Day 3 in Ethiopia

Tuesday morning we woke up and got ready for court. We enjoyed the company of other families as we had our breakfast downstairs and met our new driver, Zuzu. (Yoftahe had another commitment for a couple of days). We were told that the courthouse was 3 minutes away, so after being in the car for about 15 minutes we thought maybe there was mix up. Turns out he was taking us to the care center for a visit. As much as we would have loved seeing Miles Amanuel again, we couldn't miss our court appointment! We headed to the Gladney office for a brief overview of what to expect and were off to court.

We walked up a few flights of stairs and into a big room full of chairs to wait. Most families that traveled this week had court that day so we were all together. We were called in by our child's name one family at a time. Each time a new family was called we wished them well and then celebrated when they exited the judge's room just a couple of minutes later.

It was finally our turn. We went and sat in front of the judge and she asked us a few general questions. Why Ethiopia? How will you carry on this child's culture? Are your families supportive of this adoption? We tried to answer briefly and succinctly. She smiled, closed his file, and said, "Well he is yours." Of course we thanked her, smiled, nodded politely, and stood to leave. We wanted to do cartwheels out of the office we were so excited. It was surreal to us both that we walked into the courthouse as a couple, and when we exited, we were a family of 3.

We headed back to the guesthouse to change clothes and then we were off to Kaldi to celebrate with macchiatos. We toured the National Museum and saw an assortment of Ethiopian artifacts. We saw and took pictures of many things from the region where our son was born. We had a wonderful tour guide who shared with us after our tour that he was adopted as well, and that God and the family that adopted him saved his life from an illness he had battled. He was a blessing to our day.

Our driver took us for some delicious and authentic Ethiopian cuisine for lunch and we loved it. We're lucky enough to have good Ethiopian food close to home, but we were thrilled to be enjoying the real deal.

I was wiped out and took a nap back at the guesthouse and Ross played tourist with Zuzu. He came back with some great things to bring home.

That evening we had a group dinner at Island Breeze where we were able to get to know more of the families traveling. I risked big here by eating fresh salsa and was not disappointed nor did I pay the price later. (Fresh, uncooked vegetables are usually to be avoided unless you enjoy spending a lot of time in the restroom).

We were anxious to go to sleep in hopes that morning would come quickly as it would bring visit # 2 with Miles Amanuel.