I can't believe we leave again in three days. Unreal. To say that our life has been crazy the past week would be a severe understatement. I am not complaining about our short turnaround because I know we are lucky and I can't wait to have our boy placed in our arms forever. However, we have been cramming so much stuff into two weeks that I feel like my head is spinning. Oh yeah, and I am still trying to process our first experience in Ethiopia and everything that I saw AND the fact that in a few days I will be a mom. You know, responsible for another human being. It's a lot.
Back to Trip 1. Our court date was scheduled for Wednesday, July 28th. I really wasn't feeling too nervous for the court appearance in the days leading up to it. All of the other families at our guest house told us it was no problem and not to sweat it. I did a pretty good job of that until late in the afternoon on Tuesday. Our driver, Henock, also assured us that we would be fine. (Henock deserves a post of his own. Best guy ever!) I have no idea why I got so nervous but I did. I fell into my bad habits of going through the "what ifs" in my mind. What if I get sick in the morning? What if something strange comes up with our paperwork? You know the drill. I seriously struggled that night to sleep. I just wanted everything to be final and to be able to legally call him my son. I wanted to be a mom so badly! I just think for me it was the culmination of years of trying to reach that point and I feared at the end stage someone was going to come and snatch it away from me. I think around 4am I was able to get in a few hours of sleep.
Henock picked us up around 8:30am to take us to the Gladney office to meet up with the two other families that had court the same morning. I opened the car door and Henock had these suit coats in the front seat. He handed one to me and told me that I would need to wear it at court. I was so confused and looked at him for further explanation. Then Henock started laughing his big belly laugh and I knew I had been duped. God Bless Henock! He made me laugh when I needed it the most. D started laughing at me and it relaxed us for the rest of the morning. Now I cry thinking about it because it was so sweet of him and is just the perfect representation of Henock's personality. I am crossing my fingers he is our driver for trip 2. Or as Henock called it, "Busters in Addis - part 2." We met the other families and hung out in a conference room at Gladney until the attorney came in and told us the most commonly asked questions. All of us drove over to the court house and were lead to waiting area. There were tons of other adoptive families from other agencies there as well. We waited about 45 minutes and were the last of the 3 Gladney families to get called. The judge was very nice and soft spoken. It was pretty clear that the main objective was for her to confirm that we met the child and that we understood the adoption was final. When we said yes to those answers she said, "He's all yours." That was it. We were parents. All of the paperwork, fingerprinting and waiting had finally come to the conclusion we had longed for. He was our son. The mood in the waiting room was very subdued so we waited to congratulate each other until we had left the room and were leaving the court house. I was glad we were there with other Gladney families to share in that moment. It helped to have them to talk to while we all waited for our turn. I was just relieved for it all to be over.
Before we left for Ethiopia, I had started a collection of some of my favorite photos that we received from traveling families and our agency. I meant to post the slideshow of photos when we passed court but the internet collection was too slow. Here it is. Enjoy!
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