When we finally make it to Addis on Thursday their will be a Holt representative waiting for us to drive us to the Union Hotel. We will check in and rest a bit that day. Friday, once everyone from our travel group arrives, we will be brought over to where the babies are and after an orientation and schedule of events we will be able to meet Mia Zinash for the first time. Friday and Saturday will be spent just hanging out with Mia and getting to know her a bit. Sunday the center in closed. Tuesday is our visa appointment and after we pass we will be able to bring Mia back with us to the hotel and she is finally ours!
The trip to Durame/birth family meeting is scheduled for Wednesday. We hope to have some clarification on this in our conference call next Thursday. Durame is an overnight trip which means we will get back to Addis sometime on Thursday and we are flying home Thursday night. Also, Mia Zinash will not be coming with us. So, that would mean that we would have her Tuesday night, bring her back to the center on Wednesday, she would spend the night at the center on Wednesday night and then we will get her back on Thursday and then we will leave. I hope this doesn't mess her up too much. I REALLY want to go to Durame but Eric is nervous that the bus will break down or something and we will miss our return flight.
Holt has planned different sight seeing activities for us to do as a group while we are in Ethiopia. They will take us shopping, to museums and out for a traditional Ethiopian meals and we will get to hear Ethiopian music with dancing. For these outings Mia Zinash will stay at the care center as the Ethiopia Government does not want us as adoptive families to take our children out in public. Ethiopians do not really understand adoption and although we have heard nothing but wonderful things about the Ethiopian people and their hospitality, we must respect the fact that this would be a taboo thing for them to see and might be rather upsetting.
We did get a little bit of information from another mom who returned from Ethiopia a week ago. It seems that Zinash and her little one had cribs right next to each other. She told me that Zinash is a pretty easy going baby (yes). She said she only had one melt-down while they were visiting and it was only because she wanted to be held (awwwwww). She also told me that Zinash is petite for sure and will definitely start out in 9 month sizes - opps! So, off to the stores for more shopping.
Now we have to tackle some projects around the house, a whole bunch of paperwork for our agency and packing. Someone from our agency has created a packing list to be used as a guideline to follow for our trip. It is 4 pages long - I am wondering how many bags that would make - ugh!
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lol...i guess that would be my packing list you're referring to. I promise, a lot of the items are really small, and some aren't relevant to infant adoptions. deep breaths, I promise you can get it all into just a couple of bags! :) So happy for you that you leave soon!
ReplyDeleteWhat's all the paperwork you need for Holt?
ReplyDeleteHeather:
ReplyDeleteYou probably will begin to receive it this week. It is for the trip to Durame, Birth Parents meeting and then you will fill out your I-600, 876(?) and you have to get 2 vaccination forms signed and notarized for both you and your hubby.
So excited you get to experience this soon! Just thought I would let you know that we did the Durame trip on Sunday/Monday. I get the impression they plan to do it this way from now on, but I'm not sure. It was an amazing experience!
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