Ethiopia: Day 4 - Embassy

Well Mathios slept well last night, but we were up much of the night for no good reason. Mathios was pretty snotty, coughing and snoring the night away; it didn't phase him though, as he slept from 9pm until almost 8am. We have been battling the time change and the altitude and mostly losing, unless we have help from Ambien. We were drug free last night in case M didn't sleep well and we needed to be lucid. But tonight we're getting to bed early and taking back the night with sleeping medicine. He woke up snotty and soaked through with sweat (and another substance) - let's just say we need some more capacity from our diapers and to get the boy some Motrin. We also needed some help from Immodium and Cipro for our belly troubles today, but we persevered and were feeling better by mid afternoon; not sure what is doing us wrong, but suspect it was the cheese on our pizza last night. We laid low this morning and hung out in our room.

At noon the bus left for the embassy so we could get him a visa. After multiple metal detector screenings and various waiting rooms, we spent about 2 minutes with a representative from the consulate who asked us a few questions about our experience with the adoption process. After all 6 of our families waited and had interviews, we left (about two hours). Unfortunately, two of the families in our group are still awaiting paperwork from the states and will have to come back tomorrow and hopefully will be able to leave the country on Friday - pray for them. After the embassy visit we stopped at a few various shops. We picked up an Ethiopian national team soccer jersey, a parallel Bible (Amharic next to English), and a kid's Bible in Amharic. We got back to the guest house and hung out for a while before dinner. We got M to laugh and smile for us finally and when we left him to play down on the floor by himself he started crawling around. We just think that he's not used to being watched all the time like we've been doing!

There has been a major transformation in him in the past 24 hours. When he is with us (alone) he'll babble on and on, reach for things, crawl around, laugh here and there at us, and just engage with us. He's still reserved when others are around, but is opening up to us. We're so thankful for what the Lord is doing in our family. We can't wait to be home and all together again. Saturday evening is getting closer and closer!

Not much on the agenda for tomorrow. We might go visit two of the orphanages America World works with, but haven't decided what to do. We are really enjoying our suitemates and their little boy. Everyone in our group is wonderful and we are thankful to share this amazing
experience with them.