Second Day in Ethiopia

Monday was supposed to be our court date.  I was fighting nausea on the way to court with all of the fumes coming into our car!  When we got into the court room, it only got worse.  There were quite a few Ethiopians at court that day (our room is only for adoption cases) and I was overpowered with the Ethiopian "odor."  There is no way to really describe it.  We decided it was a combination of the food they eat, the spice they use (Berbere), and the odor of the people it created quite an aroma that I was NOT familiar with.  I grabbed some mint gum to try to keep my nausea at bay.  It was that bad.  I want to point out, though, that our driver thankfully did not smell like that!!  He wore a cologne and probably bathed more regularly.  Anyway, our time sitting at court was disrupted as our driver (Solomon) told us that Tsedey (our in-country representative) wanted us at her office right now.  I knew that could not be good.  We met Tsedey at her office and she very apologetically told us of the mistake that they made in our court date and that it was really supposed to be the 16th!!  We were feeling anxious after we left, not knowing how things would turn out.  We went to Bereket's orphanage and he was happy to see us and we were happy to hold him again!!  Then came another surprise.  The director of the orphanage came in with a young lady and talked some with the nannies and then suddenly said, "Bereket's mother!!!"  You can imagine our surprise as we were not planning on meeting her, although we did want to meet her but it was our understanding that it would happen on our second trip!!  Without a translator, we tried to communicate.  To our amazement, it was very obvious that she was happy for us!!  Then, when she was trying to hold Bereket for a picture for us, Bereket wanted me.  Definitely more heart melting moments!!  As she looked through our album that we had prepared for Bereket to leave with him of our family, home, and animals, she kissed the pages of the kids!!  She wanted to keep some pictures of our family, so I gave her some pictures from Bereket's album.  I showed her the pictures of our first meeting with Bereket (on my camera.)  We still don't know if she just happened to decide to drop by the orphanage to visit Bereket (it was actually the preliminary court date for the relinquishing parties, so she would have been at court as well as Eden's aunt the same time we were at court and were not supposed to be there.)  Thankfully, it was a very touching experience and we got some really nice pictures of Bereket's mom with Bereket and I!!  I still would like to be able to visit with her again, through a translator.
We had lunch with the family that adopted Bereket's friend in the pictures from the last post.  It was nice to meet them and they are from Utah (not too far away!!)  We enjoyed our time with them and being able to talk in English without being strained.  After lunch Solomon took us to the museum where the famous "Lucy" lies.  I have to be honest, at that point I wasn't into it much.  It was supposed to take us an hour to get through and we made it through in a half of an hour!!  We still hadn't heard from Tsedey at that point on whether we would be able to appear in court the next day!!  Next, Solomon took us to see the huge orthodox church.  This was not my choice, but it was interesting, although we opted not to pay for a  tour.  WE just took pictures outside.  Then, when we were headed to Eden's orphanage (KVI), we got the call from Tsedey that we were supposed to be at court the next morning at 8:30.  Solomon asked me, "Are you happy now?"  I laughed and told him, "I am relieved!!"  Solomon openly told us how sorry he felt for us and that he was upset that we had to get caught in the agency's mistake!! 
At KVI Eden was still at school.  They told us that she would be back by 3:00, but she didn't get back until 5:00.  That only gave us one hour with her.  We enjoyed our time with the other kids, though.  Cade and I both decided that we would just as well spend our time with the kids, even if Eden was not there!!  We fell in love with the kids there, really!!  Cade told someone just Yesterday that if he could, he would not hesitate one minute in taking some of those older kids home with us!!  My thoughts exactly.  The oldest boy was 14 years old.  The kids were just amazing and it was neat to see how they were like family.  The older ones helping with the younger ones and the older ones helping the nannies, as well as the younger ones!!  When Eden got back to the orphanage we gave her the album we prepared for her.  She was so proud!!  As she proudly but very possessively showed the kids her "family" my heart melted some more!!!  She pointed to the Katreese's nose and I said, "freckles" and a new English word she learned!!  She is very smart and catches on quickly! 
By 6:00 I was plum worn out!!  It was such an emotional day!!  We ate "hamburgers" with Solomon.  I think he had the picture that we were getting tired of the traditional food, but the "hamburger" were quite different than our hamburgers.  I only ate a half of it but the fries were good.  I decided when I looked at the desserts, that maybe chocolate cake would be just what I needed.  I ordered it to go, but was quite disappointed when we ate it at the guesthouse!!  It was very different too, maybe even with liquor in it, almost like tiramasu (which I like) but I just wanted chocolate cake.  The texture was different too. 
Anyway, that was our second very full day in Ethiopia!!

 Cade and our driver, Solomon in front of the Orthodox church.

 homeless sleeping everywhere!

 fruit stand

 sheep market

P.S. - Just a reminder that we cannot post pictures of the kids' faces until after we have officially passed court!!