Readoption Hearing

Today we took the the Metro downtown to DC Family Court for Almi's readoption status hearing. It's a formality to check on the status of her readoption. Her adoption was finalized in Ethiopia but in order to get her certificate of citzenship, US birth certificate and passport, she has to be readopted in the United States. Currently she has an Ethiopian passport, a green card and is here on an IR-4 Visa. To do the readoption, I had to hire an attorney, get fingerprinted from everywhere I have lived or worked in the past ten years and redo our medicals. Today's hearing was just to let the judge know where we were in the process. We are still waiting on fingerprints from two states but as soon as those are in we will be good to go.

I don't get why if the FBI prints indicate I am a law-abiding citizen that that doesn't suffice, though. And, hello?! I am a teacher so clearly I have been scrutinized up the ying yang. And wouldn't the FBI know if I was a criminal in a particular state? My federal prints say I am fine but I still have to wait for the individual states? Seems like they should know that. I'm all for making sure parents are good people (and frankly, they should fingerprint birth parents in the hospital before they can take their babies home) but it just seems like it should all be centralized somewhere and the FBI seems like the logical spot.

Anyway, Almi loves watching the trains as we drive to work in the mornings and she has asked me if we could go on a train so she was super, duper excited to ride on one this morning. She thought it was great, great fun! I wish I had gotten a picture of her on the train where she was happy. These shots were taken after we got off. She was so disappointed to get off and see the train go down the track. "Where da twain go, Mommy?"

I wore these cute summery Espadrilles with my outfit. Error in judgement. My feet were killing me when I got home! Why does fashion have to hurt? They may need to go in the Goodwill bag. But I digress..

We had thirty minutes to kill before heading inside so I let her run around in the grass to try and burn off some of her energy. She was chasing squirrels and playing with ants and running around like crazy and I was pouring down with sweat just sitting in the shade. It was so hot and humid!!! I know, I need to get used to it. I have two years of this type of weather ahead but hopefully when I am in it I will be sitting sipping icy drinks, beach side.

It was so hot, all I wanted to do was sit and relax and try to prepare myself mentally for meeting with the judge about our finalization process, not chase her away from the dead bird! I tried to settle her down by reading one of her favorite books. Ha! That only only lasted about 2 pages before was off and running again.

You can kind of see in these next photos how hyped up and full of energy she was. I should have known I was going to be in for it in the judge's chambers.

The hearing lasted for about twenty minutes, thank God, because trust me when I tell you she let her full energetic and bubbly personality known to everyone! They marveled at how I can teach Kindergarteners all day and then come home to her! LOL (Tell me about it!! That's why I'm getting a nanny!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

I could not get her to sit still. I threatened her (didn't work) and tried bribing her with ice cream (also didn't work). She was far too excited. Luckily, the judge was really nice and told me not to worry about her running around. After the hearing the judge told Almi she could come up and talk in her microphone. Almi loved that! She even sang her ABCs for everyone and impressed them with her intelligence. The judge said, "That's what happens when your mom is a Kindergarten teacher." :-D

As we exited the courtroom she took off running top speed and I had to have my attorney watch my purse and stroller while I took off running in my Espadrilles to find my two year old in the crowd. I found her, plopped her in the stroller and the minute we stepped out the door she burst into loud sobs telling me she was hungry! I guess she burned off every last breakfast calorie with all that excitement. Luckily, I had packed her lunch so she ate her sunflower nut butter on sprouted wheat bread sandwich and banana in her stroller before heading back to the Metro.

That wild behavior did not warrant ice cream for her so I dropped her off at daycare but trust and believe that after I dropped her off I then high tailed it to the Baskin-Robbins. She may not have earned ice cream but a double scoop was definitely in order for me!!

Now it's time for a nap!! Phew!

P.S. The adoption finalization is coming up very soon and my family is coming down to celebrate. Very soon my beautiful Ethiopian babe will officially be a US citizen!