Road Trip Photos

Guys. I am so tired. We went to the Blue Nile Gorge today and crossed the Portuguese Water Bridge. It was beautiful. And exhausting. We are all so tired. So with your grace and permission, I am just going to post pretty pictures today and head to bed. Because this mama is BEAT. And frankly, so was her son. His head couldn't hit the pillow fast enough, poor buddy.

Today included a 6 hour trip that should have been four hours, a vomiting child (not mine!!), a LONG hike, LOTS of baboons (close up, even!!) and lots of great Ethiopian food. I was emotionally and physically exhausted so I can't imagine what a toll this took on our little guy.

Please enjoy the photos by husband while I head to the pillow to crash. xoxo

Farm Animal Juju and Other Tales from Today

Yesterday, despite the absence of a blog post, was a great, filled day. The picture above is from a drive we took. That same drive we saw baboons. Very close up. But as we went to get the camera, they moved along. Probably good. I'm not sure how friendly baboons are.

For those of you that aren't Facebook friends with me I feel like I need to tell you one thing from yesterday. We hit a donkey with our van. Well. The driver did. We were on our way out to the place where we took the above picture and we came to a small town. It was market day so everyone was walking their farm animals to the market to be sold. There were people and animals around every curve. We came around a curve and our driver started to honk. And slow. But the donkey out in front of us did not care. We came to a screeching halt--right into the donkey.

It took about an hour for the scene to be settled. There were police who our guide told us had to measure things (What things? We do not know.) and they arbitrated the dispute. The townspeople gathered 3-4 deep around our van while we waited and another group gathered around our driver and guide and watched the arbitration like a TV courtroom drama. Big entertainment, I tell ya.

In the end, the donkey breathed its last, our driver paid a fine, and we left after an hour. Our guide mentioned a conspiracy theory the police had that this person had brought their blind donkey to be put out of its misery by a car. Apparently this is a common phenomenon. A donkey has an ailment. A family needs money. The donkey get "helped" and so does the family. I can't confirm this donkey was actually blind. His testimony was lacking in substance. But the whole thing did lead to a good story.

On to today. We woke up and tried to figure out what we were going to do for the day. Some of the other families were headed back to the transition home so we asked IC if he wanted to go see his friends and he said yes. We got his sneakers on and headed that direction. It was a weird morning. I can't exactly describe it but basically it felt like we didn't fit their anymore. We had our son. He had us. And though it had only been two days, it just felt different. I did get to play a little with some toddlers, which was adorable. And IC got to say goodbye to his friends (we said goodbye to some of them too since we'd grown affectionate toward them in our time there) but really, when lunch came, we were ready to roll. We agreed that was probably the last stop we'd make there. It was time for our family. The TH was no longer our place.

When our driver arrived to pick us up, he handed us the golden ticket!! We now have IC's passport, visa, and sealed file to hand to immigration upon arrival in the US. We're ready to go when it's time on Sunday. I think we are still finding it hard to believe that ALL the paperwork is done. I mean, except for lots of social worker post placement visits and yearly update reports. Oh yeah. Those.

We did lunch back at Makush, a restaurant and art gallery. Restaurants are a funny dance because the waiters can speak to IC better than we can. But, of course, we want to approve his choices. So we have to let them talk. Then talk to the waiter, then talk to IC and hope he gets it. He liked whatever we ordered today so I'm calling that a win. We also worked on using a fork today. Since most of the time he eats with injera (the spongy bread) he's really not used to utensils. So we tried to mime using a fork for his meat and just holding his bread instead of using it to scoop. It was a funny scene. It's going to take a little getting used to, I think, but it went well over all.

We stopped at a market after lunch to pick up spices. There were three adoptive families and zero guides so the comedic value was higher than usual. We headed over to the spices, each of us trying to say the Amharic word and looking at our kiddos to point to the matching spice. Berbere? Got it. Shiro powder? I think so. But mitmita? Not so much. We asked and they pointed to chilies. Whole chilies. We asked again. They pointed again. We gave up. I googled just now. It does have chilies in it but there are more ingredients. Sadly, IC will have to live without mitmita. We tried, buddy. We really did.

By the time we got back in the van, IC was showing signs of exhaustion. At the TH, they take a nap each day. It doesn't seem to be wearing on the other kids but we can tell immediately if IC has gone too long without it. He crashed on my lap on the bus and awoke when we got back to our guest house. He was so tired, though, that he let E pick him up and carry him the two flights up to our room. He laid straight back down and crashed for two hours. We woke him at five. Who knows how long he would have kept sleeping. Of course, he's missing nap time. But it's also a LOT of change on his little person. And change is hard. And draining. And napping helps. So nap we did.

