I imagined many, many things that could derail my Ethiopian adoption: court closures, protests, earthquakes, epidemics, a regretful birth family, the incapicating injury or illness of me or my husband, or a sudden shutdown of the adoption Ethiopian program as a whole. My realistic fears were somewhat allayed when we passed court three weeks ago, as he was legally ours under Ethiopian law, and the only thing, aside from a cataclysmic event, standing in the way of us brining him home was the US embassy. And what could possibly go wrong there?
Oh, I don’t know… maybe a government shutdown.
It was 3pm. I was tying up things at work before I left to go on a short but poignant parental leave, when I would leave tomorrow morning for Addis Ababa. I had worked like a dog all week to finish projects or suitably transition work to my co-workers, and I was going to leave early, simply because there was nothing else to do and nobody would think bad of me for leaving early.
My phone rang; it was my caseworker at the adoption agency, and immediately I was besought by anxiety. She told me that the government shutdown would affect the US embassy in Addis Ababa, that no visas would be issued on Monday if the government shutdown, that I should either put my flight on hold and hope for an embassy date in the future or reschedule my flight for Saturday and hope for the best. That if I choose to travel tomorrow, there was a chance I could be stuck in Addis for weeks waiting for an embassy date.
Silently freaking out, I told her I had to talk to my travel agent and my husband, in that order. I hurried back to my desk, packed up my computer, and told my boss what was happening… or what I thought was happening:
“The Ethiopian governement is facing a shutdown and my embassy appointment might be cancelled! I have to go home, because all my papers are there.”
“Go, go! That’s so weird the Ethiopian government is shutting down, so is our government.”
In my defense of my ignorance about the US government shutdown (I had just assumed it was Ethiopia), I have spent the last week in a total fucking tizzy. But that explains why when I googled “Ethiopian government shutdown,” I couldn’t find anything.
Long, painful story short… I rescheduled my flight until Saturday, hoping that the asshats in Washington resolve this ridiculous political drama so that the US embassy in Addis Ababa remains open on Monday. Otherwise, I am going to lose money, time, and sanity, knowing that my son is in Ethiopia and my government is standing in the way of him coming home over some ideological battle that amounts to total shit in the grand scheme of politicking.
I am totally pessimistic; Mr P assured me that “it is always like this, they always wait til the last minute.” If I do wind up on that plane to Ethiopia Saturday morning, I will be thankful for every minute of the 15+ hours.
