Me, waiting to meet with the judge in Ethiopia. This waiting room was packed with people from all over the world adopting children.
Words really can't describe how amazingly precious these little ones are.
Having M. run into my arms saying "Mama! Mama!" is something I will never forget. Ever.
And T. Sweet, precious T. Smiling, laughing, this almost-two-year old is seriously a kick. She's awesome.
Both of these children are adorable, affectionate, and sweet. M. is super confident, knows what she wants, and is seriously sharp as as tack. She is extremely verbal, even though I don't understand Amharic. :) And her walking is awesome! T. seems really strong, can sit up super well, and is extremely social.
I have to tell you that it was a bit surreal meeting our girls, but not taking custody of them, and not stepping right into the role of parent. So different from when we met our boys. Hard in a lot of ways and I think it made me feel a bit removed from it all.
Then Tuesday afternoon, just hours after meeting our future daughters, we met their birthmothers.
Incredibly emotional and difficult and yet I'm so grateful for the chance to meet these women.
When people talk about the orphan crisis, most of those orphans are not "double orphans", meaning they do have remaining family who, for whatever reason, have decided they cannot or will not parent them. The whole thing is incredibly sad and tragic. And complex. I'm sure I'll be exploring some of these things in the days and weeks (and years, really) to come.
Last Wednesday morning was court. Sadly, we did not pass, because they are saying one of the girls' paperwork is incomplete (even though it maybe isn't.) We actually weren't sure if we passed or not until yesterday morning, thus my lack of updates and photos on my blog, Facebook and Twitter. The day after court was Good Friday, a national holiday there, and we left for Rome on Monday morning, so we had no real time to find out.
I'm bummed, but not terribly surprised. After the way this process has gone, I would have been surprised if things had gone as I'd hoped. That sounds pessimistic, but it's simply reality that it's just a huge mess right now. Court itself though was easy--no more than five minutes with a judge in a small room, all of us sitting down, and her asking how our sons have adjusted, if they have any identity issues, and if we've told our other children about this adoption and what do they think of it?
So we're settling in for another wait and more delays, and I have no clue how long this one will be. I THINK we had another court date today, so we'll see. I so wish I could share the photos with you all of our time there, but I can't until the girls are ours, and we've passed court.
For now just picture two super cute little girls in our arms, and two smiling and very happy parents. We are so very blessed to be on the way to parenting these dear, precious children.
