Ethiopia - Day 4

Day four was Tuesday, March 8th. Our court date! We were all picked up in the morning and drove to the building where the court was. The drive over was pretty silent which was unusual. Everyone was nervous. I was a big ball of nerves. We arrived to the building and climbed what felt like an eternity of stairs until we arrived at the waiting room. The waiting room was full of adoptive parents and birth families. In most cases no one knew who the other was. We could all feel the birth families staring at us wondering if we were the ones to adopt their child(ren). That added a whole other level of tension. The actually court appointment was fast. We walked into what looked like an office with an a younger looking woman sitting behind a desk. Turns out she was the judge. For some reason I was expecting an old man. (ha ha) Anyway, she brought back all four families at the same time. She asked us a series of about five "yes" or "no" questions and gave us a small talk on this is a forever deal, no returning children and that was it. We would not learn of our fate until at lunch.

After court we went back to our orphanages to see our children. When we arrived one of the social workers was there passing out books to some of the children with pictures of their new families. It was like a badge of honor to these children. They were so excited and showing us their new families. My Mom and Kaleb were able to join us on this day. We were finally able to get our first family photo. We were able to spend another two hours at the orphanage that day.

After the orphanage the group joined together for lunch. It was time for us to learn of our fate. Only one couple passed court. :( Turns out that our new power of attorney form that we sent in the month of October was not mailed to Ethiopia until late February and didn't make it in time for our court case. I am still want answers for what happened there. We were given another court date of April 19. We do not have to appear again in Ethiopia for this date. All it requires is receiving another letter from MOWA stating they have the updated form. The letter from MOWA is a whole other story. Please be in prayer with us that they actually write our letter in time for our next court appointment!

After lunch I had to pull my emotions together for a trip to a mountain top to see an old palace that is now a Orthodox church and a museum. The view from the top of the mountain was beautiful. We were all enjoying ourselves but you could also tell that not passing court was heavy on some of us. We later returned to the guesthouse for dinner and then one of the families left for their long journey home.