March 9th....Court. precious time.

What a day!!! We woke to the beautiful sounds of Addis, the glowing sunshine through our windows & the rooster crowing outside of our window! After getting ready for this special day, we had breakfast then waited for our driver! We were very eager to get on our way to Court!! He drove us to the Court, where we would wait in a room filled with about 40 people waiting for their court appearance. There were a few other adoptive families & then there were a few birth families present. Broke my heart. Here we were waiting to hear the words..."she is yours!" while these birth families sat in the same room , waiting to appear before the judge to give their final relinquishment of their child/children. Such joy & such heartache. After waiting for what seemed like forever...we heard.."brothers & Sisters Orphanage" called out. This was the orphanage where Ariyat had first been about a year ago. We knew it was then our turn. We were led to this tiny door, stepped in & sat down. It's pretty special...back in August we had the privilege of meeting this same judge in Colorado for our agency picnic. She is such a pleasant lady. Our meeting with her was brief. She asked us a few questions like..."Have you met Ariyat before today?" "Do you intend on teaching her about her culture?" "Have you had training on international adoption?" After all 4 of us replied "yes" to her questions...she spoke these words..."She's legally all yours!!" That was that. We walked out with smiles on our faces, headed to our van & off we went to see our girl!! Even though Ariyat has been in our hearts for all of these months & she's been an obvious part of our lives...hearing those words was a beautiful sound. When we arrived at the orphanage, the kids just hugged her like crazy! We spent time there & then Abebe ( the director at the care center) said he thought it would be great if we took her with us for a few hours. How could we say "no" to that!! We explained that we didn't want to confuse her or make it harder on her when we would leave...they explained to her that she would be able to spend time with us & then we would come back later in the day & she would continue to stay at the care center until the day came when we would come back to bring her home!! She was thrilled to be coming with us, we hopped in the van...she was so curious. She pointed out the window & was just taking it all in. She continued to keep a pretty good grip on my hand & we made our way to the hotel. We played in our room for a couple of hours, colored, sang songs, snuggled her up & just spent some really sweet time with her. We then went upstairs to have some lunch. She loved that. She had spaghetti, injera, papaya juice & a sprite. She leaned back in her chair, started to giggle , rubbed her tummy & said.."beka!" Beka means "enough" in amharic. She was full. she was happy. our hearts were full. We then played a bit more & then came time to go back to the care center:( She fell asleep on the ride back & it was all I could do to wake her up out of her peaceful sleep & have to take her back. Once we were there, we played for a bit...the kids loved jumping rope...Kate was having the time of her life:) They then explained to her that we would be back tomorrow. she smiled. then quickly ran off. I followed her. I found her lying in her bed staring at the pictures we had given her. I hugged her a few more times. Told her how much she is loved & tearfully left.

                                               Outside the court house!!!

                                                           the many sights of Addis.

                                                                  our sweet girls!!!

                                                                 teeter-totter fun!

                                                         dad & his girls playing ball!

                                                                               love.

                                                           jump roping champions!!

                                                                sweet time together:)

                                                       

That evening, we had a delicious dinner at Sishu! The kids were thrilled to have cheeseburgers & I had the best bruschetta! We fell fast asleep that night, looking forward to our next day!!!
                                                                    xoxo