Embassy Day

We received a call last night changing our Embassy time from the morning to the afternoon.  That freed up time for us to go shopping in the morning.  Crew as a typical male thought it was boring and slept through most of that time.  I was reprimanded for not having him covered up by a shopkeeper because it was a bit chilly today.  They just don’t understand what cold actually is.  Shopping went very well this time.  We had specific items and knew the surroundings this go around.  It has been raining on and off today, making everything very, very muddy.  The shoe shiners were out in full force, willing to shine any shoe…I did not know tennis shoes needed shining until we stayed here.  We still don’t understand who utilizes the shoe shiners in such a poor country, but they are everywhere. 

After lunch, we went to the US Embassy for our interview.  We waited for about 45 minutes before our interview.  In classic American government style, there were 15 windows to serve people and only 3 of them were staffed.  There was also only 1 person doing interviews.  The US Embassy was very American and if you close your eyes you would think you were at the DMV.  The interviewer was from St. Louis and Justin and he bonded with their love for the Cardinals.  He asked us very basic questions about Crew’s history and about the adoption process.  It was behind glass and there was a loud speaker going off.  It was very difficult to hear him.  He did say the words we were hoping to hear “Your adoption is now finalized in the United States and upon arrival on Saturday, Abenezer will be a US citizen.”  We now have to pick up the final paperwork from the Embassy.  It is a large envelope that cannot be opened until it is handed to a US Customs officer in Washington DC.  Thank you for all the prayers you were pouring up for this appointment.  God answered this prayer very positively.  It is amazing how often we have seen God work and directly answer prayer throughout the adoption process.

Crew has a bit a of fussy day today.  We are figuring out his schedule as the info we received was not accurate on his schedule.  He sleeps pretty well at night, but is a bear from 3-6 in the afternoon.  He is much more of an infant than we would have thought.  He eats only milk (refusing all baby food) and sleeps every couple of hours during the day.  We believe this is just another symptom of him being delayed in his overall development.  This will be something we can remedy as we have consistent time with him in our house.  We gave him his first bath today (not his first ever, just by us).  They gave him an infant bath which we tried to fill in the shower.  He was not a fan.   He liked it for about 30 seconds, then stood up, slipped, and knocked his head against the tub.  He repeated it immediately and caught the shower door the second time.  Needless to say, he cried through the rest of it.  We used our new found Ethiopian baby products and his hair is now super fluffy.  Justin thinks that in 6 months, we could puff it out for a solid mini-fro.  He had a great 2 hours before he went to bed last night.  We learned he can crawl without problem, sit up on his own, and pull himself up on furniture and stand holding on to it unsupported.  That was light years away from when we saw him last, just a few weeks ago.