After a long nap he headed down to play with the other kiddos. We don't let him play on the phone or computer (except for a little educational stuff in the morning) but when he's with the other kids we let them do what they are doing. We look over and he is playing a video game on someone's phone and has headphones into an mp3 player listening to some Ethiopian pop music. A minute later he was playing with Legos and it occurred to me if you didn't know better, he looked like any other American 7 year old in that moment. See:

All the adoptive families still around (our suitemates left today) decided to do dinner together. E and I wanted wine. It was a pretty small restaurant and when we ordered the import wine they told us they were out. So we agreed to try the domestic wine.

Never, never try the domestic wine. Never. Picture you have a neighbor who knows nothing about wine but decides after watching a youtube video they are going to bottle some. So they find some bottles, do a rudimentary fermentation procedure, and invite you over. Can you imagine what that might taste like? Like badly fermented grape juice that you immediately want to forget? Yes. Yes. And Yes. But it was an adventure. Never say we're not up for an adventure.

We left the restaurant and as we were standing on the porch, I noticed a shadow. What? Yes. It was an escaped bull. With horns. Running through the street. As our friend Michael, who was with us, said, "your family has bad farm animal juju." Yes. We do. We hopped in the van and then were stuck in traffic. Guess why? That's right. The bull (or oxen, as our driver said...anybody know the difference?) was holding up all the traffic. A city block's worth of people was chasing the oxen up and down the street, trying to wrangle it. At one point it was running straight toward our bus window. But he passed us and we were finally free to move toward our guest house. Adventure. It's all over us.

Bus selfie!

We got back just in time for shower (IC's favorite...he still giggles the whole way through), Bible story, and prayer. It was a full, good day and tomorrow is even busier. We are headed on another trip to the countryside.

I want to stop my narration for a minute to thank you all for praying for us each day. Our days are filled with lots of fun stories and great moments with our son. However, as each day passes we see how much we are asking of IC--to give up everything he's known to be a part of our family. We see glimpses of how hard this is and will be. He's a wonderful little boy but everything in his life is changing. Thank you for you prayers. Please continue to pray for strength and patience for our little guy and his parents. 

Can't wait to tell you about our trip tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to it. As long as there are no farm animals.

Embassy Appointment: Complete

We are going to try to get to bed early tonight so I'm going to write a quick post while we wait for dinner to be delivered.

Today was a good day. A good, good day. Let's start with this: at 5am little IC had made his bed and was standing over us, ready to greet the day. Only problem is mom and dad weren't quite as pumped. So he crawled in and let us sleep a little longer. E got up before I did and when I finally woke up, IC spoke his first sentence to me, "Where is Dad?" Guys, I couldn't be prouder. A full sentence.

We found dad on the roof waiting for the sunrise so we joined him and all watched the sun rise in Ethiopia together. I feel like there's a metaphor about the dawn of our lives together or something but I'm too tired to flesh that out so go for it, if you so choose. The sunrise really was lovely and as soon as it was fully up, we headed back downstairs to get ready.

I have to show you IC all ready for the day because, I mean. I have a little looker on my hands, in case you didn't already know. Case in point:

As soon as we were ready to go, we loaded the van and headed to the embassy. Just as I was told, the embassy is a very nice building. Very nice and not friendly to photography. We can't even take photos outside the building. So we didn't. I'll give you the pretty basic rundown: we came in, we talked through a window, we left. The guy at the window was super nice. We exchanged a few comments about the World Cup (which we didn't watch because it was on LATE here!) and then he told us we could pick up his visa and passport later this week. Easy-peasy and quick.

We went straight from the embassy back to the transition home for a few last items. We arrived and they had prepared a coffee ceremony for us. In Ethiopia the traditional coffee ceremony is a big deal. You may remember we had one at the traditional Ethiopian dinner last time we visited. It typically has coffee that is roasted, ground, and boiled to completion right on the spot. There's always incense and there's always popcorn. Which is good for our family because we LOVE popcorn. And coffee. It's a very nice thing to do a coffee ceremony for visitors, so it was sweet to have one done as we removed our kids from the TH for good.

All Photos of the coffee ceremony by IC

We met with a few of the officials from the transition home and took a few pictures for families still waiting to visit. We talked to the counselor about several things, one of which was the dogs. We tried to explain that Dash, his favorite dog, might be too excited to see him and he might jump up on him and put his paws on his shoulders. We didn't want him to be scared. But as the counselor started to translate, IC went into fits of giggles. He thought it was the funniest thing he had ever heard! He even told one of the other boys about it and laughed the whole way. So we're hoping it will be that entertaining when it happens.

By this point, we were all so, so hungry. It took quite a while so I got to play "mama" and hand out a pre-lunch snack to my little guy. I felt pretty awesome that I had come prepared and could help him in this small way. Because, you know, this mom thing is new.

We loaded the van and headed off to lunch.

Lunch took a while and a few families had just arrived so by the time it was over, pretty much everyone (myself included) was yawning. We headed back to the guest house and I crawled into bed, with two sweet boys next to me, for a nap.

