heading home

via Frankfurt Germany on saturday!

now you could say that we got our tickets because of dave's hard work and determination. . . OR you could say it is because we ran out of yerba. . . we brought a huge bag of yerba to ethiopia so that we could drink mate' in the mornings together and just think and talk and chill like we do at home.  it really is my favorite part of the day.  and often when we go on trips, i just pour a bunch of yerba into a ziplock and then it seems to always run out just as its time to head back home.  so our bag of yerba was getting low and finding plane tickets was turning into a debacle (and that is an understatement).  so yesterday dave was out on the hunt for tickets and i was back at the guesthouse staring at the very last dusting of yerba.  i poured it into the guampa and used it all up.  an hour later, dave came back and we had tickets!!!!!  the magical yerba strikes again :)

the final steps

we had our embassy interview today! little a's visa will be ready tomorrow morning at 10am! we are currently trying to figure out which flight to take home.  we have enjoyed our time here but are ready to make our way home and get settled in before big L starts kindergarten at the end of august!

submitted to embassy. . .and a little glitch

our paperwork has been submitted to the embassy! this is great news.  but apparently there is a global glitch in the visa processing system  so until they sort that out we will be staying put. . . at least we have a little apartment with a kitchen and new legos (thanks to my dad and his wife!) and well, we've been waiting to get to ethiopia for almost 4 years so we might as well have some fun while we're at it!

Medical clearance finished!

Tomorrow we will submit our pile of paperwork to the US embassy! Next step will be getting an 'interview' to get the travel visa. 

a good story

so last night we had quite an experience at Bata -- a restaurant with very interesting 'architecture.'

anyway, hopefully the story will be up soon on:
www.berberecoffeeinjeraplease.blogspot.com

getting closer still

started the visa medical today. . . tb test check on wednesday.  assuming all is clear with the tb test, we then move on to the very last step of submitting our papers to the embassy to get a visa to transport this little ethiopian to US soil. . . 

Making sweet progress

Birth certificate was issued. Passport is also ready. Next we have a 4 day medical clearance and then we submit to embassy for the visa! We have been so lucky with our process since we've arrived in Ethiopia!

Court Decree

Yesterday (july 14) we got our court decree so that means we finally got to go get our boy and bring him back to our guesthouse! It also happened to be his 2nd birthday! To celebrate, big brother hit little brother in the face with a green balloon for a while (so many giggles from both) and then a few beers were drank by the grownups. Now we wait for our MOWA letters. In the meantime we plan to feed this little man as he is quite small. And if you're wondering why I'm awake at 4:38 am in addis it's because we are all 4 crammed in a tiny room and the two youngest ones snore!!! Which is fine because the call to prayers from the local mosque will start soon and I love listening to it

the next step

so now we are waiting for the court to issue us The Adoption Decree -- piece of paper stating the results of our court date. . . . once we have that piece of paper, then we can go to our little man's orphanage and get him out of there and bring him home to the guest house with us!  until we get that decree, we visit him every day!

on our first visit with him, he 'let' me hold him. . . it was a reluctant 'let' but better than not letting me.
on our second visit he laughed a little and we played some games.
on our third visit he smiled when he saw us coming and showed us his running skills!

making progress slowly but surely. . .

we LOVE being back in ethiopia.  it feels like home.

we passed court

and that means that there are officially 4 Kiyvyras on the planet earth!  and the other good news is that we made the little dude laugh today, and let me tell you, it was hard work!

now that we got your attention

here is something worth watching about adoption:

An Adoption Story by Jillian Lauren

alright folks

it looks like we will be flying to addis ababa on monday morning!  i am planning on updating this blog during our trip so that folks can follow along if they want.  the schedule of events will go something like this:

court date (july 10)
court decree issued
MOWYCA letter written
birth certificate issued
passport issued
visa medical completed
submit to embassy
embassy interview

this process is predicted to take 3-8 weeks.

while we are there, we plan on doing a lot of eating.  if you're interested in what and where we are eating (and of course, what we think about it all, or more accurately WHAT DAVE THINKS ABOUT IT) check out dave's food blog:
berberecoffeeinjeraplease.blogspot.com

so off we go on our own magical mystery berbere tour. . . wish us luck :)