Judah's Journey: Our Journey to meeting Judah...

Selam! As many of you know, we made the long journey to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on November 24 to meet our son Judah Duressa! I apologize for not posting earlier…the jetlag has been a bit rough. We arrived in Addis on Sunday evening. As soon as we got through customs we were greeted by one of the drivers from our adoption agency, Holt International. We were the last of three families to arrive so we headed straight to our guest house Lucy Land to try and get some sleep before the big day of meeting Judah and going to court to legally become his parents.

Lucy Land Guest House (our room was on the top left)

The guest house and staff were amazing! They made us feel very welcome and took care of any needs we had. Monday we woke up early to sounds of prayers being broadcasted over a loudspeaker. We met for breakfast in the dining room with the other 3 families. After breakfast we were picked up by our Holt driver and taken to the Holt International office.

Adoption Agency Office

We were briefed about what to expect during our court hearing and got the chance to look over Judah’s file. We had never seen his birth certificate before which was very special for us. There was a picture of him on the certificate from when he first came into care at only 4 days old. Until then we had only seen pictures of him when he was 5 months old already. We also found out where Judah was from. Originally we thought he was from Addis but after seeing his birth certificate we know that he is from Shashamane which is in the Southern region of Ethiopia. Our meeting was very short because we had limited time to go meet our children for the first time and then go directly to court.

Finally the time had come…. After years of waiting and many tears shed, we finally met our son! The feeling was pure JOY! In one instant our family became whole! Our lives forever changed for the better.

A cartoon version of the blessed event since we cannot post pictures of Judah until he is home.

Judah is perfect in every way imaginable. He has a very sweet, calm and observant demeanor and literally is the most handsome boy in the entire universe (we aren’t just biased…he really is)! Judah had grown a lot from the pictures we had of him previously. Although he was getting over a cold he appears to be a very healthy baby. We soon found out that his favorite thing to do is wave….it is the cutest thing we have ever seen. We only had one hour with him that day, but it was one of the BEST hours of our life!

Daddy holding baby Judah for the first time!

It was then time to go to court and speak with the Judge. Unfortunately we are still waiting to pass court. Since we had waited so long for our referral (19 months), several of our Dossier documents were expiring. So right before we left the States we had to send in some new updated documents. I believe we arrived in Addis before our paperwork did so that is the reason we didn’t pass court while we were there. Our agency believes that it will only be a week to find out that we passed. So hopefully next week I’ll have another post to share with good news.

Over the next four days we visited our sweet Judah Duressa every day. It was wonderful to be able to see what his typical day is like. We got to bottle feed him and play with him. He even took a nap with his mama (he makes the sweetest baby noises when he sleeps). I couldn’t ask for him to be in a better place. The nurses and nannies at the orphanage take wonderful care of the children and show them a lot of love. Judah is a ladies’ man and already has a girlfriend named Lucy (2 months older than Judah…he likes older women). Judah and Lucy share a big crib together. We love that he is never lonely. Lucy’s parents were right behind us on the referral list and we got our matches on the same day and had court on the same day. It was wonderful to meet them and share our similar journeys. It is amazing how fast you can bond with another person and know that they will be your lifelong friend. We have already decided that we will visit them in Chicago and make sure our children grow up always knowing their crib mate. When Judah and Lucy turn 13 we plan on bringing them back to Ethiopia to see their birth place.

Judah & Lucy's king size crib

When we were not with Judah at the orphanage we were out seeing the sights and doing some shopping for some traditional Ethiopian outfits for Judah as he grows. We visited Emperor Menelik’s Palace as well as Emperor Haile Sellassie’s (The Lion of Judah) Palace. Haile Sellassie’s Palace is now the University of Addis Ababa. This was very special for us since Judah is named after Haile Sellassie. The personal servant of Haile Sellassie is still alive and watches over his treasured belongings. He looked about 100 years old….just incredible! We didn’t travel outside of the Capital, but we definitely fell in love with Ethiopia. It is a land of some of the most beautiful people we have ever seen. Most everyone we met was very kind. The older children at the orphanage really stole our hearts. It is hard not to want to bring them all back home with us. They definitely loved Judah and gave him a lot of attention and affection. It’s the kind of thing that makes your soul smile!

Front gate to Emperor Haile Sellassie's Palace

Front enterance into the palace

Date night enjoying traditional Ethiopian food, music and dancing

Coffee ceremony house at Lucy Land

Inside the coffee house pretending to be roasting some coffee beans (I know I am a dork!)

Originally we were scheduled to fly back to the States on Thursday but when we went to the airport, we were told that our flight didn’t exist even though our itinerary showed otherwise. It was rather stressful since we had made sure to spend all of our cash before leaving the country. Fortunately the owner of the guest house paid for us to get a taxi back and even had tea and a nice meal waiting for us. She wouldn’t let us pay her back. So next time we go back we’ll have to bring her a nice gift to show our gratitude.

Every cloud has a silver lining….we got an extra day with our son! We spent a lot of time at the orphanage on the last day so we got give Judah his morning bottle and Drew was very excited to feed him his breakfast for the first time. Judah ate every last bite, way to go daddy! While Judah took an afternoon nap in my arms, Drew played soccer with the older kids. He sure did get a work out especially since the elevation is so high (roughly 8000ft). And then it was time to say good bye. We assumed that this would be so hard to do but we knew that Judah was being taken care of so well and that he would have his friend Lucy by his side. So knowing this first hand, we felt happy. It was a perfect bonus day! Hopefully Lucy’s family and we get to bring our children home at the same time very soon. Cross your fingers and toes for us please! The estimated wait time to get a US Embassy date is 5-12 weeks after we pass court.