I woke up and the boys had gotten up and were playing memory in the living room. They really are a sweet pair. We inflated a soccer ball and Mama G and I watched the dads play from the balcony of our room. I knew they had finished when I heard a loud commotion coming up the stairs. We calmed down with tetris and tangrams. And then as I started to write this post, the boys began to work on school. I can hear them spelling out words now and IC is working so hard. If you think we are the ones pushing the school thing, you are absolutely wrong. He loves working on school and will work until he is fully exhausted from working so hard.

As I mentioned, we're waiting for dinner and we'll be heading to bed a little early. Full disclosure: I don't expect to get a blog post in tomorrow. So I hope to chat with you again on Wednesday.

Much love from Ethiopia.

We've Got Our Son

Happy 7th Anniversary to us!!

We touched down in Addis about 11:30pm. So I think that means our official anniversary day began somewhere along the Visa and immigration line. We were the last ones in the line and thus became the last ones on our plane to go through. We quickly grabbed luggage and found our driver. An hour or so of unpacking, an anniversary kiss, and we crashed hard. 

Don't hate me but because we went to bed between 2 and 2:30 am, we decided to forego church for sleeping. We each got some personal bible time after we woke up at 9am and did breakfast. 

Our driver arrived at noon. Our original plan was to grab lunch and then pick up our kiddos. But our guide asked if we would be ok picking up our kids and then heading to lunch with them. You mean that is an option? Yes, please!! 

So we headed over to the transition home and as soon as IC saw us he was in a dead sprint. I got a big hug and then he gave the same to daddy.

We gave him marbles--something he had requested we bring back. Methodically, he divvied them out to his friends, making sure everybody got the amount he deemed appropriate. Then he kept a few for himself. The guide asked me the English word and I told him "marble." I asked him the Amharic and he told me what it was. To me it sounded pretty guttural and I told him it was a difficult word. To which he replied, "You know what is a hard word? Marble." Touché.

IC said some goodbyes (though I think we will be back for a few housekeeping items later in the week). One of the boys turned and asked me how old I was. I told him I was 30 and asked why he was asking. Our guide said he said I looked like a very young mom. And that's when I adopted a second child.

Just kidding. But seriously. Who doesn't love hearing they look very young? This girl eats it up.

We walked out the gate and took pictures by the sign, signifying the end of our son's time in the orphanage. At this point I feel like I should mention there was another sweet family with us. Not just any family. It just so happens God saw it fit to have the G family end this journey with us. Here's what you need to know about the G family. Mama Rachel and I became friends online when we received referrals at the same time. Then we followed each other through the process. They live one state over from us and we met them at a conference. We immediately felt like our families just meshed. Good thing, too, because we found out our kids actually are from the same region and the same orphanage before joining our agency's home. We are hoping to keep them lifelong friends. Because we sure think we are lifelong friends now!

We headed off to pizza lunch all together and shortly after, we arrived at the guest house to hang for the day. It's a weird distinction, the difference between embassy trip and court trip. Court trip the guides and the agency dictate your schedule. Embassy, not so much. We had some requests for the week but we really get to decide what to do and when to do it. Because, you know, essentially we are just hanging out with our son now. So that's pretty cool. And completely different.

First things first: we got cleaned up at home. This included a shower tutorial and newly cleaned clothes. It was precious. And then? Well. Then we played for the rest of the day. We said no to TV and video games and were met with utter compliance (somehow). We got out a 1st/2nd grade workbook and went through several pages. He did really well but some things in the book require cultural understanding. For instance, when we were matching animals to their surroundings, IC had no idea what to do with the dog. So he used deductive reasoning. "Bear? Cave. Bird? Nest. Dog? I guess it goes in this weird building but here they pretty much live on the street." Good point, buddy. Good point. For the most part, though, he did really well.

We put together a puzzle, did a little reading, put temporary tattoos ALL OVER (remember the tattoo story from our first day? We brought temporary tattoos and he was the happiest kid on the block) and did quite a bit of drawing. And then Mama Jess got tired so we laid down for a little while. I woke up and realized IC had crawled in next to E and we were all snuggling. Seriously, guys, great anniversary.

We headed up for a little sight seeing from the roof and IC and I did some cartwheels, spins, and handstands. My kind of thing! And then we headed down for soccer. Not my thing, but definitely his. He's so cute to put up with me as I attempt not to shank the ball ever 3 seconds. Daddy, expectedly, does better than I do. We gave a two-minute warning and headed up to dinner.

Since we had so much leftover pizza, we just did pizza in the room for dinner. I also had some apple squeeze packs and quickly found out he likes apple sauce. Another win. After dinner, we didn't do much. Just chilled, and played with our G fam friends and watched the kids play games. They are super cute together and we've kind of already arranged a marriage. Don't tell.

Around 8:30 we geared up for bed. Another shower (hey--he likes them!), jammies, a snack, and then tooth brushing. We read the story of Jesus' birth from the Jesus Storybook Bible, and said our prayers. E and I in English. IC in Amharic. It was the most perfect end to the best gotcha day ever.

Have you ever seen a cuter kiddo in jammies? I'm sayin.

