Tuesday the 16th

Better night last night. Elizabeth suggested a tsp of rice cereal in her bottle. It worked and it stayed down much better. Up and dressed for the embassy date. Nathan had a really good night, yeah. His clothes are too big but he is sooooo cute. Malaowi had a great night. She eats and eats and eats. Yonatan says they still don't have any fuel. Yohatan also says Ethiopian children don't know I'm full they only know I'm sick, so they eat and eat and eat.
Bill is teaching Eamonn how to make napkin roses, his hidden talent. Eamonn is into oragomi. Bill had eggs and coffee for breakfast. Gretchen asked for pancakes, no pancakes. I had a poptart and we ate the bread they always have on the table. Gretchen says the Pepsi tastes weird. Gretchen tried to figure out how to use the baby carrier.

Elizabeth had a bad night with Onya. Gretchen changed Yohanna into her dress, the shoes are too big.

In Awasa they served soda like a waiter would serve wine from a bottle, resting on their arm on a towel.

We had lunch at the Blue Tops again and we all had breaded chicken cutlets, as big as your plate, a few boiled potatoes, carrots and spinich. We tried desserts. Yohanna spiked a temp of 107. Gretchen stripped her except for the diaper and we tried to cool her off. Scary.

Some of the group was trying to teach Abel spanish. The other kids seem to be doing well, I found out after we got home that looks are deceiving. But they all got home.
We gave Abel our facebook addresses and email addresses.

We got to the Embassy. Left most of our stuff in the bus. Walked through one metal detector. Even when it beeped they let people through without checking. We then sat on cushioned benches under a tent, moving up as each family or two was called in. We got to go ahead of some of the local people, or at least they looked and sounded local. You must have your passport and go through another metal detector. If it went off this time they searched you. Bill and Emily went off. Bill had his cell phone, don't know why it wouldn't work. Emily had batteries. They had to give them up and were given a receipt for when they left.

We went into a large hot room with lines of chairs and a small play area for kids. 'm not sure I would have let my kids play there. How many germs? There was a toilet there but no soap. Lots of people were waiting. HOTHOTHOT LOUDLOUDLOUD Eventually some were taken upstairs so it got better.

We were then called upstairs and sat again. The families went up to a little window like the old casher's windows at old banks and were interviewed individually. Recently the government had some unethical adoption agencies problems so the questions were different. The families didn't get yelled at but the person that they were with representing the adoption agencies did. 5 kids passed including Yohanna and Elliott. Yeah. One little boy had pnemonia and has to have medicine before he leaves for the US. One issue was about HIV and another about the actual age of the child. We hope they all get to go home as planned their planes leave in a couple of days. One dad was so upset he put on his sunglasses to keep everyone from seeing him cry, it was so sad.

We ran all over Addis dropping off people, we went by out guest house corner at least twice. The driver wasn't very smart, he was paid by the trip not the mile.

If you to to Ethiopia, stay at the New Flower Guest house, it has 4 bathrooms and is closest to the airport. The other guest house had 1 bathroom that was shared with all the guests and the family running it.

The doctor's were eating noodles when we got home. Gretchen was sent up stairs to rest, I changed Yohanna and took her up too. Bill, Elizabeth and her 2 kids and I went to the market.We got ice cream and desserts, wasn't too impressed. Bill and I looked for something for the kids, nothing there. 1 scoop ice cream 10 birr. Tasted like cooked custard homemade. I bought butter cookies for the guest house, Bill and the others bought Choc. crissonts. It was really dark when we headed back. We had to stand and bang on the gate. Eyob was out and Yonatan had to come from the house.I was glad there were several of us no street lights.

Took out the braids in my hair, gave me a headache. One man told me it only took 15 minutes to braid my hair because my hair was "soft". Getting up a 7 am. Nathan's parents got a caregiver to go out for dinner. Malowi's parents got a caregiver so they could go to the mountain. That's where we are going tomorrow.