THE LAST WAIT!

Today we officially enter the last phase of waiting. 

After years of waiting for paperwork, documents finalization,bankruptcy, politics and sometime just WAITING today we enter the last phase.
It is with relief that I can say this is the LAST WAIT before our little girl comes home!

We received news that D's passport is in. (she looks extremely cute in her passport photo)
THANK YOU, LORD!


On Monday(if not today) all her document should go to the High Commission in Nairobi.
Please pray that her Canadian Permanent Residency Visa be issued in record time.  

We are entirely thankful that we are on our last wait of this process.
Hallelujah!!

We have a Birth Certificate!

Got an e-mail from our agency telling us D's birth certificate has been issued.  We are now waiting for her adoption order and her passport.  2 more documents to go before everything can be sent to immigration.
Very exciting to see our names officially listed as her parents on the birth certificate!!

Officially parents!!

So this morning we got the e-mail!!

Our MOWA letter is in!! 

The courts have signed off on our file.

We are now officially the parents to Dibora!!  

What amazing news!!

We are told that the staff in Ethiopia will now be compiling D's birth certificate and passport to send to the High Commission in Nairobi.  Once the documents are there we simply sit and wait for the news that they have issued our daughter's permanent residence visa.
Once the Visa is issued we may travel to pick her up!
Thank you all so much for your continued prayer and support!!
We are so blessed!

Now come on VISA!!   

A Small (but important) Milestone

So just got news that immigration has requested D's medical!
The general steps to immigrations when going PRV are 1.medical done by immigration  2. all documents sent to the High Commission in Niarobi  3. Visa issued.
Imagine had sent the application in to have this done on May 31.  So it took immigration about 9 weeks to apply to have the medical completed.  Waiting to have this done has generally been the longest part of the immigration process so it is GREAT that this is on it's way to being done. ..  but according to my knowledge nothing else in immigration can be done until we have officially made it through court so we really need our MOWA letter.
We ask that all continue to pray that our MOWA letter comes quickly and that court will be available to sign off on our file.
Come on MOWA letter!

Soddo Trip, Day 2

During our nights sleep in Soddo we were very suddenly awakened at 4am by singing over a loud speaker.  It was so loud it sounded like the person was singing on our balcony!  We were able to fall back asleep and asked in the morning what it would have been.  We were told that most of the population in Soddo is Muslim and the 4am prayer call was in preparation for Ramadan, one of their holiest days of the year.

We were picked up by our driver and guide at 8:30am from the hotel.  We were able to visit the orphanage for a short while again.  While at the orphanage we enjoyed Soda, great Ethiopian coffee and sweetened popcorn(they put sugar on it, very tasty). We visited with all the children there. We said "hi" to all 20 little ones and the older children sang us a song.  We were able to take some picture of the orphanage.

This is the orphanage kitchen.  Notice the bag of charcoal?  They did have an electric burner but it broke recently.  They told us that charcoal is a more reliable source of heat and cooking anyways.

The fresh produce is picked up at the market as they need it.

We were impressed with how neat and tidy the storage room was.

 After visiting the orphanage we began our long drive home.  We took the same road and just sat back and enjoyed the beauty of the Ethiopian countryside.

Gorgeous old tree!

We captured this video of some of Ethiopia's road kill.  Can you tell what it is? (It is NOT a dog)

We finally arrived back at our guesthouse in Addis Ababa at around 4pm that afternoon.  The entire two day trip was exhausting but well worth it!

Being in Soddo(Sodo)

Once we had settled into our hotel room in Soddo(also often spelled Sodo) we went directly to the orphanage there.  This orphanage is run by KVI and this is the orphanage that "D" and her sister spent the first couple months of their lives.  It currently holds 32 children. 20 of these children are under the age of 1.  

This sign is on the paved section of the road. From this point it is a messy and  bumpy ride.

It was a short drive on the muddy road to the orphanage.

We first unloaded all the donations. 2 large hockey bags full of clothing, toys, medical supplies and lots of shoes. We bought most of the food donations in Addis Ababa.  We were able to purchase 36cans of formula, 90 bars of soap, 8 large bags of laundry soap, 25kg of rice, 20 packages of pasta, 2kg cooking oil, 10kg sugar, 5 jugs of baby oil.

As it was the rainy season we also purchased 6 bags of charcoil for the orphanage to cook with and use for heat.  This was the charcoil stand.  A bag of charcoil was 85birr.($5.00). 

This was the charcoil truck.

The boy is putting on the parking break.  He simply ties the donkey's feet together so he can't run away.

We also purchased in Soddo 100kg of floor that the orphanage can use to make bread.

When we dropped of the donations we were able to talk to the director and nurse about "D" and her sister.  We were able to talk to them about the time the girls spent at the orphanage and their general health while they were there. We now know what the girls would have experienced in their first couple of months on this earth.

Trip to Soddo, Part 1

Our trip to Soddo gave us some of the most scenic views of our trip.  This is Part 1, as this trip will needed to be divided up into a few posts to share all we experienced.  We left at 8:30am.  It took a while to even get out of Addis due to the St. Gabriel celebration going on.  The population of Addis Ababa is over 5 million.  

Throngs of people were going to church to celebrate St Gabriel.  People in Ethiopia are generally either Muslim or Orthodox.  There is a small number of people that are Protestant.  

Our first stop was about an hour into our trip.  We stopped to see a historic site in Tiya.  These steles, or grave markings were discovered.  Not much is known about the history or tribes of the people buried under these grand tomb stones.  

The trail was littered with donkeys and other animals, often in the middle of the road.  If the driver were to hit one of these animals he would have to pay the owner for his loss.  

We stopped for lunch at this hotel in Butajira.  They served different "ferengi" food.  

As we ate we were able to watch different livestock walk by.

Most of the views were farmland.  All these farms were worked with a team of oxen.

Beautiful!

Our washroom in our hotel room in Soddo.  Again no shower curtain !

Our room in the hotel.  Upon arrival our door handle fell off and we were stuck inside.  The hotel attendant had to show us how to open the door without the handle as they said there was no other room available.

Recap of some things gone by

We are currently enjoying a week at a lovely cottage in Fenelon Falls with family so won't officially be home until Saturday August 6.  

Since the internet was iffy in Ethiopia I thought I would share some things we saw on our trip that I just didn't have time to share while we were there.   Here are some of the more interesting pictures from Addis Ababa, the main city in Ethiopia

This is the view from our balcony at the guesthouse.  The white bags are full of charcoal for sale.    The charcoal is used by most Ethiopians for heat and also for cooking.  It is made by placing burning logs in dug hole.  They are then covered with dirt and left for a couple days.  It is then uncovered, cooled and then bagged and sold in town. 

It appears that the garbage collectors may have been on strike.  Dogs are not owned as pets so this would be there main source of food.

This is a meat market which could be found on almost every crowded street.  Meat is often eaten raw in a commonly served dish called Kitfo.

Fruit markets could also be found often.  The oranges, pineapples and avocado were delicious!

Very SCARY! The scaffolding on this building was made from thin wood logs. The stairs going up were simply logs tied together.  If you look really closely you can see 3 men working at the very top.  Pretty sure this would not pass Canadian standards. 

A spice shop seen in the local market. All the food we ate was delicious.  

People taking a nap in the middle of a round-about.  There are so many people everywhere!
Addis Ababa was full of people.  Although many apartments building could be found many people just lived in dilapidated metal structures. People were seen walking everywhere.