E and I headed back into the common area of our suite and cracked open a bottle of wine and toasted to our anniversary. It's not where we planned to be when we were two selfish kids who stood on a mountain 7 years ago and said "I do." But God's stories are the best stories and this is more amazing than anything we could have written for ourselves.

We are up early for our embassy interview tomorrow to officially conclude the paperwork-ish process. We can't believe there's a sweet little boy sleeping in the bed next to ours tonight. Thank you for loving us and cheering us along on this journey. We're so thankful for you. And we're incredibly thankful to the Father. We covet your continued prayers on our behalf. This is just the beginning.

Goodbyes Are Always Hard

Today was the hard day we knew was coming. We said goodbye to our little IC, not knowing when we would get to see him again.

Since today was our last day with IC, we didn't plan any cultural activities. We headed straight to the transition home, where he was waiting inside the gate for us. He grabbed his backpack and we headed off to play.

First things first: he went through the whole pack. Then he found his new shirt and we helped him switch into it. We made more pipe cleaner jewelry today and E and I each got a hat with a bill. It was too cute. We made him some jewelry as well. He taught us hopscotch and we taught him our version.

I did a little nail painting again today, too. I have one hand painted because a little girl worked really hard to paint them but we didn't get time for the other side.

Math was also a big hit again today. E spent a ton of time last night looking up math problems and IC flew right through them just the way a mathlete would, grinning and giggling all the way. He had a great time and E was pretty happy seeing him get all the questions right.

Guys, I have the cutest son ever.

Today we also pulled out the phone for music. At first it was just me dancing and then I had a genius idea: the Cupid shuffle. If it can get grandmas to dance at weddings, surely it can get kids to dance in Ethiopia, right? Well, sort of. E popped up to dance with me and a couple of sweet girls played a long. We had a pretty good time and I think the girls did too. There was lots of giggling and smiling. IC wasn't sure what to do so he took pictures of his looney parents doing some robotic dance on the porch.

We could tell from the beginning of the day he knew this was our last day of this trip. He wasn't as interested in playing ball (though we did play) or playing games. He really wanted just to sit together and snuggle. I couldn't blame him. We were pretty happy with just snuggling. He had a hard time saying goodbye just for lunch but we promised we would be back.

Lunch was at a restaurant we hadn't been to before. We sat down in a quaint cafe and noticed the boys next to us were speaking and studying in English so I asked where they were from. One was from Oklahoma and I told him where we were from. At which point the girl on the other side of us, in her early twenties, spoke up and said she, too, was from our home state! And that she just graduated from Mizzou. Um, what?? Yep. She has family in Ethiopia and is working here for a few months before starting her job in Washington, DC. At work, my friends joke that I am an extreme extrovert. But here's the thing: if you don't talk to random people in Ethiopian restaurants, you don't find out you're from the same stinking university town. I'll reach out every time. God always has fun treasures tucked in the least expected places.

After lunch, the first thing we wanted to do was head to the Ethiopian equivalent of Starbucks. Ironically, this is called Kaldi's. Kaldi's is also the name of the coffee shop where E and I met for the first time. We wanted to have coffee and take pictures. Our driver and guide obliged so we made a little pit stop before heading to the transition home.

The afternoon was just really, really hard. We knew we were leaving and he knew we were leaving. There was a little ball-playing, a little coloring, a little more Cupid shuffle. We got to take photos for a couple of families who had sent us approval to do so. Mostly, though, we spent the afternoon just hugging each other. Lots of tears. And finally we had to go. We all just sobbed and sobbed and hugged and sobbed more. He blew kisses and so did we and finally the gate shut and we couldn't see our sweet son any more and both of us let the floodgates of tears open up. I'm trying not to let tears well up as I write it. As much as you tell your son who doesn't speak English that you promise to come back and you count to forty and tell him it will be about forty days (which we don't know but figured might be a long estimate so he wouldn't get disappointed), it's hard to know whether he understands. And even if he does it's hard to do.

All of our gifted bracelets. We kept pointing and saying "Family."

Because this week little IC became our son in a way he wasn't before. Legally, yes, but in our hearts, definitely. We love him more than words could express. It's clear to me more than ever that God is the one who makes families, no matter how he makes them.

We get on an airplane in a matter of hours so I am going to take the last shower I'll have for the two days of traveling and finish packing. Thank you for your love and support through this journey. By Friday night we will be back in our beds, counting the days until we can return. We'd love your prayers as we wait. Prayers for IC and his heart, that he believes we will return. Prayers that the connection we established this week will not be diminished by the wait. Prayers our trust and love of God will grow stronger and we'll stabilize on him as we wait. And prayers the wait is short, short, short. Like, miraculously short. What does that look like? Well 2-3 weeks would be a miracle. Want to join us in praying for that? You all have made our journey beautiful. You have covered us in traveling mercies and beautiful moments with our son. We'd love for you to join us in asking the father for him to be home with us as soon as possible.

Goodbye for now, Ethiopia. We've fallen in love with you and your people forever.

