August 26, 2009
Today was our embassy interview appointment for Mekonen's visa out of the country. This was the BIG DAY! The final legal part of the adoption and we passed with flying colors!!
It was a fun morning with all the families getting ready for the appointment and waiting for Gail to come pick us up. She arrived a little after noon and we all piled ourselves into two cars. All the moms had the babies strapped to them in baby carriers because in Ethiopia the driving can be a little crazy and there are no carseats or seatbelts! Look out!
We were told by other AAI families that the embassy appointments have lasted several hours! We must've gotten lucky though because our day went by really fast. The appointments started at 1:00pm and we were done by 2pm! We walked into the building and went through two security checks. Then we walked to an upstairs room with all the other families to wait. Gail took each family one at a time upstairs to where all the windows are. When she called us, Jon, Mekonen and I all followed suit up the stairway. The lady we got at the window was training two people during our little session. The lady had us raise our right hands and swore us in. She then asked us a few simple questions such as, "What is his name, what is the nature of his parents, and do you swear that all the info presented in this file is true?" (and a few other questions I can't remember). She looked through all our papers, signed and stamped them, and handed the file back to us. VOILA!!!! HE IS OURS!!!!! Not a single hiccup! YEAH!!!!
Inside the red folder that contained our life were things like his official adoption decree, his original Ethiopian birth certificate (which is so cool) and two pictures we had never seen before. Priceless. It gave me the chills looking through all the papers. Can't believe he is ours!
I wanted to take a picture of us at the embassy but no cameras were allowed within one block of the U.S. Embassy, so that was a no go! Instead, here are some more pics of us hanging out with our babe back at the Guest House.
I seriously cannot stop kissing those dimples. Unbelievable cuteness!
Here's Mekonen trying out some rice cereal. Yummy!!! 
Daddy blowing raspberries on Mekonen's belly. He was crackin' up!
Uh-oh...DOUBLE TROUBLE!
Pure sweetness.
4 comments:
Wanted to let you know how much I have enjoyed reading you blog. Welcome home to all of you. What a great feeling to be finally reunited as a family. I found your blog some time ago on my friend Amanda's just wanted to let you know I am reading your blog. Nothing worse than blog stalkers.
He is so adorable!!! Glad to hear that you didn't run into any snags at the embassy appt. Thanks again for updating us and letting us take a peek into what we can expect.
Thank you for your detailed account of your trip to Ethiopia! We are currently waiting for our referral, and I posted a link from our blog to yours to help our family visualize what it will be like. :)
Congratulations!
Your son is SOOO cute! Thanks for writing down your story! My husband and I have just started the paper chase with AAI and it's been so encouraging to read others blogs. Congratulations!
Post a Comment