Julia Joy Hale
We made it home last night and were able to spend a few hours with my parents and the girls before we crashed. We had a little picture-sharing and story-telling time this morning and are trying to rest up. Just before coming home, I started putting together a quick slide show which I finished a little bit ago. We'll do some additional videos once we get all of the grandparents together with Julia, but I thought this was fun, so we put together a few pictures and some music. Hope you enjoy!
Julia Joy Hale from Ryan Hale on Vimeo.
We made it!
The last few days have been interesting, like a civics lesson in Ethiopian government and adoption process. As mentioned in my last post, we met the birth parents and then they went back to Awasa. On Tuesday night, we decided that we really needed to try to head home and with some skyrocketing airline prices, we decided to give it a shot while the gettin' was good. Without the court decision finalized, we went ahead and booked the tickets, and almost didn't make it. Thankfully it all came together.
The Shalom orphanage had to write a new history for Julia based on the new facts with the birth father in the picture, so they did that on Tuesday afternoon and then drove it to Addis early on Wednesday morning. Mekonnen received that and brought it to the court where we immediately took it to the judge. She accepted the documents but told us to come back at 2pm for the final decision. Mekonnen explained that the embassy was waiting on us with this decision, so she was willing to do it a little quicker for us and asked that we return at noon. Firew, Sisay's assistant went and retrieved the paperwork at that time but then several additional administrative steps needed to be completed before we were able to get the final stamp. They needed to receive the documents, send them to the secretarial department where it was typed up and then reviewed for accuracy, re-typed to fix the errors, and then certified and stamped for the archives. Firew was like a streak, going from one department to the next and begging them to complete the work in each office quickly.
Finally, about 2:30, we finished all of the court process and then we headed to translation office to get that done. While there, around 2:45, I called the embassy where they told me we would have to be there by 4:00 with everything in-hand to be able to get the visa. We felt fortunate that they would do that because that process typically takes a couple of days, but they were well-aware of our situation and were very helpful! Thankfully, the translation office finished their part in a half-hour and then the biggest part of the coordination had to take place. Gina and Julia were at the guest house, Sisay had Julia's passport at the Bethany offices, and, in all of the hubbub with our problem, we realized that our family had never filled out the I-600 form. In addition, we started leafing through the translation and noticed that my name was spelled R-i-a-n instead of R-y-a-n, so Firew had to jump out, run back to the translation office, and get that changed in the documentation while Mekonnen and I flew to the embassy so we were there and reserving a place in line. Gina's driver, Efram, picked up Firew on the way and then she arrived, followed immediately by Sisay in the car directly behind at 3:55. Gina and Sisay were able to make it through security and up to the visa portion of the embassy by 3:58, so we made it! We worked our way through the interview and then they printed the visa on the spot and we were on our way.
Congratulations all around ensued after we were out of the embassy and then we gathered for dinner, along with Birtukan and Nesibu, our guest house hosts, to celebrate before we made our way to the airport for our flight that night. Now, we're in Frankfurt, Germany, and waiting for a few more hours before our flight on to Denver to arrive this afternoon.
I think Gina and I will send something more formal along to the Bethany offices, but I want to take a moment to just say how thankful we were for everyone in Ethiopia for working with us to solve the problems we had. Yes, there were mistakes made, and while in the middle of the situation there were times when we were pretty frustrated about the whole thing, but everyone worked so hard to put everything back on track and to move things forward as quickly as possible. Mekonnen, himself, dedicated over a week and a half of time to personally see things through. Sisay and Firew both played critical roles in getting everything accomplished, and they all did it seemingly without complaint. At the same time, Nesibu and Birtukan took us in and treated us, literally, as part of their family, caring for us, feeding us, and praying with us throughout the process of resolving the problems. They were on our side the entire way!
So, we're done and on our way. We realized that we had posted a premature blog picture of Julia a couple of days ago, but now, since we're official and on our way home, we thought it might be fun to post a few more! You can see our public albums online, but here are a few highlights. Enjoy!
Still chugging along in Addis
Still another night in Addis after new surprises with the court process. We sent an email to our parents earlier this afternoon with the update. Here is that email:
Well today’s news came out of left field… When Ryan et al. went to court today the boyfriend of the birthmother spoke up and said he was
the father. It was a very long story and a very long morning for Ryan, but in the end they testified in the federal court that they are relinquishing their rights as parents.
