Looking at Life Through Their Eyes...

Written by guest-blogger, Jordan!!

What is going on? I'm barely 5 1/2 and my father is suddenly gone? My little sister Achole is just 6 months and she doesn't understand. Then, suddenly, 6 months later my mom is gone too? What is going on here? I have no mom, no dad. Nobody to talk to. Now my aunt takes care of me? I mean I love her, but where are my parents?

Now all of a sudden a year later my sister and I are taken to a strange building. People are taking pictures of me, and my aunt is filling out tons of paperwork then my aunt is gone! All I have now is my sister who is only 2 years old. Nobody to talk to, no familiar faces. Nothing, nothing at all. Then a few months later once I've finally gotten used to things, I'm being put on an airplane (which I've never seen before) and flown to a large city far away from my home region. We finally get to the ground, then I'm put into a car and taken to another strange building with lots of kids. Where am I?

The next day four white people show up and are playing with my sister and me for a couple of hours and then they just left. They came back the next day and the next day and so forth and then suddenly they were gone also. I was told that they were my new mom and dad. They left behind a poster for me and a poster for my sister. They also gave us each a book with pictures in it. There are pictures of me, pictures of my sister, pictures of them, pictures of a house, and pictures of a bed. Is that bed for me, I wonder? I look at the poster every day just wondering.

I was stuck with all the little kids my first week here, and now I'm finally getting to go to school with all my friends. I've seen a few families come and play with other kids just like that one family came and played with my sister and me. The families keep coming and then they are gone. I've been talking to some kids and they say the family that came and played with me will be my family. They say I get to go home with them to where they live and live there too. I wonder if that is actually true? Those four white people? Who knows. Will they ever return for me?

Embassy Update!

We received an email from the US Embassy last Friday, Feb. 10th stating they are requesting an interview with our kiddos' aunt. We were expecting this so we were certainly not surprised. Our agency requested Feb. 28th, but the embassy scheduled it for March 7th. Needless to say, we are super disappointed that we have to wait an additional 3 weeks. By the time we return, our kiddos will have been waiting nearly 3 months for us. I keep wondering if they think we have forgotten about them. It is a frustrating and helpless feeling!

However, there is a silver lining to the wait. Most likely we will be traveling back to Ethiopia during Jordan's spring break. We are planning to take her with us again since she wouldn't miss any school. We feel blessed that both of our trips to Ethiopia have been during school breaks.

We are also considering gambling....we are considering booking our plane tickets now with the assumption we will receive clearance immediately following the interview. A travel agent has found some tickets for us that could be changed if needed. Is it worth the gamble in order to be there quickly???? We are also checking into whether or not the kiddos' aunt could stay in Addis 2 extra days until we get there. So many decisions to make!

And........once again........as it seems to be in the crazy journey of adoption........we wait some more!! Hopefully this will be our last "wait"!

Embassy!!

Great news!! We were submitted to the US Embassy today! Most likely we will not hear anything from the Embassy for at least 2 weeks. We are thrilled to be in the last phase of getting our kiddos home.