July 16

Ok, here’s the post you’ve all been waiting for . . . . it’s Denver Day!!! Thanks for following along – your comments are making me smile. Bear with me . . . this is a long post with many pictures. It was really hard to choose just a few out of the hundreds. So here we go:

I was up at 4:30 am and decided to type again (journal on my laptop). I had lain awake for two hours after only sleeping for three. Will get downstairs for breakfast and then meet Solomon so he can take us to the baby home. Can’t wait to see my boy!

I had breakfast at the guest house – dry cereal. Today is a blackout day so there’s no power which means there was no toast. I could have had bread but the jam was just in a big bowl and I didn’t trust it. (Yes, I’m picky!) I’m trying to be so very cautious about what I eat and drink.

Yesterday a fellow adoptive mom found out that the plan for Kids Link here in Ethiopia was to move all the babies from the baby home to the toddler home and close up the baby home (since there’s no money coming in). I got nervous about that because I didn’t want Denver moved again – I wanted his next move to be to me. But I was assured that this wasn’t going to happen right away – it would be a few days or even in a week or two. Phew.

When I got downstairs, I found out that the babies were being moved today! So my plan was to see if I could take Denver today even though the policy is to visit your child on the first day and then take them on the second day when you come back. I was hoping they would make an exception because of Denver’s age and because of the situation, I thought it would also be one less mouth to feed. I had my fingers crossed.

Solomon said he would come get us at 9:30 to take us to the Canadian Embassy and then we would go from there to see our kids. Unfortunately Solomon had a hard time getting the van because they were moving the babies so it took forever. He didn’t come until after 10:30 to get us. He had arranged to use a different van for us.

We headed out to the Canadian Embassy where we had to go through a security check and then we were given badges – to prove we were allowed to be there. We had asked to see someone about our situation so they said the Immigration official we needed to talk to was busy and probably would be for an hour. So they said we could come back later in the day or even tomorrow. We discussed what to do but I wasn’t ok with leaving. I said I would be willing to wait and so that’s what we did. As it turned out we got to talk to the Consul himself – Mr. Nick Furlotte – which was even better. He was a very friendly man and seemed genuinely concerned about our situation. He knew all about what was going on in Canada with Imagine because his mom told him via MSN the day prior. Mr. Furlotte actually recognized my name because of all the work our MP’s office was doing back home. He knew I would be there that day to see them and knew that our MP’s office had spoken to Foreign Affairs as well. Unfortunately Mr. Furlotte was not really able to help us out too much. He did say that he figured, because of all the media attention and the pressure the government in Canada was getting, that something should be done sooner or later. He is unable to issue emergency passports for our children because they’re technically not Canadian citizens yet. He did take down our names, our children’s names, our file numbers (the “A” number) and our phone number at the Weygoss. That way he said he could call us directly when our visa’s come in so it doesn’t have to go through Martha at Kids Link. So even though we didn’t get a concrete answer or a solution to our problem, we did feel a bit more optimistic when we left there.

So now it was time to see our kids! We were feeling a tad hungry so we stopped at Kaldi’s (Ethiopian Starbucks) on our way. I had a croissant and some merinda (orange pop).

After that we headed out to the toddler home. There were many cribs and items from the baby home just sitting in the courtyard there. Solomon said that Denver was still at the baby home (hadn’t been moved yet) so we would first bring the other families to see their kids and then we’d go see Denver. So we went inside the lobby (reception area) at the toddler home and waited for a bit. The other two families that were there got their kids first. It was neat to experience that with them. Then Solomon told me that Denver was on his way – they were going to bring him after all. I waited and waited and waited – well over an hour.

See how patient I was??? Pacing, looking out the window, pacing, more pacing . . .

Finally Solomon said, “get ready”. And in he came.

What a sweetie. He was so happy and content and came to me no problem. He was actually very tired and just kind of hung out in my arms. I found out that he had been sleeping on the way over so I think he missed most of his nap. We just hung out for a long time there snuggling and staring at each other. He gave me lots of nice smiles and even did some “raspberries" with his tongue. So cute! It was great to finally meet our son but I was so disappointed and sad that Mike wasn’t there with me.

I had a meeting with Martha (the director at the transition home) and told her that I wanted to take Denver home with me today. I told her my reasons and I saw her really thinking about it. I told her that I understood the policy but was looking out for the best interest of my son. She was a little bit concerned about what other families would think if she let me. I told her that we had all discussed it and they understood my take on it. They also thought it would be better for their children to stay the first night after meeting them because they’re that much older than Denver. After chatting for a bit she said it was fine with her but that she would have to get it passed by the social worker first. She said Denver looked really content and comfortable with me already. So I went back out to the lobby to wait. The head nurse came out and went over his schedule with me and told me what to feed him and when. That was very helpful. Although unfortunately I didn’t get a bottle to take with me and had no idea what kind he was used to having. The nurse told me that Denver is a very happy baby and she also said he has great hair. She said it’s the kind of hair that Ethiopian’s like. A lot of Ethiopian’s have really coarse hair but because Denver’s is really soft, it’s easier to care for. I asked her if it would stay like that and she said yes, his hair would always stay soft like that. Yay!