Mountains, Bracelets, and Flowers

 Today started with a little sight-seeing. One of the things we really wanted to do while we were here was see Entoto Mountain. It has a storied history, the best views of Addis in the city, and it's got a beautiful palace and church. Problem was, we didn't have any time. At all. Well, our itinerary changed last-minute and we got to go with the O family up the mountain.

When I say "up the mountain" I'm going to need you to picture a tall, tall Colorado mountain but with no snow. I mean. Those mountain passes you've taken to get to the ski slope? We were taking them in a 15-passenger van with a guy who's used to driving on streets with no rules. We cut back and forth so fast it was dizzying. And awesome!!

Locals carrying their firewood down the mountain

When we got to the top, the first thing we had to do was go through the museum. Our museum guide spoke in the quietest, fastest form of English I have ever heard. Picture an adult Ethiopian man speaking like the girl from Pitch Perfect. Seriously. Some of the history was super interesting. And other times I just wanted to get to the palace/church part and look over the views of the city. Our museum guide asked if E was from Holland. I giggled. That was a first!

A flag outside the former palace

We finished up in the museum and headed to look at the church and the palace, which was partially destroyed in the war with Italy. Which Ethiopia won. But with some hardship.

The church...we can't go in but it's beautiful even from the outside

A tomb of one of the former leaders. Also known as: a pretty building.

As we were walking, we heard quite the commotion. We looked over and saw quite a few people headed up to the church, water jugs in hand. One was yelling uncontrollably. I had heard from my friend Amanda about the holy waters of Entoto mountain so it wasn't shocking to me to see this site but I wasn't sure I would actually get to see it. Yes, sir. A steady stream of people with ailments, from the one who our guide told us had a demon, to people who had to be carried up on the mountain. It was a tragic site to see so many needy headed up the mountain. If you know about Noonday, their artisan group works with some of the women who come here for healing. They give them medicine, jobs, and hope. And the people I saw today needed hope.

Taking a few photos at the palace

Inside the palace

By far my favorite part was looking out over the city. Sure, it was pretty foggy today. And sure, you can usually see the entire city and we couldn't really see too much. But it was still beautiful. A site I am so glad I saw. 

We headed back down the mountain and stopped to take photos at some of the most beautiful overlook spots along the road. Because in Ethiopia, you can stop your van anywhere on a tiny mountain switchback road for your passengers to jump out and take photos. Totally normal.

At this point, afternoon was approaching and E and I were DYING to get to IC. But instead, we had a notoriously long lunch. With no power at the restaurant. Again. A group of 40 sat down just before us and it took two hours to get our food. I think E was about ready to run to the transition home and would have, if he had any idea where in the world it was. But Ethiopia doesn't have street signs. It's nearly impossible for us white people to figure out where were are at any given time. Well, by that I mean, I have no idea where we are at any time.

It felt like midnight when we paid our check and drove off. We finally arrived at the transition home to see our son and he came running.

We started our time together with the sweetest moment. I think I shared with you that we gave him a bracelet the first day and we each have a matching one. Well today, IC came out with bracelets of his own. He had made a friendship bracelet out of yarn for each of us, matching exactly, and one from rainbow loom loops. He carefully tied both on dad's wrist. Then mine. Then he pulled out his matching two and asked me for help. I tied them on. Matching family. 

This photo is from yesterday. I add it because 1, you can see his bracelet (the turquoise and gray one) and 2, He's looking at Kids Club photos on my phone. I think he's ready to go!

We spent the afternoon playing catch, drawing, and playing with a craft set I found with beads and pipe cleaners. We made spiders and snowflakes from the box. He asked for a necklace with beads and E obliged. I made him a crown and he wore it with pride. And then, with no explanation on the box, he created a flower and gave it to me. Today, I got my first flower from my son. It's sitting right here next to me. I will treasure it.

I also got to paint a few nails today. Shout out to my friend Tanya who ran around town gathering some goodies for me before I left. One little girl had been following me around all week. I pulled out the purple polish and she held her hand very still as I put it on every nail. She grinned and ran off. Turns out, she was grabbing a friend. The friend picked out a color: pink. The friend then proceeded to tell me first little girl's favorite color was purple and she was so happy I chose purple. I'm gonna call a holy spirit interception on this one. I had no idea. But it made us all very happy.

After several games, E started writing out words in English and we'd sound them out together. This was a fun game so he went on to math. E started writing out simple addition problems. He looked at us like, "you kiddin' me?" and answered them all. E went a little harder. Then subtraction. Then multiplication. He looked like the happiest guy in the room as he went through each problem, getting them all right. We have a little mathlete on our hands. Let's all get jackets.

It felt like it went so fast again today!! Before we could even realize how long we'd been there, our guide told us it was time to take off. We hugged pretty hard today. We got in the van. He hopped in and hugged again. The driver closed the door, IC still inside. He was grinning from ear to ear. Sorry, bud. We tried as hard as we could (with zero Amharic skills) to explain we'd be back tomorrow and he'd get to ride in the van soon. We all had pretty sad faces as we drove away.

