Saturday February 11 we headed for the airport in Brussels to catch our 19:30 flight to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We arrived before 17:30 and proceeded to the check in counter. When I presented the passports to obtain boarding passes the clerk said, "birth certificates please." I said, "here are the passports." She replied that when travelling to South Africa, children under the age of 18 require birth certificates. I said I had passports. That was not good enough. I had to go to the Ethiopian Air desk and discuss the matter. The desk demanded the same identification. I said I was not informed of this policy. Thanks to the help of Larissa, Darrell and Jacquie playing the Amazing Race they were able to get Bev and Ashley into our house and take photos of the birth certificates. One clerk thought if we presented photos of the birth certificates this would be good enough. These were emailed and I presented the pictures to the clerk. This was still not sufficient. I pleaded for us to be allowed onto the plane and I would have the documents fed exed to me in Addis Ababa. We had 5 days there before moving on to South Africa. Darrell was heading in to WPG to get them on the next plane, everything was in motion. No. This was denied. We would not be allowed onto the continent without the proper documents.
In Brussels airport waiting for things to get sorted.
After 19:30 came and went and our flight had departed without us, we needed to find somewhere to stay. I contacted the man we had rented an apartment from for the past 2 nights and he had something available. We headed back to our familiar neighborhood and were settled by 21:00. The barrage of phone calls started and I found out I needed an unabridged birth certificate for each child. Being Saturday night, vital statistics would not be open until Monday AM. Thanks to amazing friends and family, when Monday morning started in Canada we had Bob and Kathy in Regina at vital statistics by 8:00 and Luke's birth certificate fed exed by 14:00. Nancy took care of Levi and Nate's in Winnipeg and had them on a plane that afternoon. All was delivered to our door on Wednesday by 10:00. I agree with Pat's comment, "Good grief - all anyone would have to do is take one look at your boys to know you and Jack are their biological parents."
Waiting for train to go back to meet Ward at Le Lorrain. No Addis for us.
Levi told Big Nate he thought we would miss all of Africa with this set back. As far as he was concerned this was good news - he thought he would be home 2 months earlier.