However, the paperwork that was written and stamped last week in Awassa needs to be updated to include him as birthfather. They are working on that today and a representative from the orphanage will have it in Addis Ababa by the time court opens tomorrow morning. There is no need to repeat the entire process that they went through with the birthmother since they aren’t married.
So, we try again tomorrow. Legally, they are done and will return to Awassa today, but we need this history to be accurate before the judge will give her final stamp.
After court, Ryan and Mikkonen came to pick up Julia and me to have a meeting with the birth parents. I was very nervous since we don’t have that last stamp from the judge, but Mikkonen reassured us that they weren’t interested in pursuing any challenge to the adoption and
that they were just interested in saying goodbye to Julia. We spent a few hours with them, both at the Bethany office and at a restaurant
where we were able to video them and take several pictures. We think that will be good for Julia someday when she is able to understand
about her adoption.
We believe that we will be coming home tomorrow and probably arrive in Denver late in the afternoon on Thursday. We’ll confirm and let you know where we stand as the day progresses.
Hope all is well on the home front! Girls, Mom and Dad love you and we hope we will see you on Thursday!
Ryan and Gina / Mom and Dad
P.S. I (Ryan) took over writing this email during the part about the birth parents. Gina is in the kitchen teaching Birtukan how to use
muffin cake pans for some muffins she is going to try making tonight. Gina and Birtukan made some banana bread over the weekend and got into a big conversation about baking. Birtukan asked about what the difference was between cake and muffins and so Gina was able to
communicate with a family early in the weekend who left on Sunday to travel after just three days notice. They brought the muffin pans so now they’re working on using them for dinner tonight!
Easter celebration in Addis Ababa
We've been having all sorts of new experiences and fun here in Addis. Yesterday afternoon, Nesibu and Birtukan took us over to the golf club but I was then able to take Nesibu out for a round of golf. We played nine holes and had a caddy. Nesibu had never played golf before, so we went out and just alternated holes. The caddy was a golf pro of sorts, so he helped give tips along the way and we had a fun time over a couple of hours playing some golf.
Last night, we returned home and began to get Julia around for bed. Nesibu had told us on Friday that they would be slaughtering a lamb and he had brought one home before we went to the golf club in the afternoon. As we were changing clothes, we heard the bell for the courtyard door ring and shortly after, the sound of blades being sharpened outside of our window. Nesibu came to our door and asked if I wanted to come and see and then take some pictures. Honestly, I was a little reticent, but I went out for the festivities. Nesibu and the butcher held down the lamb and cut its throat while Edu and Rahi, the smallest boys, and myself watched and took pictures. The rest went ahead and stayed inside, which I honestly can't blame them for!
Over the next couple of hours, the lamb was butchered and prepared for the feast that we'll be having in their home today. This is quite an honor for us to be able to stay here and be with their family. Normally, they would be with their families and, I'm told, serve over 50 people on the food that we will have today. I'm sure I can make up a little bit of the slack there, but it is going to be quite a feast!
I didn't take pictures of the most gruesome scenes, but did take a couple of action shots anyway. Here is the butcher and Nesibu just before the slaughter and then Nesibu and Nati butchering the meat and preparing it a couple of hours later.
Swimming in Walisoo
Cross-posted from Gina's blog.
Our hosts took the day with us and we travelled about 2 hours west of Addis Ababa to a town called Walisso. There was a beautiful resort there with a pool that was fed by warm springs. It was great to be outside and enjoying the lush, green resort. Ryan and I both said that we could feel ourselves relaxing as we drove away from Addis Ababa. While we live in a fairly large American, it is nothing compared to this city and all the of things that we witness while traveling around it.
Ellie and Hannah, here is a picture of a monkey for you:
Here are a couple of pictures or our hosts, Nesibyu and Burtikan, and our families and of course, one with Daddy playing with his little girl:
Our latest information about the birthmother is that she has committed to driving up to Addis Ababa tomorrow afternoon so she can appear in court on Monday morning. Please pray that her travel will go well and that we can get the remaining documents taken care of with the court and Embassy on Monday. I am sure that this is a very unpleasant trip for her to make and I pray God's grace and mercy will be with her.