We got back and decided to head up to the roof of our guest house. We'd heard about the views but hadn't ever caught it when the roof was unlocked. Today we got lucky. Everything they said about the views were right. It made me so happy to see the bustling city from so high up. Everything about it is uniquely Ethiopia.

We decided the best decision for tonight was just to rest in the room. So we've been sharing leftovers, sorting donations, and even had a St. George (Ethiopian beer). We're trying to not think about the fact that tomorrow might be the last day we see our son for a month or longer. I can't think about that.

Instead I will think about how wonderful today was. I got a flower from my son. My math whiz son. And that, my friends, is a great day.

Our Incredible Child

You all are so sweet about all my posts that I feel like I have to clear up one tiny little thing. That mom glow? It's called "Jess is only wearing beauty balm and no powder in a country that has as much weather swing in one day as our local town." Anyway, you all are really sweet. I'm so thankful for all your kind words.

I know you want to know whether we passed court. Whether we're legally parents? Well, I don't mean to leave you in suspense or anything so let's get right to the recap...

Today was our earliest day yet. We climbed into the van at about 8:30 and headed off to court. We were told the rules for court were no shorts and no short skirts. Basically, knees? No! Which is fine with me. I have a no shorts policy and only brought maxi skirts and dresses for the trip anyway.

We arrived to the courthouse, climbed the stairs and the two families (our family and the amazing G family, who have been our leaders, gurus, and friends through this whole experience) sat in this room with rows of chairs. There was one other family sitting there. We met our lawyer, who I have heard so much (all good!) about and our guide sat with us too. We arrived around 9:00 and I was expecting to wait but by 9:15 we were called in and went to the judge. The judge was in another small room and both of our families went at the same time. They ran through a list of questions with each of us, asking about our family, our intentions to adopt, and the kind of training we've had. It wasn't 10 minutes later we were officially declared IC's parents. So fast after such a slow process. I teared up. E just kept giggling. He was beyond ecstatic.

My friend Liz mentioned to me today that we can't really call our little guy Imaginary Child because not only is he not imaginary but he is, as of today, legally ours. But still. I'm all for boundaries. And you all already know him as IC. So today, our Incredible Child joined our family legally. He is ours. The courts said so and everything.

Our next stop was not, oddly enough, to visit our little guy and tell him the good news. Here's the thing: he didn't need a judge to tell him we were his parents. I'm not even sure he understood the whole proceeding anyway. What he knew is we told him we were his parents months ago, we showed up and proved it, and it's real in all our minds. Court? We don't even have the language to explain why court is important.

Our next stop was to a coffee bean production facility and roaster.  As you can imagine, we were in HEAVEN. We pulled up and the smell of coffee was immediately intoxicating. They were roasting on-site and you could smell it just walking out of the van. We were waiting for a few minutes for another family and so I decided to pop in to the restroom.

And that's when I saw an Ethiopian man going to the restroom.

Apparently, locks are optional in Ethiopian coffee shops. Glad I know now.

So I apologized profusely and did my thing. I have zero idea if the guy understood my apology.

Yeah, back to the tour. I don't know if the pictures will really give you any idea what happens here. But basically they sort, wash, sort, and bag the "green" (read: not roasted) beans for roasters. And then they also do a small amount of roasting.

Never have I seen so many coffee beans in all my life.

The actual owner had to run out to do business so our guide showed us around. E had tons of questions that our guide couldn't answer so we are going to try to set up a meeting with him for embassy. Because my guy LOVES coffee. And it shows in the way he talks about it. He threw his hands in the air and grinned a giddy, schoolboy grin when he saw all the beans stacked high.

The smell of the roaster was so intense that the two kids with us had to leave the room. But I felt like it was intoxicatingly delicious.

And now? Well now our whole room smells like that because we may have bought a couple of bags to come home. You know, for fun.

As we left the roasting part, we heard a ZAP sound and all the power was gone! Hey, Ethiopian electricity. You're back to your old tricky self again.

They took us to the front shop for macchiattos after the tour and it was one of the best I'd ever had. Coffee, y'all. God is so funny to line up the details that one of our favorite things in the states was created in the birthplace of our son. I couldn't love it more if I tried.

On to lunch...I think E and I were hoping lunch would be quick. It was fairly quick by Ethiopian standards. At this point, all we wanted to do was get to our son, as soon as we could, for as long as we could. But we went to Lucy instead. Nicknamed for the early skeleton found in ET, it was a delicious restaurant next to the museum.  It looked a lot like my favorite restaurant from my days in Mexico. I had shiro and injera. Because I am in Ethiopia. Why have lasagne? It was very tasty.

As we move to the part about meeting our son today, I have to tell you I am going to be very quick about it. We were so happy to see him. We took "first family day" photos but they are on someone else's camera. We played some fun games. And then things got hard. I told you all from the beginning that there are certain details, stories, moments, that are our family's to share and no one else's. Today was one of those days.

