Final Ethiopian Blog

Well today will be the day we have been waiting for.  The embassy said they would call us this morning.  We were sitting at breakfast and I told Karen, I would call them at ten as I didn’t really figure it would be on their priority list but it sure was on ours.  Just after I said that the phone rang at 8:30 and it was the embassy.  It was the right news this time.  Ibssa’s visa was sitting there waiting to get picked up.  As soon as I got off the phone, Karen called Martha to let her know it had to be picked up this morning.  Martha is usually hard to get hold of but this morning it was the first attempt.  Martha picked up  our visa and came to our guesthouse to drop it off.  We received the final paperwork from Martha and signed off their papers that makes everything final.  We will need to do annual reports and our adoption practioner comes to see us for 3 years but all that is a drop in the bucket. 

We will officially board the plane on Wednesday evening at 10:20pm in Ethiopia.  We will land in Toronto on Thursday morning at 8:00am.  We will return to our somewhat normal lives and Ibssa will begin his new life in Canada.  The first 2 days for us will be getting caught up on sleep and everyday life.  For Ibssa from the time he lands there will be a new experience at every turn.  We expect him to be scared at a lot of these changes as it will be totally different for him.  Although he is an outgoing little boy, we expect he will be shy and withdrawn until he starts feeling comfortable around his new settings and new people.  Karen and I don’t expect we will have an issue understanding him as his English has improved tremendously.  He uses English and Amharic words along with sign language that we have come accustom to even if it’s not official sign language. 

There will still be lots to do in the first couple weeks home.  We need to get his Canadian passport, OHIP cards, a medical for him, and setup some physio.

Some wine for Karen, a bottle of beer for Paul to celebrate.  We’ll start packing up tonight as tomorrow will be a busy day.  Checkout is at 11am so we’ll have to keep ourselves busy all day.  Not sure what that will be but it won’t matter as the day will fly by.  We’ll have our final supper out (Ibssa will probably have injera) and then go back to guesthouse and our final good-byes. 

 Ibssa will miss the friends he has made here at the guesthouse.  I can’t imagine better people at any lodging in Addis than the GT Guesthouse.  Lee, TiGi, Ashu, Sentayew, the guards, and several family members have all been more than obliging every time there was a bump in the road.  They treated Karen and I like family and Ibssa like their own son.  Many times we would be playing outside when Ashu would come and take over.  The next thing we would see is Ibssa having injera with the rest of the family.

The people we met in Addis always had a smile and a handshake for Ibssa.  Many times we got a thank you and God bless when someone found out that we adopted Ibssa.  There were some trying times here an Addis but the good far outweighed the bad.

This will probably be the final blog from here in Ethiopia.  We will blog again once we have settled in Canada and keep it updated weekly on Ibssa’s progress.  This blog will be great for Ibssa once he is ready and able to understand the journey we have all been on.

Thank you for all your prayers as we went through this process that has been 4 years long.  An extra special thank you for Dundas St United Church for your constant love, prayers, emails, support for Ibssa’s orphanage and everything else you have done for us.  You will be forever a part of our new family.

Kate and Jake you will be thrilled with your new brother and we thank you for being there even when you may have thought we were nuts.  It was so worth it.  You will see and understand as Ibssa continues to grow on you like he has on us.

God Bless and Chow

Paul & Karen