On our way out, the caregivers from the baby home had come over and were all standing in the court yard. They all came over to say bye to Denver and many of them had tears in their eyes. It broke my heart to think about how the bankruptcy is affecting them and I knew that they were going in to have a meeting and that many of them would be out of a job immediately.

On our way home we stopped at a store so we could buy some supplies. I bought some cereal, small pasta, formula, water and a bottle.

I called Mike as soon as I got back to the guest house to tell him that I had Denver . . . in my arms . . . forever!!! He was shocked and couldn’t believe it. I told him what had happened.

Then we decided to go out for dinner. We ate at the Ice Blue restaurant which is close by. I had pizza and it was really good. (Reminds me of China where I lived on pizza). I can see ourselves going out there more often. The pizza could feed at least two people (with 1 – 2 pieces leftover) and only cost about $5.00 US. Denver ate his cereal in no time and even wanted a second bowl. He was really good there, looking around at everything.

I spoke to Mike again on the phone. I also talked to Victoria, Austin and Samara. Our MP’s office called while I was on the phone with Mike to say that she had just spoken to the High Commission in Nairobi and they have everything they need to process our file. But unfortunately they couldn’t tell her when that would be done.

When I got back to the guest house, I got some water boiled (had to go to the front desk so they could do it in the kitchen on a kerosene stove since there was still no power). Denver had a bottle – he drinks really, really slow but I wonder if the hole in the bottle is too small. I’ll have to experiment with that later. He fell asleep as he was drinking his bottle. He slept really well until 2:18 am and then had another small bottle and back to sleep until 6:20.

July 15

The stopover at the Frankfurt airport was about three hours. We had a small bite to eat and just hung out – felt very exhausted. My ear was still hurting and I was worried about flying again.

As we were boarding the plane, there was another young woman boarding at the same time. She too had a Canadian passport and so we started to chat. As it turns out, she was also heading to Addis to pick up her twin girls. Her husband was also left behind at home and she was traveling with her mom. It felt really good to connect with someone in the same boat. She was just as stressed as I was and we ended up chatting for a while on the flight. She was also staying at the Weygoss but didn’t have a plan to get there yet. We said we would ask Solomon, our driver, if she too could hitch a ride in the same vehicle.

Flying over the Sahara Desert - very cool!

Flying into Addis Ababa, Ethiopia:


We finally arrived in Addis Ababa at almost 7:00 pm local time on Wednesday. Got a visitor visa right at the airport and changed a bit of money to local money – Ethiopian birr. Went through customs – no problem – the man didn’t even ask us questions – except how to pronounce my name which seemed to just be out of interest, nothing else. My luggage was there right away. Went through gates and Solomon (who is bald – but not wrinkled or fat like he told me on the phone!) was right there waiting with his right hand man (can’t remember his name) They gave us each some flowers. Unbelievable people. Huge hearts. Will do anything for us.

The Addis Ababa Airport:


Definitely a huge relief to have this connection. As we were talking with these two men about the whole situation with our agency, they were tearing up. I could just tell how much this is affecting them. They love the kids and their jobs so much.

They had no problem taking our new friends to the Weygoss with us.

We got to the guest house and checked in. It’s beautiful and the people are very friendly. There were two other adoptive moms there with their boys. We got settled a bit in the room, Solomon made sure everything was okay and gave us more general information re: eating, water, etc. I made arrangements to meet him at 9:30 the following morning so he could take me to see Denver. Yay! I called home – talked to my mother-in-law briefly. I called Mike on his cell phone and chatted a bit. I missed everyone back home like crazy! We chatted for a while with the other adoptive moms – they gave us so much information about living in Addis – one of them had been there for seven weeks with her little guy already (long story that I won’t get into). I bought some water at the front desk and Solomon said he’d take us to do some shopping the following day too – after I see Denver. I will also talk to Solomon about trying to get us to the Canadian Embassy tomorrow.

I headed back up to the room, had a shower and went to bed. I fell asleep around 10:30 pm, slept like a rock for three hours and then laid around for two more hours (gotta love that jetlag). Finally got up to journal on my laptop.

July 14

After a long night without much sleep, we woke up still not knowing exactly what to do. I had done a bit of shopping the night before – particularly at the pharmacy and Mike’s mom came by train to help out with the kids – just in case I left at any minute. One option was to wait one more day to see if anything changed but I couldn’t get a flight for Wednesday. The next available flight would be Thursday evening and we felt that was way too long to wait. The MP’s office didn’t have an answer for us at this point and my flight was only on hold until noon.