We are so thankful for our son. He is just more than we could imagine. But we know his story comes with loss. And today we started to see how painful that loss is in a real way and our hearts were broken for the road to healing our son is on. I had some teary moments and I know they won't be the last.

I will not share more but we are so thankful to have him in our life. We want him home as soon as possible. And now that we have passed court, the clock is ticking. They can begin to gather the documents needed for us to bring him home. Please join with us in praying the documents needed to come back and bring IC to the states will come quickly and without complication.

My little guy playing memory today with my big guy. IC won. Big time:).

The other family had to leave today so we were both pretty sad when we jumped in the van. We decided the best way to handle it was to share one last meal together before they had to get on the plane.

A candlelight dinner.

OK the reality is the power was out at the restaurant when we got there so we only had these candles. They could still cook but there was no way to light the restaurant. Second power outage today. I think it just makes the whole trip feel authentic.

We said goodbye to our friends after dinner. We are now the only ones visiting our little dude at the transition home each day. Only two days left. This is going so, so fast.

Thanks, again, for being excited to welcome IC into our family. We couldn't do it without you.

Day Two

Today was even better than yesterday. It's clear we're feeling more comfortable with each other and that's shown in our interactions. It's feeling more and more "real." Know that, while I am trying to share my experience with all of you who are so near and dear to my heart, I am also very cognizant of keeping some special moments for just the three of us to share. I am trying to find the right balance. We'll see how it goes.

This morning we did breakfast as usual. We had to say goodbye to our medical mission friends as they headed off to a more rural area of the country. There were lots of hugs and promising to keep in touch.

We headed out to the Transition Home fairly quickly and IC was waiting for us as we entered the gate. Most of the other kids had gone on an outing so it was just us and a couple other kids for the morning, which was nice. He gave big hugs and E picked him up and spun him around, something he had done yesterday before as we left. My first goal of the morning was to take pictures of another family. They cleared embassy and were doing their "gotcha" day as a family of five and had brought their two boys. IC was patient to wait as I videoed their meeting, which was nearly as emotional for me as it was for them. They have a little, little (think toddler) and he's grown so much since they saw him last. It was a beautiful, emotional moment.

I quickly stepped back over to IC. We brought a backpack for him yesterday and tried to explain that the backpack is his but comes home with us each night. We will give it to him for good in America. The first thing he wanted to do was look at all the backpack items and see what we had brought in today. He spied the gum first and looked at us to make sure it was ok before he pocketed it. He knew that gum was a hot commodity and he didn't want to have to share it without making the conscious decision to do so. Smart kid. He did share one piece with me, though, and my heart was very happy with this small sign of affection.

We went through the bag together, looking at the contents. We explained again we would take the bag home but if there were things he wanted to play with he could.  He wanted to keep it all in the bag so it would all stay his, and we were totally fine with that. We spent the first part of the morning putting together a Star Wars puzzle. For those of you that know me, puzzles are my jam! We worked together for quite a while and finally brought it all together.

E and IC played a little frisbee, IC and I hung off the monkey bars, and then, the main event. We pumped up the kickball to play soccer. He and a the few other children around ran themselves ragged. E and I would pop in to play now and then but mostly he and his buddies played and we watched like proud parents. He grinned and we grinned and he played so long that he eventually wore himself out and deflated the ball to give back to us for safekeeping.

We decided to try to set a standard to today when he, or any other kid, asked to play games on the phone we redirected. It went surprisingly well for IC, though many of the other kids were disappointed IC wasn't going to push harder for them to play. For him, paper airplanes and shoulder rides from Dad were pretty good. He didn't ask for more.

After the piggy back ride, it was time for lunch. He asked if we would return and we promised we'd be back after lunch. Our itinerary had shopping after lunch so we agreed with our guide the best thing was to shop for Ethiopian souvenirs as fast as possible and then head back to hang out with our number one little man.

I haven't talked a lot about what Ethiopia is like but I feel like this picture does a good job of conveying some of it. Traffic? It's everything you've heard and more. There are no rules, the horn is king, and most cars show signs of wear and tear from everyone gently bumping into each other over and over again. I joked that the horn is kind of the equivalent of "runner speak." Like: "on your left or go on through, pass me." But for cars. Lots of the Americans flinch as they drive by. I kind of find it entertaining so I don't think too much about it but it is pretty busy and wild. And fun.

We headed to a favorite Ethiopian adoption lunch spot, where they sell beautiful Ethiopian art. E and I each had a pizza. This was rookie mistake #1. The pizzas were called "small" but were actually huge. We could have shared. We each ate exactly half one pizza. Whoops.

Orange soda is big here and comes in two popular varieties: Fanta and Mirinda. I kind of like orange soda and kind of decided to drink it for novelty while I'm here. And shout out to my coworker who loves orange soda. This pic is for you (you know who you are...).

