Officially a Family of Five!!!

Sorry for the delay in getting this posted!  The power has been out since we got home from court and visiting Bereket.  I typed it all up and got it ready to go, but I couldn’t post it until we had power!

Officially a family of 5!!!

Well, today was court!  We had a laid-back morning at the guesthouse, eating breakfast and playing until lunch time.  We ate early, and then started getting ready for court.  We had a small hiccup in that our hot water heater was not coming on, but our friends/neighbors, Rob and Candy, left us their key when they went out so we could shower in their suite.  The manager managed to get ours working just as we were about to go over there and shower, but we were so glad to have that as a “back up plan” just in case.

Martha and Germatchew came to pick us up around 1:30 and we went to the court house. It is a very non-descript building and you wouldn’t even know it was there if you didn’t have someone bringing you there.  The door was still locked and there was a large group of adoptive families waiting outside the door.  It started to rain, and so they brought us inside through a back door a little earlier than 2 pm.  We filed up several flights of stairs and into a large waiting room with several rows of chairs.  There were quite a few families there, but we were the only ones with our agency, Kidslink.  I started to get out some paperwork to ask Martha a question when we were called in!  We were the very first ones out of the whole room!  That was a relief, as I was anticipating a 1-3 hour wait.

 They called us into a smaller room, where the judge sat behind a desk.  She was maybe about my age and spoke excellent English.  She asked the children how old they were, and if they were excited about the adoption.  She asked us about our preparation for adoption, about the diversity of our community, about our knowledge of Ethiopia and our contact with other adoptive families.  She asked if we had met Bereket and if we were satisfied with him.  She asked if we understood that from this day forward, he was a full member of our family, to be treated like any other child.  And then she said, the court has given its consent, and he is ours. It was over so quickly!  We are officially a family of 5!

After court, we dropped Martha off at the Kidslink office before proceeding to KVI for a visit with Bereket.   It was raining when we got there, and they took us upstairs to talk to some of the staff.  We discussed our plans to meet Bereket’s birth family and a few other things.  We thoroughly confused them by asking if there was a space where we could change out of our “court” clothes into play clothes, but eventually they understood, and we changed in an empty office.  I was so glad later that we did this, as Thomas was filthy by the end of the day!

After a bit, we went downstairs and were trying to figure out what was going on and where we were meeting Bereket when he suddenly appeared in the stairwell!  So we did our hugs and greetings there, before they cleared the other children out of the main room so we could have some private time with him.  It was tough because it was raining, and so there wasn’t really any place for the kids to be, other than back in their rooms (and naptime had just ended, so I don’t think they wanted to be there!).  So we sometimes had a few visitors in with us. ;)

 We played for quite a while with the little car that we had brought for Bereket, zooming it from person to person.  He had obviously seen the “pull-back” type cars before, and he though this one should work the same way, but it was a “push-push-release” type car.  It didn’t take him long to figure it out, though, and both he and Thomas had great fun touching the spinning wheels to their fingers, faces, hair, etc.

 After a while, I got out the recordable story book we had brought and tried to show him how that worked.  He wanted to keep pushing the “record” and “stop” buttons, which won’t erase the book, but interfere with its function.  It was hard to convince him to just turn the page and wait and the voices would start.  Eventually, he decided he would “swipe” each page, like an iPad, which did absolutely nothing, but made time for the sound to begin.  So he was convinced that was the trick.  Haha.

We also showed him the photo album of our home and family and he seemed to like that.  He especially liked the cat! She will be oh so thrilled. lol. The second time through, we could point to each of us, and he would say our names.  He has a hard time with “Faith”, as do most Ethiopians, thanks to the unfamiliar “th” sound.  He seemed to enjoy the book, and I hope that the orphanage staff help him look at it as often as he wants to. J

He took us to see his room, which he shares with 3 other boys, and we got a look at the kitchen, too.  I also snapped a picture of their summer schedule. 

The boys played with a small rubber soccer ball we had brought along for quite a while, inside this time.  It was pretty funny; he kept pantomiming that he wanted a pump for the ball, perhaps to make it bigger?  It was not the type of ball that can be inflated, so we said no.  I told Germatchew this, just thinking it was kind of funny, but he misunderstood and had an older boy bring us a pump!  Oops!

During this time, I went upstairs and spoke with the nurse about Bereket’s health and routines.  He seems to be in good health.  She encouraged us to fatten him up! We will do our best!  lol.  He sleeps from 8 pm to 6 am and has a nap from 1-3.  She said he is a good eater and eats “everything” so we’ll see if that extends to unfamiliar foods.   She said he seems excited about us, and they will continue to talk to him about the adoption and going to Canada.  She also said he is a good student and is learning his numbers and ABCs.

I went back downstairs, and David and Bereket were looking at the books again.  It was still raining, and Bereket really wanted to keep my umbrella.  I figured I need it more than he does the next few days, so I told him no, and he handled it really well.  I think he also was hoping that the bags that contained our jackets and court clothes were for him, but when I explained they were ours and the backpack was his, he seemed ok.

We said our goodbyes and explained that we would be back tomorrow. He is a very good hugger!

One thing I’m wishing is that I had brought more stuff to DO with him at the orphanage.  We are going back again tomorrow, and I’m wishing I had balloons, or bubbles, or sidewalk chalk or SOMETHING!  I wasn’t really thinking about all these visits and that we would basically be on our own as far as entertaining him/us.  Maybe we will go out in the morning tomorrow and see what we can rustle up.

All in all, it was a great day! Court is over and he is officially our son!  We had fun together, and he continues to be warm and affectionate with us. I am so looking forward to having him with us permanently!

Tonight we have ordered supper in, and we will just lay low and watch a movie.  That is, assuming the battery on the laptop lasts if the power stays out!

Thanks again for all your prayers and support!  God is so faithful to have brought us to this day!!!