Day 5

On Tuesday, we woke up excited and nervous. It was the day of our court date. Everyone had told us that it really isn't anything to be nervous about, but still--we were nervous! We were told that our driver would be at the guesthouse to get us at 8:00. We got up early, showered (still no luggage... no shampoo...no clean clothes--thankfully, we did have deodorant!), and headed across the hall for breakfast. I really should have taken pictures of the breakfasts we were served. I can't remember what we had on this particular morning, but some of the things we had were french toast with jelly, little sugar cookie things with some chocolate drizzle on them, strange sausage-ish links, plain, untoasted white bread, fresh pineapple, bananas, papaya, little puff pastries with some veggie stuff in them, hot tea, and always some of the strongest coffee known to man. By the end of the week, I was really craving some oatmeal and MILK!

Anyway, after breakfast, we were ready to go by 8:00. It was around this time that we got word that we wouldn't be leaving until 9:00. Even though this was only our second day in Ethiopia, we were already used to the strange timeframes that people work on. Plus, it's not like we had anywhere else to be! :) So we hung out with Joel and some of the other families until 9:00. We were so thankful for the other families who were there who had already been through the court process. They really set our minds at ease.

Nine o'clock came and we were on our way! We stopped by the other guest house to pick up two more families and then enjoyed some more views of the city. (Joel stayed with a nanny back at the guest house.)

They were having some sort of festival and the festival grounds were guarded by military men with large guns!

This is one of the nicest places we saw in Ethiopia. We were told that some rich man (Tony would probably remember who) built all these nice homes for his family.
An Orthodox church
Construction. Scary scaffolding!
Fruit stands all over the place.
Typical scenery.

We finally made it to the place where we would go before the judge. We got out of our van and for some reason unknown to me we stood on the sidewalk across the street from the building we were supposed to go in for what seemed like a LONG time! We just chatted with the other families.... And finally we walked across the street and up several flights of stairs and down a hall to a small room with chairs all around the walls and a small platform over by the window. All the chairs were taken so our group ended up sitting on the platform for a while. All around the room there are tons of signs that say "Silence". We were all supposed to be quiet! I think its because there were adoptive families AND birth families in the same room and you're not supposed to talk until the court appointment is over. As different groups went in and came out, we were saddened to see one couple come out in tears. It was so hard to see that just before we went in. (Knowing what I know now, the couple probably was just told of something that was delaying their case, not that their case was denied... but I guess it was still hard to hear.) Finally it was our turn! We went into the judges room and she sat across the room from us behind a desk. She was a nice looking lady dressed in a brownish, gray dress with matching head-wrap. She was very professional, but not cold. She asked us questions as a group, like "have you done any adoption training? do you realize this is permanent? do your other children know about the adoption? do you plan to teach your child of the Ethiopian culture?" to which they whole group said "yes, yes, yes." Then she opened each file individually and to the first family she said "She's yours." To the second family, she said, "He's yours." To the fourth family, she said, "We're waiting on one more document."

We were the third family. We did not hear "He's yours." We were told that they had some other things to take care of based on Joel's specific case. We were not surprised by this because we knew Joel's case was a little different. We were a little sad, but not distraught. We REALLY wanted it to be finished completely! After asking many questions to our agency people who were with us, we were told several different stories and finally told that there would be another court date on March 30th. This date seemed FOREVER away and was again a little disappointing to hear considering the other family with us had their next court date on March 14th! We had been hearing that the average wait time from court til Embassy was 5 weeks, so we were already thinking we'd be back in early April to pick Joel up... so it was hard to hear that we would have to wait a bit longer.

BUT...we are confident that God's timing is best for Joel, and best for our family, and best for the Kingdom. We are confident that God's ways are higher than our ways and that His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. We chalked this up to one more thing that didn't go as WE had planned on this trip, but knew that it was going exactly as HE had planned. We prayed about it, and are praying about it and trusting that God is preparing our hearts and lives for bringing Joel home in God's time.

So our next court date is March 30th. We do not have to travel for this court date as we have "passed" our part. After that they say to expect 8 weeks until we travel for the Embassy appointment and pick up our little man... but some families have gone in as little as 3 weeks after the court date! And, as I mentioned, the norm seems to be about 5 weeks. IF everything is final at our next court date, and IF we travel 5 weeks later, I will get to spend my 30th birthday in Ethiopia picking up our son! How cool would that be! :)

And this is why we can't post pictures of our man yet. But just know that he is incredibly handsome, just like his daddy! And know that I will catch up on all the pictures of him as soon as his case passes court!

After our court date, and the confusing conversations with people about what would happen next for the two of us who didn't pass court, we headed back to the guesthouse to play with our son!

When we arrived, we found out that the nanny there had fed our little Joel THREE times while we were gone! I had fed him just before we left and we were only gone for 2 hours! Holy cow! This is just an example of how their culture is different from ours in regards to taking care of kids. They said "He was crying." Poor guy. He was very tired and probably way too full. So we put him down to nap and Tony and I ate lunch at the guesthouse. I ordered spaghetti with mushroom sauce. I was trying to play it safe!

Later, Tony and Joel and I went to Friendship Mall again to skype with Eliah and mom and ate dinner at the coffee shop. Tony had the fries again, and I had a chicken sandwich with a mocha. It was our first trip out all by ourselves, and I think we did pretty well. :) We did notice that at the coffee shop where we thought everything was SO SO cheap (our meal may have cost 3 or 4 dollars), it was really the business class that was dining in the coffee shop with us. Not just "regular" people. We are so spoiled. And incredibly blessed!

After dinner, we headed back to the guesthouse to enjoy the company of our new friends and love on Joel some more!