Court Day April 8, 2011...this is the day we go before an Ethiopian judge to become Nazeret's parents forever!
I didn't sleep well the night before. I woke up early and went downstairs to send messages home. We had another adopting mom on a cot in our room. (Her husband had already gone home and she needed somewhere to stay. That is how close you get to other families going through this.) We ate breakfast and went back up to our room to wait. I was so nervous and excited; I was sure I was going to be sick. I chewed off all my fingernails (something I haven't done in years). While we were downstairs, we heard that Duni was back and would be going to court with us and one other family.
I had heard so many great stories about Duni. She works for AWAA and is a force to be reckoned with. She had been out all week getting a signature for another family from a man that had held up their adoption for months. She had gotten the signature and was back! When she introduced herself, she was soft spoken, hair pined up in place, dressed in an American business suit, and wearing perfectly impractical shoes, topped off with a beautiful Ugandan magazine bead necklace. It was the next thing she said that brought me to a HALT, "The judge is not coming in today." A million things ran through my mind. This was NOT good news, but we would do whatever we had to do. Duni declared that we would go to the courthouse and see what was going to happen.
The courthouse is just a regular looking building. Michael had to go back and get our passports that we didn't know we needed and the rest of us headed up the five flights of stairs to the adoption court. When we got up there, we found out that the judge had set an assistant in her place to take statements. This meant we were not going to have to change our flight out tomorrow (good news), but there is also no way to pass court without a judge (bad news). Michael made it back before we were called in to the court. The three of us went into the "judge's chambers" along with Duni and a couple of men I had never seen. The assistant asked us five questions that we answered yes. One of the questions was "Do your other children know you are adopting?" Michela waved at her and we all giggled a little. The assistant said something to Duni in Amharic and we were done. In the hall, Duni explained that we had a blurry seal that had to be redone and then the judge would sign our case.
That was it; we were done. We went back to the guest house before lunch. There was a little more to our morning that added to the emotions and stress, but we prayed about it all and it went as well as it possibly could. We met up with other families for lunch. It rained while we ate lunch. The rain made it cool at first and then it got really hot and humid just in time to head to the TH.
When we arrived at the TH, we were told that Nazeret had been asking for her Mommy and Daddy. What a heart warming thing to hear. Our daughter couldn't wait to see us. We played and laughed so hard together. She found some baby rings hooked together and hid them. She would then lift her hands and shrug her shoulders as if to say "where did they go". We would move in her direction and she would pull them from their hiding spot and run away laughing. She did this over and over until....Michela pulled them from their hiding place when Nazeret wasn't looking. When Nazeret went to pull them out...they weren't there. She was so funny! She looked everywhere and was so confused until she saw Michela walking away with them swinging behind her back. Nazeret busted out laughing! This was one of the best moments on the trip. We learned that she could play and tease and laugh about it all. This is a very good thing.
We painted nails and jumped rope. Suddenly the afternoon was over and it was time to leave. We only had one day left with our beautiful girl.
Oh how I miss my girl. Lord, please don't let it be much longer.
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