What A Handsome Guy

What A Handsome Guy

Halloween as Spiderman

Halloween as Spiderman
with my big sister, Spidergirl

Turning 2 in St. Maarten

Turning 2 in St. Maarten
Happy Birthday

Addison on the 1's and 2's - Following in Daddy's Footsteps

Addison on the 1's and 2's - Following in Daddy's Footsteps

Addison's First Sledding Adventure - in his bathtub!

Addison's First Sledding Adventure - in his bathtub!

Where's My Hair, Mom?

Where's My Hair, Mom?

Me and My New Bald Head

Me and My New Bald Head

Two Gorgeous Kiddies

Two Gorgeous Kiddies

Me and My Friend Alex

Me and My Friend Alex

Our First Christmas as a Foursome

Our First Christmas as a Foursome

My New Fav Pic of Mommy and Ella

My New Fav Pic of Mommy and Ella

Addison Is Officially Addison Now

Addison Is Officially Addison Now
We finalized his readoption on Mon, Dec 14, 2009

My First Halloween

My First Halloween

Enjoy a little video of our new little guy

Sunday, August 30, 2009

There WILL Be A Dominican in Ethiopia!

It is 8:35AM and this is Radames writing. Yes, after all of the stuff and obstacles that Wynne wrote about me not going to ET in her previous post, I am next to my wife and sitting in the United lounge having coffee as I write this. We had a restless night of sleep because we did not know what to expect this morning. Was I going to get through? If I did, would I get on the plane? Question after question popped in to our heads as we tried to figure out what we were going to do while driving up to Dulles from TN. Due to Wynne not getting any sleep, she got up in the middle of the night and e-mailed our travel agents who had not reached out to us after us trying to get in contact with them all of Saturday. After Wynne's e-mail, she called at around 4:30AM. Wynne told her the situation and she immediately had me ready to jump on another flight from JFK tomorrow night due to the fact that I was going to be there trying to get my passport renewed in one day. We got up at 6AM and we felt pretty good about what was going to happen. Either we were going together or we were going seperately. We were ready for anything.

Our agency director then called and informed Wynne that she had spoken to our in country rep and he told her that he had never heard of such a thing as a 6 month rule regarding passports and visas. He then placed a call to his friend, who by the way is the head of visa officers in the airport, and he told him that as long as a passport is valid, I would be good to go. Great way to start off our trip.

We arrived at the Ethiopian Air counter at about 7:30AM. We calmly hauled our luggage to the first class lane and up to the checkout agent. Wynne smiled and told her how excited we were going to Africa, that this was our first time going, and we were going to pick up our son. The agent calmly looked at our tickets, passports, and other documents. Our luggage was placed on the scale, weighed, and put on the belt. Our tags were being printed and other things were being put in order as Wynne and myself looked at each other waiting for the other shoe to drop as it has happend with everything else in this process. My stomach was in knots as if I was lying to th cops about some illegal activity and Wynne was sweating as though she was being interrogated by Ethiopian authorities. The agent is finishing everything up and she picks up our passports one last time. She looks at mine, turns to me and says, " Have you had your passport renewed?" My stomach drops. The gig is up. I can only imagine what Wynne is going through as she heard this. I say excuse me to her and then she laughs and says,"Oh, it expires in November. I didn't see the year. You're ok." A wave of calmness goes over me as Wynne shows the agent a picture of Addison and she remarks how cute he is. She gives us our stuff and we walk away feeling as though we are walking on cloud nine. Wynne and I look at each other with huge smiles, go through security with a huge relief and realize that we are about to embark on the journey to finally bring home our son.
Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain.
Lilypie Waiting to adopt Ticker
Lilypie Waiting to adopt Ticker