Day 4 - Court

Today was a very big and emotional day!! I didn't sleep very well from all the jitters and couldn't even eat breakfast. I just felt like I could cry at the thought of the judge saying yes or no. I thought I was going to throw up. We all dressed up in our pretty clothes and headed to the court building. It's just mind boggling to wait for a lady you've never met to say you are the mother to two children you've already fallen in love with.

We entered the court building and immediately saw a man with an AK-47 strapped to his back. Then we walked up a bajillion flights of stairs. With the extreme altitude that we are at, I was huffing by the time we arrived on our floor. We walked down a hall and into a big open room. There was a line of chairs around the outside walls and a big open space in the middle. The chairs were filling up quickly, so we grabbed one because we heard we could be waiting for hours. The room was a mix of emotions. The adopting parents were nervously talking to their agencies. You could also see the sad birth parents that were there to relinquish their rights to the child they have put up for adoption. It was super happy and sad all at the same time. The room filled up very quickly and then a lady popped her head out of a big metal door and called out the first names. It was our agency!


We walked into a skinny room with a judge at the far end. They locked the metal door behind us. The judge sat behind a big desk and she was very pretty. There were two other ladies to our right and they had piles of files in front of them. She asked us a bunch of yes-no questions and we could hardly hear her. They were things like "have you done a lot of research on Ethiopia so you can teach the kids about their country?" "Do your children at home approve of the adoption?" "Do you want to adopt these children?" That was a big YES. Then she called our son's name. We also added that we were adopting a baby girl and she looked a little confused. She flipped through our file and talked to our agency in Amharic. I was so nervous about what she was saying. All I could understand was "tomorrow." She talked with the other four families and two received the best words ever. "They are yours." Luckily, the other family passed later that day too. When we walked out of her office, we asked our agency what just happened. She said the judge didn't realize we were adopting two children and needed another day to look over our file. They hope for good news soon. In fact, when we went back to the care center, they wrote on the big white board that we aleady "passed." Keep praying that she will find our files in order and we get some great news tomorrow.

After that, we went to go see the kids. I still think they are the cutest kids ever. Baby K gets a great big smile when you pick her up. I still haven't officially heard her cry and we spent most of the day with her. We took her outside to where the big kids were playing. I wonder how long it's been since she's been outside. She has probably spent most of her life in that little baby room at the orphanage. She loved watching the boys play soccer and karate with one of the other parents. Then I was able to feed her a bottle and she fell asleep in my arms. Pure bliss! I know they do a lot of bottle propping in the orphanage, so I can't wait to rock her to sleep every night and give her lots of kisses. When the van arrived, we were told we could take her to the care center to be with her brother. I am so excited to have them together so we don't have to travel back and forth every day.

Our boy had another big grin when we arrived yesterday. I think he is starting to understand that we are "his." It is so cute how all the other children yell for him to come out when we arrive. They are so excited for each other to have parents. I am trying to take a bunch of pictures for him, but he loves to play with my camera. He was so happy to take a picture of my backpack and he has already figured out how to pop out the battery and memory card. He is still very quite. I did hear him talk once to his friend. His voice is so soft. He did sit on my lap for a while and he's starting to get comfortable enough to put his arm on my leg or tug on my shirt when he wants something. Another set of parents passed out some toys and one of those was a wand with long streamers. He and another boy decided to play tag with it. He is so fast!! They did circles running around the van and laughing and giggling as they tried to catch each other. I loved seeing him like this! I think he'll be very shy when he first gets home, but I hope our crazy family can bring out the silly boy in him like I saw today.


We also went to a restaurant last night called Habesha 2000. It has traditional food and dancing. Well, I can't say Ethiopian food is my favorite. Some of it is super hot and most of it I don't even know what it was. The dancing was incredible. They do this shoulder popping thing that doesn't look natural. The show just made my jaw drop. The men move their shoulders so fast, they look like they are popping out of their sockets. Then a lady with long hair started swinging her head around super fast and her hair was swooshing all around. You have to see our video. I don't know how she doesn't have whip lash. Then they pulled one member of our group up to dance with one of the men and do the shoulder popping thing. It was hilarious. I have to say this trip is extra special because of the people we are travelling with. I love them!! It is incredible to see people with the biggest hearts ever and a great love for all the children in the orphanage. I hope we get to travel with them again on our embassy trip.

Well, we hope to hear something soon. I'll post anything on facebook as soon as I get back to the hotel today.