Day 4...Court

This post will be brief because this day was both nerve wracking, emotional, and anticlimatic all at the same time.  We ended up having the morning at our guest house before we were picked up for our court appointment.  Before we made it to the court building, we had been told that some of our paperwork wasn't there as of the morning, but it was anticipated that we would be fine and pass court at this hearing.  We waited in a large room with many other families and watched as they went in to the judge's room and came out smiling less than 5 minutes later.  Finally it was our turn to appear before the judge.  She asked us why we wanted to adopt from Ethiopia followed by several yes or no questions.  Then, she paused and told us our case was missing some paperwork...we didn't pass, and in the moment we were stunned and heart broken.  All we could see at the time was another delay.  The staff from our agency assured us that we would pass with no problems, but we were still disappointed.  Fortunately our friend Laura had dinner with us, and after a couple of hours talking with Laura, who wouldn't feel better?

Postscript:  we passed court just 3 days later on Thursday November 4th.  I bet you remember that post!

Day 3...Entoto Mountain

So I admit it; I am the queen of bad bloggers.  We've been home a month AND we are almost ready to go back to Ethiopia, but I am just now finishing up posting about our FIRST trip.  Oh, well!  Better late than never.  You can catch up on Day 1 and Day 2 if you missed them the first time or can't remember because it has been so long :)

Sunday morning we woke up ready to see some more of the country.  We had an excursion planned with friends, but I wasn't feeling great, so Brian and I spent the morning hanging out together watching movies, chatting, and processing.  By lunch time, I was feeling better so we called Ayele and headed up for a half day trip to Entoto Mountain.  This provides an amazing view of the sprawling capital city.  In fact, before Addis Ababa was the capital, Entoto Mountain was the home to the emperor.  There is a neat museum, a beautiful church, and the home of the former rulers.  Brian and I were amazed by how intricate so many of the materials were- from the cloth in the robes of the priests to the thatching on the roof of the emperor's quarters.  Ayele told us so much about the history of the country and what we were seeing.



 A view of the church

 A View of Addis from Above

 Some of the Emperor's Quarters

After leaving Entoto, Ayele took us on a drive through the country.  The countryside of Ethiopia is beautiful.  The mountains surrounded us and looked like patchwork.  The whole time, we continued to learn more about Ethiopia, including the area where Mikayla was born.  Ayele also shared so much of his story with us that a friendship was born in his car!  Below are some of the views we saw as we drove through the small towns of Suluta and Chancho.

Other than the days that we spent with Mikayla, this was by far my favorite experience of our trip.  While we only got to see a glimpse of Ethiopia, I treasured to opportunity to hear more about this beautiful country and her people.  Ahhh...only a couple of weeks and we will be back!

Days 2...All Around Addis

Because of staffing, we were not able to see Mikayla Tamir over the weekend.  We took the opportunity to see and learn as much about Ethiopia as possible.  On Saturday we went with some new friends and their children to the Ethiopian Zoo.  The grounds were pretty, and while the zoo wasn't huge, the main attraction was impressive.  This zoo is known for its Ethiopian Lions.  There were LOTS of lions, and they reminded us of Scar from the Lion King, with dark manes.

After a morning at the zoo, we went to the market in the Postal District for a little bit of shopping.  We don't have any pictures from the market because it was so busy, and we were honestly just trying to figure out what was going on!  After the market, we had a yummy lunch with out friend, Trent and his son and our driver Ayele.  We went to Makush Gallery for lunch.  It is a delicious Italian restaurant and art gallery.  We all ended up with pizza, which was great.  We also really enjoyed checking out the wonderful artwork.  After lunch we managed to find some great coffee at Tocoa.  Brian has been enjoying it every weekend since we got home! When we arrived back at the guest house, we spent a couple of hours talking with our friends The Mummerts.  One of my favorite things about Ethiopia was having the time to get to know people.  It was so great to linger with new friends.

Day 1: The Journey Begins

Finally...the series of posts you've been waiting for!

Our journey began eventfully as there were serious storms in Atlanta (our international gateway) during the entire day on Wednesday.  Thanks be to God, the Atlanta airport opened for just long enough for our flight from home to arrive and our flight to Amsterdam to take off on time.  Brian and I are pretty easy-going, and we travel well together, so we passed the LONG flights with sleeping, watching movies, and chatting with each other.  After 24 hours of travel time, we arrived in Addis Ababa around 9pm on Thursday.  We navigated through the airport, got our visas, exchanged money, and collected our luggage with ease.  We managed to find our driver in a sea of people.  Tamu was the face with a huge smile holding a sign with Brian's name on it.  Finally, we had arrived!

