited about having someone his own age to play with :-) However, this excitement translated itself into mischief in no time at all!! He somehow managed to lock all the staff in their break room (part of the detached garage)!! It took me ages to get the door open for them, as I was trying to stop Little Prince doing anything else he shouldn't and was carrying Baby while trying to shoulder charge the door!! Not long after this fiasco the other UK family arrived, so at least Little Prince had someone to distract him!! We adults sat on the patio drinking Coke and chatting - it was a lovely afternoon. Little Prince was very upset when it was time for them to go :-(

While they were still here I asked them to hold Baby while I tried (once again!!) to ring the Visa Application Centre, which they were happy to do as they hadn't got custody of their child yet. The VAC said the Visa still wasn't ready! I explained that our flights were booked for Saturday and that our older children had to return home to get back to school. The lady said she would contact the Embassy for me and asked me to ring the VAC again tomorrow morning.

Via texts I learnt that Mr Messy and Drama Teen were having a great time :-) They were mobbed at the Police Station as all the Officers wanted to see Baby's photo, even the big burly Policemen put down their rifles and cooed over her photo :-) They all said she had got fat (!!!) and was very lucky to go to the UK. I don't think that losing your birth family, culture and homeland is lucky, but understand that they are speaking from a totally different perspective. They found out that Baby originally had a different name, and the Policeman didn't know how/why it had changed (we later found out that he had mixed up two different children's files and Baby had always had the name we were told). They were asked to return at 9.30am tomorrow to meet the man who prepared Baby's paperwork and visit the place where she originally came from. Mr Messy and Drama Teen had visited the local market and said it was amazing and incredibly cheap - I presume they are doing a lot of shopping!! Mr Messy fed the buzzards in the meat market. Then they spent time visiting the Muslim Market and bought traditional jewellery and a giant knife for Drama Teen!!!! They also visited a Catholic Mission Orphanage and chatted to the Priest in charge and played with the children there. The children are all aged 5 years and older, and the Priest said they had stopped doing international adoptions as they can find people to adopt the children domestically :-) After dinner (they had to look everywhere to find fries for Drama Teen - everything else was too spicy for her) they watched the hyenas being fed, and Mr Messy even fed them himself!!

Heard from LMS that she had talked to our GP Practice as I'd asked her to, but that registering Baby was going to be complicated as she isn't a British Citizen! They asked that I contact them when we return and sort it out then, hopefully it won't be too much of a pain as I feel that Baby has a number of health issues that need checking out! Not least of which is the constant sicking, which is really getting me down as we didn't pack that many clothes for us all and the electricity being off is making it very hard for the staff to wash what clothes we do have!!