February 13th & 14th, 2009

Hi Everyone:

The last couple of days have been quite trying. A week ago Thursday when we got custody of Maija-Sitota and finally had all of the necessary legal documents we went straight to the British Embassy. We had to apply for a four day visa for Maija-Sitota as she still has her Ethiopian passport. To enter Britain she needs this visa. We had been told they could rush it and have it by Monday or Tuesday. This did not happen. At 3 pm on Thursday I was sitting in the waiting room for the Visa to come in so we could travel Friday morning at 4:30am. After all the run around and stall tactics, I could feel my blood pressure rising not knowing whether I would wait any longer or press the panic button and try and receive all her valuable original papers back. birth certificate, passport, court decree.... Well about five minutes later I pressed the panic button and asked for my papers back. I didn't know what I was going to do but I couldn't risk having her papers lost in the shuffle. After a few minutes I was told I would have to go somewhere else in the city where the main british embassy was and do what I could. I summoned a taxi and he got me their very quickly snaking his way through chaotic traffic. Once at the gate (guarded by lots of men with guns and rifles) I convinced security and others that I should be let in and finally found the person who had her papers. The reason they could not proceed was they were waiting on some special letter from London to clear our baby sitota. I held her picture up to the bullet proof window and said "Does she look like a threat to your country". Good thing I pressed the panic button because they admitted that rarely do these process in less than two weeks. Needless to say I couldn't get my money back either.

We decided to try our luck at the airport and see if we could at least get to London with her. That proved to be impossible. I spent several hours on the phone from 3 am to 6:30 trying to change my flight to coincide with the 24hr clause. The ethiopian phone system confounded me and I was unable to connect with anyone who could help me in time before the flight left. Finally I emerged from some back office with the airport official to announce to Satu and Erik that I would have to remain with Sitota and figure things out once some local offices opened for regular business hours. This was hard for all of us and a very emotional time to be split up and for Satu to leave her baby girl behind. Satu had settled Sitota while she was waiting for me so that worked well as she gave me the baby.

By now the sun was rising on a new day and I was exhausted. I hailed a taxi and negotiated a fair price with him. Sitota slept in my arms (no seat belts or car seats in Addis) all the way back to the guest house. It felt strange to hold her so close and be encouraged by the feeling that this was a little ball of potential that was waiting to be released. I sensed a great deal of responsibilty. I am very glad for the one on one time with Sitota. Alayu met me at the gate to pay the taxi and try and figure out why I had returned.

Later Friday I rearranged my flight to leave on Monday. We will arrive in London with slightly less than the 24 hour clause before we depart for Halifax. I hope to be able to take sitota out for the day if I can convince someone in immigration to let us do so. If that fails I will have to stay in the airport for the night and visit with Laina and Seppo inside the terminal before everyone leaves.

seppo was busy today with Bright Future children. He is very sad to say good bye to these great bunch of kids. He took them a big bag of Candy and did a candy toss game. He said it was a ton of fun. He also found them a new soccer ball. These kids can play pick up soccer with makeshift nets and no equipment almost like semi-pro's. On Wednesday we showed a slide show on my computer to the kids where they were the stars. We had taken so many picures of the children playing and working on their crafts and lots of poses. They jammed into the front row of their building and watched with enthusiasm. When close ups of themselves came they laughed so hard you could hear the windows shake. Their was one little boy who had missed all of the days when we were their and his picture had never been taken. Needless to say he was crying.

Also on Wednesday I spent some time with the Addis Kidan leadership team reviewing plans and strategies to raise support and awareness of their many projects. The big need is to sponsor rural pastors. This costs about $100/month. A huge difference from what it would cost for the western churches to send and train missionary pastors. Our time together ended in some basic computer training that they needed on spreadsheets.

Well Maija-sitota is calling for her Mr. Mom so I had better go and feed her pablum and baby food. She loves to eat, she will have no trouble fitting into the Kimbley Home. Today Seppo is off with some of his friends on an extensive hike to explore and find some ancient cave churches. He has been told to take lots of pictures.

Take care,

David