After a couple of days of thinking, we have arrived to a decision; I’m travelling to Ethiopia.
We had planned to travel together for the court date (when it arrives…), my husband and I, leaving the children with family, but things got complicated and we needed to revaluate our options.
For our daughter to enter the US with an American citizenship, both of us needed to meet her before the adoption in Ethiopia is completed, but since this has become difficult, we took another route. I’m going first alone to know my daughter and spend some days with her, then Miguel will travel alone for the court with a power of attorney from me, and finally one of us will go one more time and bring her to the US.
Since both of us have met her before the court, she will enter the country a citizen and we won’t need a re-adoption.
Legal matters are complicated, I know, but it is the only way we could manage to be with the children and at the same time go to Ethiopia. My older son was a bit uneasy about the idea of staying in the States without his parents, my family had some last minute problems, and traveling with all the kids would be quite difficult, so this is the best solution we could come up with.
So, in a few days I will take the plane to Addis Ababa. I’m so excited, and a bit nervous. Sincerely I would have preferred to travel with some company, but I will make the most of this journey anyway.
Also I have decided to travel north, but instead of doing a long tour to all the cities, I will concentrate my trip to Lalibela and Gondar, with a “surprise” in-between.
I made reservations with the people of TESFA, of which I wrote about before. This is an organized trekking tour that is completely administered by the local communities. They have different sites along a path in the mountains of the north. You sleep in a well conditioned toukul at the top of the mountain, the locals are the guides that will take you on a hiking trip of a lifetime. Every night you sleep in a different toukul, have lunch and dinner with the locals, explore the landscape and the real life of the Ethiopians. My trip in the north will start with two days in Lalibela, then 4 days trekking in the mountains, and then will finish in Gondar, where I will spend another couple of days before returning to Addis. I truly recommend taking that tour, it is something that you will never forget whether you go alone or with your children. Not many people do it, due to the fact that you need to walk many hours, but there are different walks according to your physical condition. Some of them consist of walking on flat terrain without gaining altitude, open to almost anyone, including children, while for others you must be an experienced hiker. For the trip, you only need a good pair of shoes, open eyes and strong legs, and of course a camera and lots of charged batteries since they don’t have electricity up there.
I’m excited beyond words! Imagine, meeting my girl and walking the beautiful Ethiopian landscape along with the locals!
I will travel light, trying to carry the least possible.
I also need to leave things as smooth as possible for my husband here who would take care of the children and work at the same time.
I will try to take as many pictures as I can to share on this blog, and I also want to post details of the different tours to help promote this kind of initiatives.
Now, I need to get ready, yeah!
TESFA (Community Tourism in the Ethiopian Highlands)
Lalibela, World Heritage Site
AliciA
Before I travel to Ethiopia, I wanted to remind you of events that will take place in the next days in case anyone is interested. 
Also in France on January 28th, there will a screening of the movie Va, vis, et deviens (Live and Become) from director Radu Mihaileanu at the Dapper Museum. The movie, as you may already know, is the story of an Ethiopian boy who’s airlifted to Israel during Operation Moses in 1984. The movie will be presented by journalist and anthropologist Brice Ahounou. 
