It's Official!!!

We left our guesthouse at 7:30 this morning to head to court. We barely made it there for our 9AM time slot. After rushing into the building and up several flights of stairs we entered a room filled with other adoptive families nervously waiting to go before the judge. 

We were so nervous. 

While we had been told by so many others that it would go quickly and was not something to be nervous about we were still holding our breath. It was such a monumental moment at the end of this crazy journey to make Nati our son.

After watching 4 other families go into the room and come out our name was called. We, along with our agency rep, went into a small room, handed over our passports to verify our identity and answered 9 questions.

Do you have other children?  “Yes”

How many? “4”

Are they excited about your adoption? “Yes”

How long have you pursued Nati, specifically? “19 months”

Have you met him? “Yes”

How many times?  “Twice”

Do you like him? “Yes”

 Do you still want him? “Yes”

Do you understand this contract is forever and cannot be reversed for any reason? “Yes”

After a few words about the importance of instilling cultural pride in Nati he announced that he was finalizing our adoption. Just like that we were excused from the room and it was over.

Exactly 3 minutes after we entered the room.

It felt so surreal and anti climatic after the battle we have been in for the past year and a half but we are so thankful to have this behind us. Today the government of Ethiopia recognized what we have known for quite a while. Nati is our son, FOREVER. <3

We waited at the court house for 2 more hours and walked away with our court decree in hand. This is our first answer to prayer. The judges are allowed 1-3 days to grant the decree after finalizing the adoption. Ours did it on the same day. This will allow us to apply for the next needed documents tomorrow instead of waiting for next week. One day does not seem like that big of a difference but in the chain of events that needs to happen each day counts. 

Unfortunately, the translation office was closed today so we were not able to obtain the translated copy, which means that we did not get to take custody of our little man. However, we are very hopeful that we have left him at the orphanage for the last time and that we will get to take custody tomorrow.

Please pray for him as he makes this transition. I know that while it is pure joy for us it will involve loss for him. We are so excited to not only be spending a few hours each day with him but to be spending each precious moment we can.

Natanim Solomon Trumble is an orphan no more…He is FINALLY our son!!!

FYI- We were hoping this post would be accompanied by adorable pictures of our little guy but our agency has requested we wait to post pictures until we have the court decree in hand. Hopefully just one more day of waiting! ;)