Ethiopia - First Half of Day 2

 We got up at six Friday morning to get ready for court.  We weren't nervous at all.  We had a filling breakfast at the Jemimah and then waited, along with the other two couples, for our driver.  He was only a few minutes late and off we went to court.  We got to the court building and waited for awhile in the van while the driver went to find our lawyer.  After about ten minutes, they came to get us and we went into the courthouse.

I think we went to about the third floor and sat down in a bare room lined with chairs.  After awhile, I started looking at the people sitting across from us and realized some of them were obviously birth parents.  I immediately teared up and almost couldn't breathe.  One woman, directly across from me, looked completely stricken.  I ached for her so badly and got so angry at the whole dang unfair world.  There were some other women there whom I think were also birth mothers.  Jennifer noticed them too and we both had a hard time with it.  The reality of it was almost too much to bear.

Then a loud group of European adoptive parents came in, acting and behaving totally inappropriately.  Jennifer and I were very annoyed by them.  They got shushed more than once by the girl calling people back to see the judge. 

Lots of people got called in and most came out seeming happy.  We waited two hours, getting increasingly nervous.  Our lawyer talked to the girl calling people a couple of different times.  That made us even more anxious.  Finally Jeff and Jennifer got called in.  They came back out after a few minutes and their faces said something was wrong.  Barbi and Jack went in while Jen told us what had happened.  The license for the orphanage was in the process of being renewed and we could not pass court until it was back in place. 

We got called in next.  The judge was a beautiful woman with a very commanding presence.  She spoke softly and asked us the expected questions.  She then told us about the license and said we could go home, but it would take longer while we waited for the license. 

We were all in absolute shock.  We were the first  group from Holt that this happened to.  Our lawyer knew nothing about it and started making phone calls immediately.  When we got outside, he said that the process was underway for the renewal but there was no estimated time frame as to when it might be done.  He asked if we wanted to go to lunch or to the care center.  Really, why do they even ask that?  We obviously all wanted to be with our children.

Driving away from the courthouse was so disappointing.  We'd expected to be the legal parents of our children, but now we didn't know what the heck was going on and were trying hard not to panic.  It was a terrible feeling.

We went straight to the care center and arrived at the same exact time as the group who was there to pick their children up.  It was truly awful.  We didn't know when or if 'our kids' would be able to come home and it was hard to witness the beauty of families uniting.  I know that's selfish, but I was still in shock about what had just happened.  We sat through each family being presented with their child and then we waited and waited for Little E.  Finally, they came and said he was eating lunch and that we could go upstairs to be with him.

He recognized us immediately and got super shy.  He wouldn't look at us and refused to eat.  It was classic three year old behavior and we loved it.  All of the kids seated around the little tables were to well behaved.  The boys at E's table were showing off for us, but he stayed shy.  Several nannies tried to get him to eat, but he actually put his hand over his mouth and refused.  Completely out of character for him.  He's an eater, by all accounts!  Yes, that's his cute little hand in the picture.  Ethiopians do not have a cultural thing about pink and lavender being girl colors.  We were amused to find him wearing a lavender sweater with a huge pink heart on the front.  Well I was amused, Justin complained to me several times tried to be a good sport about it.

It was fun to watch the other kids eat.  The boys at E's table needed more food and they politely took their empty plates to the back of the room and the nannies gave them more.  There was a ton of of food, which made me happy.  Eventually they gave up on E and we took him downstairs to play. 

We only got about thirty minutes with him.  He played a lot with Justin and warmed up quickly.  He talked and repeated some more English words.  He again latched onto the green truck we brought.  Too soon our driver came and I could barely contain my emotions.  We started saying goodbye and Little E wrapped his body around me tight.  Justin had to pull him off to get his turn.  He wrapped around Justin even more tightly and would. not. let. go.  We had to literally peel him off.  Terrible feeling!  E started blowing us kisses and I was about done for. 

We took him upstairs to his bedroom for naptime.  He sleeps in a little room lined with beds.  All of the toddlers were sound asleep under little blankets.  We practiacally ran downstairs and out the door.  As we were putting our shoes on, Sister Martha came outside to say goodbye.  She reminded us that God has our kiddos in His hands until we can get back and that's when I lost it.  Completely lost it.  I was sobbing and could not stop.  It felt like my heart was breaking in two.  It would not have been so dramatic, I don't think, if we'd passed court and knew there was an end in sight.  But, we had no idea what was going on, why the license wasn't in place, why we hadn't been told about it before court, and no idea how long it would be before we could return to Ethiopia for our sweet children.

We reluctantly climbed back into the van and headed to the guesthouse for lunch...