Ella doesn't seem too concerned about the embassy interview. She slept on the drive to the Embassy.
On our way to the appointment.
One of the sweet friends we met at the guest house. She and her husband and two children were there adopting an older boy.
I wanted to document our days in Ethiopia before I forget all the details. On Day 3, we decided Ella needed to see the doctor so we walked to Wanna. The doctor confirmed that she had an ear infection and gave her a prescription antibiotic. We hung around Wanna house and took pictures of some of the waiting babies.
Suddenly it was time to go to the Embassy interview, where we would be given the visa for Ella to enter the US. We ended up having to rush to catch the van back to the guest house and Joan ran into the guest house to get supplies (diapers, etc) for the trip to the Embassy. The funniest thing , she slipped right as she was going into the guest house and wiped out, but it didn't hurt her and she got up laughing. I know one day when we tell this story to Ella she will appreciate her Aunt Joan sacrificing her body to get her baby stuff for her.
We piled into the van with the other families and together we all went to the US Embassy in Addis Ababa. We had to go thru all the typical security and baggage check to get inside and silly me, I let them keep Ella's diaper bag at check in. We ended up having to go ask for it back when she needed a diaper change.
We all waited in a holding room with people from our agency and other agencies. AAI definitely had the most families there. I think there were 9 families. Our families were some of the first called and the first 2AAI families came back from the interview with sad faces. Due to missing information their children were not granted visas. This made all of us a little nervous.
When our name was called, we walked with Gail upstairs to interview with an embassy employee at a window. As we were walking, I asked Gail what they would be asking us and she said it was too late to ask that now~thanks Gail.
We were interviewed by a nice, young man who only asked three questions. Was this the baby we were expecting? When Gail told him we were an IR3 case, we had to show proof of our pre court visit to Ethiopia where we first met Wubeski. He asked "What happened to the child's parents?" and if we knew anything about how she was found.
The funniest thing that happened during the interview, was that he asked if the man in our photos from our "visit" trip was my husband, and I was all nervous and said "yes, he's the daddy" He was a little confused and thought I was saying Bill was my daddy. We all had a chuckle about that and it really lightened up the otherwise serious moment.
The whole interview only took 3 minutes and we went back to the holding room with big smiles. Ella was granted a visa to enter the US and everything would be ready to pick up on Friday.
All the other families sailed thru the Embassy appointments and we learned later that day that the first two cases were also granted visas when Gail was able to get the needed information. Everyone in the guest house was relieved that evening. All our children were coming home to the US.
We spent the evening visiting with the other families and thoroughly enjoyed being together. Even with her ear infection, baby Ella was just perfect and sweet!
