Ethiopia Part 2!

       I left off with the end of our first day meeting our girl.  As I mentioned, I was still sick, and the next day we weren't able to go see her. I think the combination of being sick and having major jet lag put me in bed for most of Monday.  My sweet hubby ended up spending the day reading and playing angry birds beside me.  The house where we were staying did not have Wifi the whole week we were there, the government had shut it off for some reason. So he got lots of reading done, and had to find other ways to entertain himself, hence the impossible amount of time he spent playing angry birds last week! And we had forgotten to pack some movies for us to watch during the downtime, so there really wasn't much for him to do while  I spent the day sleeping, poor thing! But a funny side note, he somehow managed to find a little shop by asking our driver, that actually rented movies! It was a task to find one that would actually play in our computer, but somehow he did it haha! And it only cost about $0.35 to rent a movie! If you know my husband, you know he loves movies and he's going to find a way to make it happen, even in the middle of Ethiopia!

        After spending Monday in bed, Tuesday I woke up feeling MUCH better and we got to spend another day with our sweet girl! She seemed to remember us, but she also was still very unsure and cautious of us, which we completely expected.  This day we got to have some really sweet time with her, and this time she slept in my arms after her bottle- I wasn't about to let daddy be the only one she slept on!  It was such a sweet time and we just couldn't believe we were actually there and she was finally in our arms! We spent the most time with her that day, about 4 hours, and she was clearly overwhelmed by the end, so we said our goodbyes, knowing that we had court the next day and didn't know how long we would get to see her then.
       

  Wednesday was court! Another completely surreal experience.  We got there super early, and we were supposed to meet our agency rep there.  Turns out there was some miscommunication on what we were supposed to do once we got there, and we missed our time being called! We were in the room the whole time, but we weren't able to find the rep, and we didn't know whose name would be called when it was time for us to see the judge.  Turns out it was the orphanage name where Ryah had been before she was with the agency, and it was called first, but since we didn't remember that name, we missed it! We finally ended up calling the rep since we couldn't find him and he had to talk to the judge and explain to them that we were there, but had just missed them calling us in.  So we waited about 20 more minutes for other families to take their turn, and they called us in again.  We were both a little anxious after thinking we had messed something up, but all was good.  The judge asked us some questions about the adoption and wanted to make sure we had met Ryah and that we still wanted to adopt her.  We of course answered with a joyful yes!! After a few more questions, she said ok, the paperwork is complete and in the eyes of the court she is all yours!!! I couldn't believe it, and the tears quickly came, she was finally our daughter, even though she had been since we saw her 4 months ago, everything was official now and nothing could change it!

After we left the court room, we drove over to see Ryah and we got to tell her she was officially ours, she was no longer an orphan! She had no idea the significance of this- but it was such a special moment for us! We got to spend just a little bit of time with her that day before it was time to head back for the night.  We officially have a daughter!! God's faithfulness is just so evident in her story and in our family.  We are so grateful and humbled that he chose us to be her parents.  She is a miracle, and a beloved daughter! More to come!