Redemption-Our Adoption Story: Our Trip to Get Harris, The Miraculous Journey--Part 1

And thus, the moment we've all been waiting for....the telling of our trip to get Harris! Since Sunday (February 5th) was three months since Harris has been with us, I knew it was time to finally share the full story with (most) all of the details!

Let's go back to the end of October...just imagine us running errands, packing, checking the 10 lists I had going making sure everything was all there and packed, packing for the kids and typing up schedules and "things to know" for the both of them, calling the school, doctor, bank and anyone else that needed to know we were going to be out of the country, and taking in every moment with Asher, Mary Clair and Jake, as I was planning to stay however long it took to finish the process. It was a strange time for our family. Lots of change and stress. All of this for one little boy in Ethiopia.

We took the kids to my parents and put them to bed October 30th. One more story time, one more kiss (or two or three or more), prayer time and we got in our van and headed to our house to finish packing for this crazy trip! We were exhausted already...but the journey had just begun....in just a matter of hours we would be heading to the airport.

Arrival at the airport was not it's usual hype. In fact, there were sleeping people everywhere and not a single staff person to be found aside from the occasional janitor or security guard. We waited on the floor for an hour or more before we could even check in. There we were, leaned up against all of our luggage--packed full of clothes, shoes, toiletries, books....and baby stuff! It was almost like nothing else mattered. We were going to get our son!

We arrived in Ethiopia early Monday morning, October 31. We were taken to our hotel which was the same hotel we stayed in just a few months earlier when we had come to see Harris when he was sick with cholera. And of all the rooms in that hotel, we got the exact same room! So many emotions and memories flooded back in, but all I could think was, "God will redeem this room! We were here with heavy hearts last time and now we are here with joy in getting Harris and having him as our son!" Not too long after arriving, we were off to the orphanage to see Harris!! Would he remember us?

We arrived at the orphanage which was not at the same location it was on our previous trip. It was a nice little court yard hidden behind walls and a large black metal gate. The sun was bright and the sky was blue. I was ready to see our little guy and not be at a hospital and him not being sick! One of the staff said Yibekal (Harris) would be out in a minute after he got cleaned up. And so I looked over to where the kids rooms where and saw him, our son, through the window! He saw us too and I could see by the look in his eyes that he was trying to remember why we were familiar. He didn't want much to do with us....unless we had food! So we took advantage of that by trying to give him his bottle and his bowl of mush. He was not keen on us feeding him the bottle since he was used to feeding it to himself, but he knew we were his only hope with that spoon and bowl!

For two more days we would get up, eat breakfast and head to the orphanage for a few hours. Harris was very uncertain about why we wanted to take him away from the other kids and the nannies and have him to ourselves on our visits. So we tried to make him comfortable and have a good dose of "alone time" walking about the courtyard along with interacting with the other children with him at our side. We thought he was going to be delayed in speech as he didn't say a word the first day, but it turned out he was very vocal once he felt more comfortable. He was also very good at communicating through non-verbal ways...biting!! One child grabbed the toy he was playing with and he just went mouth first to that kid's arm!

November 3rd finally came around. It was the day we had been waiting for for so long. Two other families from our agency would join us for this joyous event. We were to all go before the judge one couple at a time and he was going to grill us with a bunch of questions. None of us wanted to say the wrong thing!! As we sat there in line talking about how excited and nervous we all were, we overheard one of our people from our agency say that our paperwork was not there! What?! What do you mean our paperwork isn't here?! I said a quick prayer while Jake worried for the both of us. It was the day we had been looking forward to. How could there already be a hiccup!? Within a few minutes, the woman from our agency was back with the needed paperwork. Thank the Lord! It's like God had to remind us a little bit along the way....trust Me!
We were the last of our group to go in to meet the judge. Jake answered all the questions with the last one being, "Do you understand this adoption is irreversible?". We said yes. And within about 5 minutes we were done! Then we asked "respectfully" for our adoption decree and he said he would give it to us that day! (Which was a miracle in itself and put us about a week ahead of schedule!! Yet another answer to prayer! You'll start to see the theme of "miracle" with every story...)

The momentous day was celebrated by visiting Entoto Mountain to learn more of the history of Ethiopia followed by a much needed nap and an excellent traditional Ethiopian meal complete with coffee and dancing! Though it would have been the icing on the cake to get Harris that day, we would have to wait a couple more days....

The next day, we, along with the two other families from our agency, were up and ready to hit the road to get the birth certificate processed and possibly get Harris, but our faithful guide arrived and informed us that the power was out at the birth certificate office. We were all hoping we could still get there by the end of the day so we sat around, prayed for miracles, drank tea and coffee, played the ukelele, and enjoyed the weather and good company of our new friends that we were experiencing all of this with! As the day came to a close, we were all wrapping our mind around not getting that part of the process done that day....until our guide pulled in and whisked away the couple that was leaving the next day since they both had to be there for this part of the process. Disappointed though we were to not get that done and not go get Harris, we were rejoicing that our friends were able to get that part done before they left!

Once they were back from the birth certificate office, it was decided that the other family and us were going to get our kids the next morning. We would leave early to go with our new friends to experience and document for them their "gotcha day".
Then it would be our turn to get Harris....and have him with us forever!