Embassy Appointment: Complete

We are going to try to get to bed early tonight so I'm going to write a quick post while we wait for dinner to be delivered.

Today was a good day. A good, good day. Let's start with this: at 5am little IC had made his bed and was standing over us, ready to greet the day. Only problem is mom and dad weren't quite as pumped. So he crawled in and let us sleep a little longer. E got up before I did and when I finally woke up, IC spoke his first sentence to me, "Where is Dad?" Guys, I couldn't be prouder. A full sentence.

We found dad on the roof waiting for the sunrise so we joined him and all watched the sun rise in Ethiopia together. I feel like there's a metaphor about the dawn of our lives together or something but I'm too tired to flesh that out so go for it, if you so choose. The sunrise really was lovely and as soon as it was fully up, we headed back downstairs to get ready.

I have to show you IC all ready for the day because, I mean. I have a little looker on my hands, in case you didn't already know. Case in point:

As soon as we were ready to go, we loaded the van and headed to the embassy. Just as I was told, the embassy is a very nice building. Very nice and not friendly to photography. We can't even take photos outside the building. So we didn't. I'll give you the pretty basic rundown: we came in, we talked through a window, we left. The guy at the window was super nice. We exchanged a few comments about the World Cup (which we didn't watch because it was on LATE here!) and then he told us we could pick up his visa and passport later this week. Easy-peasy and quick.

We went straight from the embassy back to the transition home for a few last items. We arrived and they had prepared a coffee ceremony for us. In Ethiopia the traditional coffee ceremony is a big deal. You may remember we had one at the traditional Ethiopian dinner last time we visited. It typically has coffee that is roasted, ground, and boiled to completion right on the spot. There's always incense and there's always popcorn. Which is good for our family because we LOVE popcorn. And coffee. It's a very nice thing to do a coffee ceremony for visitors, so it was sweet to have one done as we removed our kids from the TH for good.

All Photos of the coffee ceremony by IC

We met with a few of the officials from the transition home and took a few pictures for families still waiting to visit. We talked to the counselor about several things, one of which was the dogs. We tried to explain that Dash, his favorite dog, might be too excited to see him and he might jump up on him and put his paws on his shoulders. We didn't want him to be scared. But as the counselor started to translate, IC went into fits of giggles. He thought it was the funniest thing he had ever heard! He even told one of the other boys about it and laughed the whole way. So we're hoping it will be that entertaining when it happens.

By this point, we were all so, so hungry. It took quite a while so I got to play "mama" and hand out a pre-lunch snack to my little guy. I felt pretty awesome that I had come prepared and could help him in this small way. Because, you know, this mom thing is new.

We loaded the van and headed off to lunch.

Lunch took a while and a few families had just arrived so by the time it was over, pretty much everyone (myself included) was yawning. We headed back to the guest house and I crawled into bed, with two sweet boys next to me, for a nap.

I woke up and the boys had gotten up and were playing memory in the living room. They really are a sweet pair. We inflated a soccer ball and Mama G and I watched the dads play from the balcony of our room. I knew they had finished when I heard a loud commotion coming up the stairs. We calmed down with tetris and tangrams. And then as I started to write this post, the boys began to work on school. I can hear them spelling out words now and IC is working so hard. If you think we are the ones pushing the school thing, you are absolutely wrong. He loves working on school and will work until he is fully exhausted from working so hard.

As I mentioned, we're waiting for dinner and we'll be heading to bed a little early. Full disclosure: I don't expect to get a blog post in tomorrow. So I hope to chat with you again on Wednesday.

Much love from Ethiopia.