From what we hear from Grandma back at home, the girls are doing just fine with our delay and they are enjoying the spring weather in Denver, which is quite a relief to Ryan and me. While this is just a few days delay (hopefully) we certainly don't want them to suffer or worry.
Still waiting in Ethiopia
On Tuesday morning, we went to Awasa to meet up with the workers from Shalom, the orphanage there, to try to get things straightened out and see if it was possible to get back in time for our flight on Thursday. We arrived on Tuesday afternoon. At the time, we really didn't know where Julia's birthmother was. We were told that she was pretty transient and had left town. The social workers therefore took the grandmother, the next closest relative, along with three witnesses to the cabele to start the process of the relinquishment. I think the best way to describe the cabele is like the local tribal council. The problem was that the cabele actually knew that the mother was in town because he was paying for her to go to school to be a hair dresser and had seen her recently, so he rejected the grandmother's appearance to start the relinquishment. This happens a short while before we arrive in Awasa, so now we have the job of going to find the mother and getting her started in the process. We talked to the grandmother and she gave us a few places that she thought she could be, so we started running them down. After about the third place in running around town, our social worker found the mom and we explained what needed to be done. We went to the cabele, but by then it was 4:30 and they were going to be closing at 5:00, not enough time to complete everything that needed to be done.
We stayed the night in Awasa and they took her back the next morning, on Wednesday. They were able to complete the process there and then we needed to go to the local court to have the relinquishment completed locally by the lower court. For that, there were several documents that needed to be created, but the power had gone out at the orphanage where the computer was, so they couldn't just make the changes needed to the document templates that they had. Instead, they had a hard copy and needed to take it to a local shop where you could hire a secretary to create them anew. In all, there were about five or six pages, but that took over four hours to complete, with that being their only project happening at the time...Ugh! That process finally finished at 4pm and we rushed to the court, who was set to close at 5:00. They ended up staying until 6:00 to help us out by completing the decision and then going ahead and doing all of the additional signatures, stamps, and filing that have to happen in the legal proceedings.
Unfortunately, it was too late to drive back to Addis that night, so we stayed again in the hotel in Awasa and then left the next morning at 5am. The plan was to bring the mother with us so she could stand in front of the federal court in Addis and complete the process the next morning in the hope that we could then have the documents translated into English, take them the embassy, and maybe even get Julia's visa to get out of Ethiopia by our scheduled flight at 7:30pm that night. I found out at about 10:30 on Wednesday night that the mother had actually not committed to going with us on Thursday and instead had gone to stay the night with her boyfriend and wasn't willing to come to Addis on Thursday. We decided to try with the court on Thursday anyway as there wasn't anything further that could be done in Awasa, so we drove up, but the attorney said that the federal court wasn't willing to do anything without the mother in attendance, so that shot down the rest of our hopes for trying to get out of Ethiopia for several days. With Easter coming, offices were shutting down in the middle of the day on Thursday and won't re-open until Monday.
So, we've been hanging out in Addis at our hosts' guest house for a few days. At this point, we're waiting on the mother to fully agree and decide to come to Addis on Monday. We're hoping for Sunday night so we can possibly get into court on Monday, complete the process, obtain the visa and leave Monday night. We're not sure that it will be able to happen though as it sounds like the mother and her boyfriend are talking about driving themselves up to Addis on Monday, which would likely mean that the earliest we could get to court would be Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning. So much fun being at someone else's mercy, but I guess if that is what we have to do, we will do our best to be patient!
Hitch in the getalong
It started with what seemed like being called to the principal's office. We were at the Shalom orphanage in Addis Ababa with the rest of our group watching the other families meet their children for the first time, having picked up Julia the day before. We were enjoying the sunshine and then walked over to the Bethany office where it was explained that there has been a change in the circumstances of our adoption. Turns out that when the life book video for our adoption was being prepared, the videographer found out the real identities of the people who found Julia when she had been abandoned. By asking a few questions, she then found the grandmother and even her mother. Thankfully, she was able to get the mother on video tape recording her saying that she knew that she was going to be abandoned and that she wasn't able to care for the child either at the time or in the future. It was clear that Julia was a child that should be available for adoption.