For the afternoon, the two families that hadn't passed court went back to hang with our kids. Since E and I wanted to shop first, we were just going to drop the other family off and tell them to tell IC we would be there soon. But wouldn't you know it, he was waiting around the corner with big hugs for all. We played for a few minutes and then explained we were going away and would be right back and our driver and guide were up and out to the shops.

I had heard for years about the famous "post office shops" where most people do their souvenir shopping. When people from our agency go, they take the beloved guide and get better rates. So our guide traveled along with us. I have haggled in several countries and this was similar, except, well, I had a local with me. And there's something so comforting about that. I don't know if it's because I grew up as a local in an area with so many tourists that you couldn't shake a stick without hitting one (and most days you wanted to hit at least one. Sorry, tourists), but having a local around is so comforting to me. We got everything we wanted quickly and there was only one item we had to walk away and come back for...a blue giraffe for IC's room. He loves blue. We couldn't say no.

We tried to rush through and make it back to our little dude as quickly as possible. (For those of you who were wondering, our schedule is very packed and we wanted to bring a few things home so we had to sacrifice time with our little person... it's a very hard decision to make. We are here for such a short time and we want to see him but we also want to grow to love his country. It's tough and we're doing the best we can to get both. And of course we hope to come back after our embassy trip when the timing is right).

We got back and he was excited to see us. I think we wore him out because he really just wanted to sit and snuggle. No complaints from this mama and daddy. Sitting and snuggling was just fine with us. We sat on the couch, snuggled, and looked at photos. We pulled up people and explained relatives. I forgot to mention that yesterday he pulled up photos of our dogs. He pointed to Dash and pointed to himself and said "mine." Then Gabby and to E and said "daddy's" and then to Rodrigo and back at me and said "mommy's." Yes sir. I think he has it figured out. He pulled them up again today and said their names. We have been so worried about the dogs but so far he seems to understand the concept that they are just a part of the family with us.

When it came time to say goodbye, we all held hands and stacked our hands up, sports-style and did a little "hooray" cheer.

We sat in the van as it started raining. We saw him looking at the van and he waved over. He realized we weren't taking off immediately so he hopped in and we hugged more, waiting for the other to come back. When it was time, we hugged again, promised we would be back tomorrow, and he hopped out.

At which point I cried. And E didn't look so good either. Each day our connection builds. And each day brings us one day closer to going home.

Without him.

But that's sad. Let's move on to dinner.

It's a tradition for families from our agency to go to a traditional Ethiopian restaurant for food and dancing. So that's what we did this evening.

We started with drinks. Our guide helped us order beer..

my beer, based on our guide's suggestion

And then he ordered honey wine for us. I tried to ask E what honey wine tasted like, since I didn't feel like I could describe. He said, "It's like a high-alcohol wheat beer that you poured a half a cup of honey into." I would say more like a wine cooler. But whatevs.

So honey wine...Yes. we had it. And then LOTS of good food.

Eric commented on how in America our wine is in a big glass to give lots of breathing room for smell, etc. Honey wine? Not so much. It looks like a potion. You hold it in between your index and middle finger if you're trying to be traditional.

Food. Oh glorious food. I was joking earlier that my two favorite characteristics of food are spicy and containing bread. This makes Ethiopian food perfect for me because instead of utensils they use a spongy teff-flour-bread called injera and pretty much every dish laid on the injera, that is shared by the table, is spicy. What makes it not-so-perfect is it's taboo to eat with your left hand. People, I can barely do anything at all with my right hand. My guide said I would be forgiven because I was American. I hoped so because I would have certainly made a mess if I tried to eat as a righty. But the food was just so, so good I would have eaten it mouth-first if that was required.

My favorite? Doro wot.

It is just like me to have taken tons of photos of drinks and zero photos of food. Whoops. I was too busy actually eating the delicious food. Anyone want to open an Ethiopian restaurant in our town? I will be your first customer.

As we ate, there was traditional music and dancing. And toward the end of the meal they walked around and encouraged diners to dance with them. Read: they encouraged crazy white people to dance with them so the locals and the dancers' families could enjoy.

Did I dance?

Yes.

Are there photos? Yes. But not on my blog. Be sure to grab my husband sometime. They are on his camera. Since this is my blog and they are seriously incriminating, I am not posting them.

Moving along, the last thing before the meal ended was coffee.

In Ethiopia, coffee is a big deal. It was started here after all. Any time coffee is served, it's served with incense and popcorn. Why? Well, I am not exactly sure but the family that knows more than we do says the coffee is so strong you can't take it on an empty stomach. So they serve popcorn.

They traditionally serve it black with sugar. I just had it black and black. And E and I both slurped ours down as fast as we could. Delicious.

Notice the Ethiopian flag

We left the restaurant full and happy. As we arrived at the guest house, our guide reminded us to bring our paperwork tomorrow. Because tomorrow? Welcome to the big show. The court will officially deem us fit to be parents. We hope.

Look out world. Not sure you're ready for E&J: The Parental Edition

On a serious note, thanks for your continued prayers. We feel them and need them more each day.