Embassy Trip: Day Three

No pictures for today's post, but I will share about Friday. This was an exciting morning because we were reunited with our court buddies!!!! The good news came for some of them after we had already left. They were still able to make it for the same embassy date. They had less notice than we did! WOW. One family stayed with us at Morning Coffee while the others stayed at Jemimah... two very different guest houses. We were just so extremely blessed to have had the opportunity to stay with Birtukan twice. She is my BFF in Ethiopia!!!! After breakfast we loaded up the bus and picked up the other families then headed to the orphanage. It was a little awkward because they were video taping for the families lifebooks. We waited outside for a little bit and then snuck around to go pick up our girl. To get out of the way we headed outside and enjoyed some of the kids singing for us. It was wonderful. We were able to record some of it, but I wish we would have gotten much more. I wish we could have recorded more of the language and more of the people while we were there. That is one thing I regret was my failure to take more pictures and record more video. I had every intention to do more of this during this trip, but failed miserably. Nevertheless, we will treasure what we did get and most of it is forever etched into my memory. We will go back though. We were even talking about that today. Andrea has such a passion for it. It is one of her greatest desires. I may have a little missionary on my hands!!!! After we spent the morning with Olivia and enjoying the kids, we said goodbye for our last time at the orphanage. The next time we go see her, we will be picking her up FOR GOOD!!! It felt so good saying goodbye this time. I know that sounds weird, but I wasn't sad at all and I was ready to go. There was much in store for us in the next couple of days. We would be making a trip of a lifetime and meeting the young woman who brought our daughter into this world. We were going to see where she lived for the first months of her life and a part of me knew that this was going to be BIG (and it was). So we left the gates childless for the last time and headed to the Topview restaurant. This was like a 4 start restaurant and we ate for less than $20. CRAZY! We then spent the afternoon shopping. I knew exactly what I wanted and had missed during our first trip. I sent Andy one way and I went the other. We both did some "price negotiating" and loaded up our bags. Abel is a task master on the shopping trips. You MUST be quick. So, if you are yet to travel, make a list and go quickly. There are only a couple of things that I wish I would have gotten, but I know that I am going back and will get them in the future. Plus, other people will be traveling soon. I love to shop over there. Fun times (poor Andy)! If Andrea is going to go with me, she needs to learn how to shop quickly. She takes her time and there just isn't enough time with Abel. We ate at the traditional restaurant for supper and enjoyed some crazy dancing. I wish I could move like they do, but my body is not cut out for that... Andy on the other hand... hmmmmm.
Stay tuned for our birth parent trip!