The ultimate decision was made by Mike. He finally said I should just go. This decision was made a few minutes before noon so I quickly called the travel agent and said to go ahead with the booking. Thankfully I was all set with my passport and immunizations. My sister was able to pull it together at the last minute too (I had called her to let her know the situation on Sunday night) and we agreed to meet at the airport at 3:00 pm – less than three hours later. Wow! Packing in about a half an hour is not a good idea and this became even clearer when I arrived in Ethiopia without some fairly necessary items. Oh well – not the end of the world.

By the way, the entire time since Sunday night, my three precious children at home (Victoria, Austin and Samara) were pretty much ignored. I was super stressed to say the least and felt like I had no time for them. I felt horrible about the way this all went. I’m sure they were so confused as it’s hard for them to understand what was all happening. How do you explain the bankruptcy of an adoption agency to three young children? To be honest, all they cared about was that Mommy was heading to Ethiopia to FINALLY bring Denver home. At one point I happened to mention that I may have to stay for a while (didn’t say specifically just how long that might be) and this just about did Austin in. He had a bit of a hard time and missed me a lot when I was in BC at the end of May so he wasn’t too pumped about this whole thing. But kids will be kids and they took it all in stride. Me? Not so much. It was really, really hard saying goodbye and not knowing how long I’d be away.

At some point before leaving home for the airport our super duper, fantastic, amazing, awesome (you get the picture) social worker Donna called. We had been in touch via email on and off over the past few days but it was so good to hear her voice. She reassured me by saying that if she were in my position, she would be doing the exact same thing. She said we need to trust our gut and she can relate to the mama bear instinct. That was exactly what I needed to make me feel like we were for sure, 100%, making the right decision. After all, jumping on a plane and heading to Africa isn’t something I, or most people for that matter, do on a regular basis. So thanks Donna!

With only 15 minutes left before having to leave the house, I called the Weygoss Guest House in Addis Ababa where I knew other adoptive families often stayed when traveling to Ethiopia. I just happened to get through on my first try (even though I found out later that it was a power out day) and booked a room. I also got a hold of someone that used to work for our agency as a driver/guide and he agreed to pick me up at the airport and bring me to the guest house. We could already see how God was watching out for us on this journey.

We got stuck in traffic on the way to the airport – yep, just what we needed. We still arrived in plenty of time though and met my sister there. Saying bye to Mike was even harder than saying bye to the kids. Again, I didn’t know how long I’d be away from him.

We boarded the flight and left at our scheduled departure time. It was a long, long flight to Frankfurt – eight hours. I didn’t sleep much. I’m not really good at sleeping on a plane regardless but having so much on my mind didn’t help. I had a major earache when we were descending into Frankfurt – excruciating pain – but other than that, everything went well and I was done the bigger part of the journey to Addis Ababa – only six and half hours of flight left.

July 12 and 13

On the afternoon of Sunday, July 12 we received an email from someone letting us know about the possible bankruptcy of our adoption agency. To say we were shocked is a major understatement. We were told that because of the situation, we should be prepared to travel early and perhaps one of us count on staying longer than we expected. Because the transition home where Denver was staying was run by our agency, we were unsure how long they would be staying open. I can’t even begin to tell you how devastating this was for us. It was such a shock as we had absolutely no idea, no warning, no indicators at all that our agency was in trouble.

At this point, we weren’t even supposed to have found out about the bankruptcy but knowing the position we were in, having been through court making Denver officially our son, this person was kind enough to inform us of the situation.

I spent pretty much all of Monday on the phone trying to figure things out. Slowly the news was leaking out and the adoption community was becoming aware of the situation. Two moms of Ethiopian children – one that had just arrived home from Addis and one that was still there – sent emails out to everyone saying that if we were through court and had children in the transition home in Addis, that we should get over there as soon as possible. Apparently there was no money coming in anymore and there was only a few days worth of food left for the children. Yikes. I may have been a little stressed at this point.

You may be wondering why the decision to travel or not was so tough for me so I’ll explain. At this point, Denver was legally our son. We had his court documents, his passport and his birth certificate. However these documents were all at the High Commission in Nairobi and we were waiting for them to issue Denver’s facilitation visa so we could get him home to Canada. This process was taking approximately 12 weeks (give or take) and we were at week five. Our agency has a strict policy that you are not allowed to travel prior to this visa being issued. The concern is always about messing things up for those in the process behind us. However, at this point, we figured there wouldn’t be anyone behind us due to the bankruptcy of our agency. The other issue was that I would probably have to stay in Ethiopia for seven weeks (give or take) waiting for Nairobi to issue Denver’s visa before I could take him home. Having three children and a husband at home – that wouldn’t have been easy.