This morning, we went to the US embassy to determine whether or not they would give us a visa given these new circumstances. They told us that we would need to have the adoption amended based on the facts of the case that are now understood. We also met with an Ethiopian attorney who explained what would need to be done and the process that we would need to go through. I'm headed (Ryan) to Awasa tomorrow with the Ethiopian Director for Bethany in the hope that we will be able to bring back the paperwork that is needed to complete the adoption. If the mother is willing to sign the documents, we'll then have them handled through the legal process in Awasa and then bring them back to Addis the next day. I'm told it is about a five hour drive one way, so we'll staying overnight on Tuesday night, returning on Wednesday.
If this all works out with the mother, then we need to go through the court process and make everything official with the new facts. From there, we would then be able to get a visa and be able to return back home.
So, now we're just trying to get our feet underneath us and begin thinking about the changes that will be necessary. Obviously, we'll need to manage expectations with my work, the girls will be all set with my parents (thanks Mom and Dad!), we'll change the flights, and we'll need to figure out where we will stay and for how long. We're hoping that we'll only be about an additional week, but at this point, we're just not sure how long things will take. Easter is a bit of a wild card in that things shut down earlier in the week with Good Friday and potentially earlier on Thursday as well and then Monday is evidently a day that people often take off as well. Given that there are several steps that we need to go through, I think we're anticipating that this might take an additional week or two, even if all goes well and by plan.
Of course, despite my attempt above to just lay out the facts of what is happening, this is a bit of an emotional time for us. Clearly, this wasn't anyone's intention and we're glad that we're working toward a resolution. We're just going to walk this forward one step at a time and see how this can be worked out. We're sure that it will go well, but it will take time and quite a bit of work yet. We're thankful for all of the help we're receiving.
We picked up Julia today!
We hadn't expected that Julia would be going to sleep on Gina's shoulder tonight. We thought that we were going to be hanging out in the guest house and anxiously awaiting to go get Julia from the transition home in the morning. I think our guide saw it on Gina's face though because as soon as we got off the plane and into the car, he asked if we wanted to go get her...or if we wanted to go get lunch. Dummy me (Ryan), I thought he was trying to get us to go get lunch, so I said, "Sure, lunch is fine." Gina says I was just being polite, but it was pretty clear that she was ready to cut to the chase, so we changed course and went to the Shalom House and saw Julia right away. We couldn't have been in Addis more than an hour before Gina was picking her up out of the bouncer that they had her in, complete with white dress and bonnet for her big day! She is a pretty little girl and we're sorry that we can't post those pictures yet, but we will as soon as we can.
We're the first family to arrive, so we're back in the Morning Coffee Guest House with our hosts who have now fixed us lunch and some awesome soup for dinner. The other families are scheduled to arrive in the next few hours and then we will all head back to the home to pick up their children in the morning.
Julia has been great. She didn't cry at all when we picked her up today. She just seemed curious to understand what was going on. She seemed to like getting her hands into my beard and snuggling in with Mom. She can sit up for a little while but eventually falls forward onto her arms. When she lays on her belly, she gets herself propped up on her arms and even started getting to her knees and revving the engine, sort of in the pre-crawl stage. Her appetite had evidently waned when she came up to Addis but the ladies at the home said that she has been eating well since and that seems to be proven out this evening with a couple of bottles and a dinner of cereal, soup, and sweet potatoes.
So now she's out. I've been coughing a bit so that keep stirring her, but we'll take care of that with the Tylenol PM tonight and we'll all sleep well...let's hope. She's a tiny one and we're glad she's ours!
Traveling to Addis Ababa
We're on our way to Addis! We have been pretty lucky so far. Our flights have all been pretty on time and uneventful... Well, except the part where I lost my wallet. Still am not sure what happened there but the last time I saw it was on the flight from Denver to JFK. Spent a good part of the layover trying to figure that out, but to no avail. Thankfully there wasn't anything in there that would stop the trip.
So now we're in Dubai having just had eight hours of rest at the Dubai International Hotel here in the airport. Pricey, but after 24 hours of traveling and almost 17 hours on the plane, well worth it.
Only four more hours of flying to go until we touch down in Addis! We're coming for you Julia! See you tomorrow!
In the meantime, here we are hanging out in Dubai:
