ETHIOPIA: Part 1

Day# 1: Wednesday 6/5/13: Our journey to ET began on Wednesday night, June 5th. We had a 10:10 P.M. Lufthansa flight out of Logan to Frankfurt. Thanks to Ambien, the flight was fine!

Day #2: Thursday 6/6/13: We arrived at the Frankfurt airport in the morning and we remained there for 10 HOURS! The layover was actually not as bad as I had anticipated it to be. I was surprised by the cleanliness and size of this airport. Luckily we were able to shower here. In Terminal B they have a nice locker room type shower area that was wicked clean and nice. I believe the shower was what got us through this very long day. Finally, after walking around the airport 587 times, nighttime arrived and we were able to board our plane to Addis Ababa!!

Day #3: Friday 6/7/13: We arrived in Addis somewhere between 5:30-6:00 A.M., obtained our visas & luggage, and found our driver. After we got to the van we realized that we forgot to exchange our dollars for birr, the ET currency. We went back in and exchanged $500 for birr. The rate is 1:18 so it was pretty funny when Chris could not fit his "stack" into his wallet. What was even funnier was the man purse he wore all week long. At least I did not have the responsibility of keeping the money and passports safe. Soon after leaving the airport we arrived at our hotel which was just a couple of miles away. 

After checking in, our agency's person in charge on the ET side called us and asked us to meet him in the lobby so he could review our paperwork for the US Embassy. After this was done, the 3 of us went to breakfast at Kaldi's where Chris' obsession with machiattos  began! Chris and I walked back to the hotel from the breakfast place and this is where I learned the streets of Addis are no place for flip-flops! 

For some reason, I do not remember pieces of this day. It was a bit of a blur but I do remember the following parts:

-meeting and eating lunch with Heglunds out on the balcony

-napping in the afternoon

-eating the yummiest meal ever, the Thai Chicken dish at the hotel's restaurant

-taking a shower as fast as possible because the drain was screwed up and the water overflowed onto the floor.

-going to bed early as we had to get up in the morning to begin our "real journey" to Alazar!

We Passed Court!

I really need to update the blog. There is so much to share from our first trip to ET! On Tuesday June 11th, The Ethiopian judge declared that we are officially Alazar's parents, yay!!!

Ethiopia Here We Come!!

Last Wednesday we received news that our court date is Tuesday, June 11th. We are departing Boston this Wednesday night at 10:10 P.M. We will be flying to Germany, where we will have a 10 hour layover on Thursday. Late Thursday night, we will depart Frankfurt and head to Addis, where we will arrive at 6:15 A.M. Friday morning.  After Tuesday night, we will not be sleeping in a bed until Friday night. Sounds fun, doesn't it?

We do not have the exact details of our trip nailed down yet, but we have a basic idea. Another family from our agency is flying into Addis an hour after us and their kids are at the same orphanage as Alazar so we will have travel buddies, yay! It appears as though we will travel to Awassa on Friday where we will spend 3 nights/4 days. Alazar's orphanage is 15 minutes away from our hotel in a town called Shashemene. We will be able to visit him and spend time with him while we are there. On Monday, we will return to Addis and hopefully get some sight-seeing in. On Tuesday we will go before the Ethiopian judge, answer her questions, promise that we will raise Alazar well, and bring him up to be knowledgeable and proud of his Ethiopian heritage. After we pass court, Alazar will legally be our son in the eyes of the ET government. Unfortunately, we will not be bringing him home for another 6-8 weeks following court (mid-summer) because our case needs to be submitted and cleared by the U.S. Embassy before A's visa and passport can be issued.

We will be leaving ET on Thursday. Hopefully we will be participating in another special "adventure" on Wednesday, but it is not definite, so stay tuned!!

This whole thing has been a bit surreal. I have been dreaming about this upcoming day for a long time and it is hard to believe that is just about here. I will be loving on my baby boy in just 5 days!!