We also put a call in to our MP’s office and stopped by in the early afternoon on Monday to give them every single piece of paperwork we had. The woman at the office (we’ll call her “C”) did so much work for us already that first day. Even though she said she was only working until 3:00 pm at the latest that day, she was still calling us past 5:30. She is an amazing woman and we will forever be thankful for everything she did for us.

So we continued to think and pray about what to do. I called a travel agent and put a flight on hold for the next day just in case. This also wasn’t easy because I didn’t know what my return date was. To leave a ticket open ended is a huge cost (approximately eleven thousand dollars) so we just picked a date - the soonest possible day we could get for a reasonable price - with the plan to change it (a cost of $200.00 to change it and then pay the difference if the new flight cost more). When the travel agent called me back with the details, I realized that I forgot to tell her that I was coming home with a baby. Oops – minor detail! I clearly had way too much going on in my head.

Around dinnertime an official bankruptcy notice was posted on our agency’s website. We put together an email to inform family and friends of the situation and to ask for prayer – specifically for Denver’s health and safety as well as for us as we had some major decisions to make.

Yes, I am still planning on posting my journal on here. I'm not procrastinating. I just need to get my journal off the laptop I took to Ethiopia but it doesn't have a burner so I have to use an external hard drive. Ok, the truth is, I just have to do it. So much to do, so little time. So in the meantime, I thought I'd post some pictures . . .

The kids are enjoying their new little brother and as you can see above, they already welcomed him into their reading club. Even Samara is doing well in her role as a big sister. Overall she's pretty good with him although there are some things you can hear around here more often: "Samara, be gentle", "Samara, his arm doesn't bend that way", "No Samara, he can't have your chicken", etc. Don't worry, we won't let her babysit anytime soon!

P.S. To all you expert bloggers . . . does anyone know how to transfer text from a word document to my blog? Cut and paste doesn't seem to work. Please let me know if you can help. Thanks.

We're Home!

For those of you that don't know, I just arrived home on Saturday afternoon after spending 10 days in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. There were a lot of circumstances that lead to this last minute travel and I hope to blog all about it. I was able to journal while in Ethiopia and I will also share that with you when I am able to find some time. Here's an email I sent out to family and friends yesterday:

Hello everyone. Denver and I made it home safely on Saturday afternoon at around 1:30. I'm still in shock and can't believe that the events of the past two weeks really happened. My emotions have been through the ringer - pulled every which way. When I left for Ethiopia two weeks ago, I had every intention of staying as long as I had to and at that point it looked like it was going to be weeks or even months. Now here we are, two weeks later, all together as a family of six. God is good! Despite the extreme stress and uncertainties and although this trip was not AT ALL what it was supposed to be, we saw God's hand working clearly many times. He watched over all of us, kept us safe and healthy and never once let us down.

When I think about saying thank you, I don't even know where to begin. So many of you played huge parts in all of this and we want you to know how much we appreciate you and what you've done for us. We couldn't have done it without you and your support and prayers mean so much.

Denver is doing relatively well. He has been through a lot and he is extremely overwhelmed. Aside from two parents that love him to bits, he has three siblings that are in his face 24/7. They can't get enough of him and he needs to get used to all the activity in our home. He's a happy and content baby and he's eating and sleeping really well. Him and I are still getting used to Canadian time but the jet lag doesn't seem nearly as bad comign home as it did going there - for that I am thankful. Last night Denver fell asleep at 6:30 pm and I followed about an hour latera. The next thing I knew, it was 4:30 am and Denver was awake and ready to play. I feel quite refreshed today after having nine hours of solid sleep - can't remember the last time I slept so well.

Please continue to pray for us as we go through this time of adjustment. We're all getting used to the changes and it's going to be a while before we're back to some sort of normalcy - is there such a thing as "normal" with four young kids??? I also want to ask you to continue to pray for the situation with our agency and all the families that are caught up in the mess. We have some dear friends that were waiting for referrals, some others that hope to travel soon to pick up their kids and some new friends that I met at the guest house in Ethiopia that are waiting for visas so they too can return home soon. We know that God can make these things right and we pray that His will be done.

On my last day in Ethiopia I was able to visit the orphanage where Denver spent the first month of his life (before he was brought into our agency's transition home). One of the caregivers there was wearing a shirt that said "God will never let you down" and I thought it was so appropriate after all we had been through. I just want to leave you with this verse from Psalm 55:22: "Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall".

Love you lots.

Karen

Here are some of the pictures that were taken on Saturday. I can't believe I'm posting the one of me doing the ugly cry but I think it portrays the relief I felt at finally being on Canadian soil with our entire family all together.