We arrived at our guest house, Yebsabi, which means welcome in Amharic.  It was a lovely place with friendly and helpful staff.  We settled in our room quickly and tried to go to sleep because we knew Friday morning would be the time when we met our sweet daughter for the first time.  After a noisy night (other bloggers weren't exagerating about the dogs and roosters), I woke up nervous...in an excited kind of way.  We ate a quick breakfast and waited for our agency representatives to come and get us and take us to meet Mikayla.  A couple of weeks before our arrival, our daughter was moved to Acacia Village, which is our agency's transition home about 30 minutes outside of the city.  All of the children at Acacia Village have been matched to their families.  On the way, we picked up another CWA parent, Trent who was in country for his son's embassy date.  We connected right away and he offered to video and photograph the first moments when we met Mikayla.  What a precious gift!  In the video, you can hear Trent's sweet voice ooohing and ahhing over our new family-priceless!  We waited downstairs for Mikayla to be brought to us, and after what seemed like forever, we learned that she was taking her morning nap and that we didn't want to wake her up because she would be grumpy!  Brian and I were perfectly OK with going and staring at her sleep for a bit.  We were all for meeting a happy baby for the first time!  Here is the first time we saw Mikayla Tamir:

While she finished her nap, we enjoyed a coffee ceremony, we got a tour of Acacia Village and got to spend time talking with the director of Acacia Village, Haddush, a delightful man with an enormous heart for these children and their families.  Then, it was time to meet our daughter for the first time.  She was so alert and happy.  Shortly after waking up, I got to feed her.  Awesome!  Then we loved on her and played with her for most of the rest of the day.  We took a short break to have lunch with the staff.  Then it was back to spend time with Mikayla for most of the rest of the day.  We anticipated spending only about an hour with her during our first visit, but we were together for several hours.  It was wonderful!

Our first family photo. 

What a precious moment!

Asleep in Daddy's arms.  Can you tell she was playing too hard with the rattle and keys?

She was really taken with Brian immediately

More to come!



We are Hers and She is Ours!

We got the awesome news today that our court case has been finalized in Ethiopia!  That means we are legally a family of three!  Meet Mikayla Tamir:

Thank you for joining us in praying this little one into our arms.  Now, we wait for an embassy date, which is when we travel to bring her home.  Our prayer is that we would be able to bring her home by the end of the year!  More to come about our journey to meet her!

We Are Home!

We are back in the US after an amazing trip to see our sweet girl.  I was so hoping that we would be able to share our daughter's name and picture, but we aren't able to share quite yet because we didn't pass court while we were in Ethiopia.  While we are disappointed that a glitch with paperwork caused our case to be postponed, we have been told that our case will likely be heard at the end of this week or beginning of next week.  Please keep praying that this would happen quickly so that we can be assigned an embassy date, which is when we travel and get to bring her home!  Right now, it is still looking like we could have her home by the end of the year.  We took tons of pictures and did a lot of journaling while on this trip, so we will share more over the next couple of weeks.  For now, know that this trip was the most awesome thing we have ever experienced, and at the same time, leaving our daughter was the most difficult thing we've ever done!

Fast Forward...Like SUPER Fast!

A Little Refresher/Background Information:
With the recently changed adoption procedures in Ethiopia, families are assigned two court dates and an embassy date.  Adopting families do not typically travel for the first court date; it is for any biological family members and Ethiopian officials.  Our first date is scheduled for November 1st.  Families do travel for the second court date, which is when the adoption becomes legal in Ethiopia.  Our second date is scheduled for December 2nd.  The embassy date usually takes place 6-8 weeks after the successful completion of the second court date.  Families travel for the embassy date, and this is when the newest member of the family gets to go home with his/her new family.

The Exciting News:
We got word on Thursday that the Ethiopian judge who hears cases for the first court date has decided to allow families to travel for their first court date!  Since our first court date is so soon, we weren't sure that this would be allowed for our family, but we got the green light on Friday afternoon. This essentially combines the first two court dates, which means Brian and I are LEAVING ON WEDNESDAY for Ethiopia.  We will get to meet our daughter in less than a week.  Also, if our court case is resolved quickly, we will be able to bring her home sooner!  As you can imagine, Brian and I are thrilled beyond belief and running around like crazy all at the same time. 

To be honest, there have been no part of our adoption that has fit the estimated timelines that we have heard along the way, and we are OK with that.  We're so thankful that God's timing is perfect...through the times that seem slow and the times that seem out-of-control fast!  I've decided that adoption is predictably UNPREDICTABLE!!!

Now, we have a baby to get ready to meet, so I'm off to continue making arrangements, pack, etc!  Please pray for our FAST preparations, safe travel, and that our hearts would be prepared to meet our cutie pie!

We Have A Date!

Yesterday we received news that our court dates have been assigned.  The first court date is November 1st, and we will not travel for this date.  The second court date is the one that we will attend in Ethiopia.  It is scheduled for December 2nd, pending a successful first court date.  This means we would travel to meet our daughter right after Thanksgiving.  Please pray that both of these dates would be completed successfully so we can bring our sweet girl home in January!

Court

Ethiopian courts will reopen tomorrow, Tuesday the 28th!  This is a couple of days earlier than anticipated, which is great news!  Our prayer is that everything is good to go with our paperwork and we will be assigned our court date soon.  Please pray that we would receive our travel dates soon.  Updates to come as we have them...