Medical !!!!!

Well, the good news FINALLY came… Poppet’s medical form was FINALLY in the diplomatic pouch this Monday (the pouch didn’t arrive last Friday, so we had to wait out the weekend to hear the verdict). Early last week I received the news that the reason it was taking so long was that the High Commission had sent the medical form (as well as one other family’s) to “the address in Canada” (no idea which one) rather than to the Canadian Embassy in Addis Ababa. (That makes at least 3 out of 12 families’ files that they’ve managed to screw up…) They promised to rectify the situation and send it to Addis in the next diplomatic pouch. Given that I’ve had so many disappointed Fridays/Mondays in the past few months I was almost afraid to hope, but they came through and here it is!!! The orphanage staff will take Poppet for his medical tomorrow or Wednesday and send the completed medical form back to Nairobi in this coming Friday’s pouch, and then the countdown is really on…

Of course, I don’t know exactly when we’re counting down to, seeing as there’s no way to predict if the visa will arrive in three, four, five, or six weeks or even longer. I am soooo hoping the High Commission will get their act together and issue it within four weeks of the completed medical being returned, which would be just before Christmas. If they don’t, then I expect Christmas week to be a write-off, and maybe also the following week (New Year’s)… so it could be mid-January before that final piece of paper arrives… (I don’t think the Ethiopian Christmas celebrations will have an impact, as we’re dealing with Kenya and the Canadian High Commission, which follow the western calendar.) But I’ll start investigating travel possibilities.

Stay tuned!