"plugging right along"
"an f-ing nightmare"
"international adoption is not for the faint of heart"
"sleep? yeah, right."
Maybe some of these will make sense later...but pretty much any expletive that you choose would probably sum it up.
Well, we have been plugging right along...getting my work done to prepare for my sub for 3 months, getting ready for our trip, taking care of things around the house, Cory's been studying for his class and preparing for a seminar he's co-hosting at the Athletic Club when we return, trying to sell the van, taking care of grandma, and the list goes on and on...as you can see, just a tad hectic!
On top of that, I spent the last four days trying to reach the U.S. embassy in Ethiopia, which isn't easy since they are 11 hours ahead of our time. Basically, they're working while we're sleeping. When your adoption is finally approved by the courts, the last step is to contact the embassy to be sure that they have your paperwork ready for your baby's VISA. You wouldn't want to travel half way around the world to find out that someone wasn't doing their job. Emailing the embassy is the easiest route for taking care of this, but for some reason (maybe my mail server?) my emails kept getting returned to me as undeliverable. I tried this for 2 days with no success. So I moved on to making phone calls. Well, you can start calling there at 9PM our time or at the crack-ass of dawn (4 or 5 in the morning). The first morning I started calling (yes, at 5 am) I had no trouble connecting to an embassy representative, only to get disconnected as soon as our conversation started. This happened 3 times. There were also several times that I would just get put into the hold loop and would also become disconnected after holding for a few minutes. By this time they were closing, so I just went to work. The next night I tried again and was never able to get through to anyone, just hold music and many disconnections. Considering we only had one more opportunity to try to get through, since they're closed on Fridays, I sent an email to Tania in my Adoption Avenues chat group and asked her if she would email the embassy for me to see if she might have better luck. She had been successful earlier that week, so we gave that a try. In the meantime, I tried again this morning (at 5 am) and got through to someone 4 different times, only to be disconnected every time we started getting somewhere. Then something happened with the phone lines and I was no longer to even call Ethiopia, getting a message saying that I could not call that number from my area. (WTF?) So I then had to use operator assistance (with an $8 connection fee, and $4.20 a minute). I was actually glad at that point we weren't able to get through so I was spared those outlandish prices. It became the end of the day there once again and we were out of luck. Cory and I just decided at that point that we'd wait to see if the email from Tania worked and if we didn't hear anything, we'd just have to hope for the best! Well, an hour later we received an email from Tania - she had heard from the embassy. Everything is ready for us to come! WHEW! THANK YOU TANIA! (See you in Addis!) What an f-ing nightmare THAT was! What a waste of money and time trying to call Ethiopia. I'll bet I made AT LEAST 40 calls to Ethiopia. Can't wait to see my phone bill. I've read on other blogs that international adoption is not for the faint of heart and I wasn't sure I understood exactly what that meant until these last four days. I'm happy to say that our adoption process thus far has been super smooth. A few minor frustrations with some documents early on, but overall it's been a seamless process. This last step about gave Cory and I a stroke.
Oh, and people have been telling me to get lots of sleep now because it will be scarce later. Sleep? Yeah, right. Have you heard that we're traveling half-way across the world to pick up a baby and bring her home on a plane for 18 hours?
So, all that's left to do now is finish one set of forms and pack! And no, I haven't even started packing yet! Today was my last day at work until March 2nd and it was a stressful day trying to get prepared for 3 months off. It didn't help matters much that one of my 5th graders pulled a chair out from under me (on purpose), my ass going straight to the floor. (I love being a teacher.) But on a happier note, the teachers I work with helped me fill an entire suitcase with school supplies to bring to the orphanage. I'll have pics soon. I just can't WAIT to hand over that suitcase full of goods for the students there. Thank you to all my colleagues for your donations! As I was driving home from work there was a beautiful rainbow in the sky and I swear that rainbow was just for me.
Okay, off to bed. I'm completely run-down and think I will go for at least 10 hours sleep tonight. :)
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