So, we drank A LOT of coffee in Ethiopia. If you didn't already know, coffee was originally found in Ethiopia and let me tell you, they make some GOOD coffee! Elijah preferred his black and I'm not even kidding!
We enjoyed some cappuccinos after our first visit with Evie, followed by a lot of shopping for souvenirs and then a trip to the Sabahar Silk Factory. We watched them hand make the silk from these worms and then they turn them into beautiful scarves to buy.
Tuesday was court day...the entire reason for our trip. I was a tad bit nervous but we knew that all the paperwork was in order and it was really just a matter of us showing up and answering a few questions. We spent the morning looking around the city and shopping a little more and then headed over to the Gladney office.
We handed over some paperwork, met with the director and then headed over to the court house with the Gladney lawyer. We sat in a small court room with other adoptive families. Our agency was called dead last but that gave us time to listen to the types of questions she was asking other families. That calmed my nerves a lot. Finally, it was our agency's turn. Us and the Oettinger's went forward. She asked about 5-7 pretty simple questions that were translated to us, we answered, she said did we understand that adoption is final and did we still want to adopt her? Well, yes!!! Then she said "all paperwork is complete and she is yours from now on"! Such simple words yet so powerful - we passed and she was ours!!! Here we are in front of the court building...so happy!
I honestly don't remember what we did the rest of the day after that. I do know that we went to a restaurant with wi-fi to get a dessert to celebrate and put a picture on facebook for all to see her beautiful face and know that we had passed!
Wednesday morning we had our second visit with Evie. It was really special to see her again after passing court and knowing that she was now legally ours. We were so happy to see her!
Giving her some milk again
She is checking out her brother
And then...the smiles began! She was SO much happier this time and we were elated!
Beautiful girl
She loved Daddy's beard
We smothered her with kisses...poor thing :)
She loved Mommy's necklace
I can see the future mischief in her eyes here!
Love the eyebrow!
She just talked and laughed a lot!
And then I could tell she was getting sleepy. I picked her up and rocked for about a minute and she was OUT! I REALLY enjoyed these few minutes before we left!
Beautiful, sweet girl. I hated to put her down and leave.
No comments:
Post a Comment