I feel like I am on the edge of this line where I'm peering over into this new future life of mine where Tizita is home with us and I have three beautiful kids- daughters that play together and a brother that roughhouses and protects and loves. But even though I think my toes are right up against that line because the new reality is allllllmost here, I just keep stubbing my toe and can't cross over.
Ok, so a weird analogy but nothing here makes sense anymore because it's all just so crazy at this point. We finally got the MOWA signatures that we needed but not because the guy actually showed up at his office to sign them. By the grace of God he allowed my agency to drive to his location (his house? another job site?) and he signed them late in the afternoon/evening on Wednesday.
Thursday was a holiday so nothing was done.
Then Friday was the easy part where the agency took the signed documents to get the official birth certificate. Only the "this will only take 20 minutes" turned into a whole day affair with the office worker literally refusing to produce the birth certificate even after her boss instructed her to do so. Honestly I think she was just power hungry and made the agency worker produce additional unnecessary documents and finding errors in all of them the rest of the day.
At this point I decide I'm fed up so I get in a taxi with plans to barge into this woman's office in a very loud and demanding sort of American way. I and my country were spared the embarrassment though because the birth certificate was released right at that time so the taxi turned instead and headed toward Immigration Office where I would meet my agency to get the passport.
The gates were closing as I walked up but I talked my way through and found my agency peeps where they then talked their way past all kinds of people saying "no" and within the next hour we were the only people left on a late Friday afternoon but walked out with all the paperwork processed (not submitted) and with the Director's signature authorizing an "urgent" passport.
There were lots of tears (mine and Tizita's) to get us to that point but I was satisfied with having tried our hardest and getting at least half the passport work done.
Friday night my sisters arrived and all was right in the world again. I felt so relieved to have them here to laugh with and to have their help with Tizita and keeping me sane in the membrane. We had a great weekend together shopping and exploring and eating delicious food.
Today (Monday) morning we headed early to Immigration to officially submit the passport paperwork. Unfortunately we couldn't get the passport within the same day, but they have promised it to us at 11am on Tuesday. My agency will then rush it over to the embassy to beat their 3pm deadline. (And by rush I mean driving in crazy, erratic traffic while dodging people, goats and sheep).
Just when I thought that we were almost across the finish line, the embassy called this afternoon to tell me that they found an error in the physician's medical report on Tizita. So now once the passport is received at the embassy tomorrow afternoon they will make a copy of it to send with the medical report via a courier and have the physician correct the mistake.
The courier will then bring the paperwork back to the embassy and if it gets there by the 3pm deadline on Wednesday, Tizita gets the visa and we get on a plane a few hours later!
I don't even need to tell you the obvious million reasons why it's very possible that none of this will happen as planned.
But I'm choosing PEACE and believing that God wants to just keep doing the impossible for Tizita. We have zero contigency plans because we're just peaceful that it'll all work out somehow and all four of us will board the plane together on Wednesday night.
I sure can't wait to cross that line into my new life. In the meantime, please continue to pray for miracles and peace for all of us.
Ok, so a weird analogy but nothing here makes sense anymore because it's all just so crazy at this point. We finally got the MOWA signatures that we needed but not because the guy actually showed up at his office to sign them. By the grace of God he allowed my agency to drive to his location (his house? another job site?) and he signed them late in the afternoon/evening on Wednesday.
Thursday was a holiday so nothing was done.
Then Friday was the easy part where the agency took the signed documents to get the official birth certificate. Only the "this will only take 20 minutes" turned into a whole day affair with the office worker literally refusing to produce the birth certificate even after her boss instructed her to do so. Honestly I think she was just power hungry and made the agency worker produce additional unnecessary documents and finding errors in all of them the rest of the day.
At this point I decide I'm fed up so I get in a taxi with plans to barge into this woman's office in a very loud and demanding sort of American way. I and my country were spared the embarrassment though because the birth certificate was released right at that time so the taxi turned instead and headed toward Immigration Office where I would meet my agency to get the passport.
The gates were closing as I walked up but I talked my way through and found my agency peeps where they then talked their way past all kinds of people saying "no" and within the next hour we were the only people left on a late Friday afternoon but walked out with all the paperwork processed (not submitted) and with the Director's signature authorizing an "urgent" passport.
There were lots of tears (mine and Tizita's) to get us to that point but I was satisfied with having tried our hardest and getting at least half the passport work done.
Friday night my sisters arrived and all was right in the world again. I felt so relieved to have them here to laugh with and to have their help with Tizita and keeping me sane in the membrane. We had a great weekend together shopping and exploring and eating delicious food.
Today (Monday) morning we headed early to Immigration to officially submit the passport paperwork. Unfortunately we couldn't get the passport within the same day, but they have promised it to us at 11am on Tuesday. My agency will then rush it over to the embassy to beat their 3pm deadline. (And by rush I mean driving in crazy, erratic traffic while dodging people, goats and sheep).
Just when I thought that we were almost across the finish line, the embassy called this afternoon to tell me that they found an error in the physician's medical report on Tizita. So now once the passport is received at the embassy tomorrow afternoon they will make a copy of it to send with the medical report via a courier and have the physician correct the mistake.
The courier will then bring the paperwork back to the embassy and if it gets there by the 3pm deadline on Wednesday, Tizita gets the visa and we get on a plane a few hours later!
I don't even need to tell you the obvious million reasons why it's very possible that none of this will happen as planned.
But I'm choosing PEACE and believing that God wants to just keep doing the impossible for Tizita. We have zero contigency plans because we're just peaceful that it'll all work out somehow and all four of us will board the plane together on Wednesday night.
I sure can't wait to cross that line into my new life. In the meantime, please continue to pray for miracles and peace for all of us.
 |
| Breakfast time (and I always make that face when I'm feeding a baby. Why?) |
 |
| Stroll through the crowded market this evening |
 |
| Lentils, beans and spices |
 |
| With our Ethiopian sister (Elias' Aunt) at a traditional Ethiopian restaurant |
 |
| The Aunts with Tizita |
 |
| Coffee Ceremony in our guesthouse. We enjoyed coffee with Kenyans, Dutch, Irish, Italians and Ethiopians! |
No comments:
Post a Comment