A Really Big Day!

Today was a very important day. We had our appointment at the Embassy. She is now legally ours. Hooray!! And she is legal to leave the country. It was a really hard visit at the Embassy. Jeff and I slept in some this morning and then went to get Kassie and go to the Guest house at WHFC. We filled out paperwork for our appointments and all the families and their children had lunch together. Kassie ate so much!! We couldn't believe it. At the kids house they have injera everyday with some sort of stew. She got to eat pasta, rice and french fries today. What a carb filled meal. Anyway then we all went in a van to the Embassy. We had to go through gate after gate with security checks and rechecks. As soon as we got there Kassie started getting really nervous and crying. She was scared. We later found out that she had been there 2 weeks before for an HIV test in order to process her Visa application. Luckily we were the first ones called up for our interview. It took maybe 5 minutes and she was ours!! We decided to go back to the van with the driver and wait there for everyone else because she wouldn't calm down. Everyone was trying to help us but what we really needed to do was get her out of that building. As soon as we got to the van she was OK. We waited in the van for 1 and 1/2 hours for everyone to finish.

After the Embassy we took her back to our hotel with us. We really didn't want to drop her off at Horizon House yet after such a traumatic afternoon. It was so sweet when we walked in the hotel she started to walk like she was a model. Very dainty and excited. When we got into our room she couldn't stop giggling. It was nice to she that she was comfortable in a new environment. We had a great time with her. She looked around and explored for about 15 minutes. Then she found the drawer with all of her clothes in it. She started to laugh, and proceeded to look at every piece of clothing. She then went through them again and picked out her favorite ones and was putting them on the bed. She started ripping her clothes off and started trying all of them on. We would try on one outfit, then she would run to the mirror and look at herself. Then she ran back to the bed and ripped that outfit off as quick as she could to try the next outfit on. Then she folded all the cloths back into the drawer in a neat pile. We were shocked at how well she folded her clothes! She walked around for a minute in her new outfit and then ran back to the drawer and started trying to stuff one of the skirts in her pocket. I think she was afraid she wouldn't be able to keep them. We kept saying Kasech's clothes and pointing to them and then to her and I think she finally understood. It was so funny watching her with the clothes. She was literally squealing with delight.

She and Jeff were playing for a long time on the floor, she loved the bathroom and brushed her teeth about 3 times. She washed her hands and face a ton of times too. I think she probably has never been anywhere this nice and with a big mirror to watch herself. But the best part about this visit with her at the hotel is that she called me mommy for the first time! It was such a huge exciting moment for me. I didn't think it would happen so soon. It happened when I was out on the balcony of our hotel room. She came out with me and got nervous and went back in she was trying to shut the doors and was yelling for me to come in. She was very worried about me. It was so cute!! It was a nightmare changing her into her pajamas before we brought her back to Wide Horizons. She did not want to take any of her new clothes off.

We got picked up at 7:30 to go out to dinner with all the families to celebrate the finalization of everything. Mulat took us to an Ethiopian restaurant with dancing shows from each region. Our favorite one coincidentally was the dance from Sidama. We had a great time. Jeff absolutely loved the food. I didn't eat too much of it. But I did try everything. There were a couple of things I did like a lot. But, too spicy! The dinner was really neat to experience and it will be a nice thing for Kasech.

Lots of love to you all and we do love reading your comments. We are leaving for Sidama tomorrow morning at 6:30 AM. We won't be able to blog at all until we get home on Wednesday. Enjoy your day!