Court, Kampala, and Time to Move

Written in my journal on Friday October 21, 2011


We are sitting in the courthouse waiting room right now. 


This morning Sarah said "I love you so much." It was the first time any of the children said this without me saying it first. They have all called us Mommy and Daddy from day 1, but then we see someone that they know and they call him Daddy too. It is a little painful to hear this. I am pretty sure they know that I am a different kind of mommy than the mommies at the orphanage but it feels like the word being diluted. 


We moved to a hotel in Kampala last night. It was much nicer but the kids say that they like the first one better. Sarah went into melt down mode last night. I think she was extremely tired and the change of location just overloaded her. I cuddled her as she cried herself to sleep. I felt bad because I so enjoyed the very hotel that upset her so much.


Written after the fact as an addition to my journal entry:


The original plan was only to stay at the hotel in Kampala for one night and return to the first one in Jinja the next day after court. Our thinking was to stay with one hotel as to avoid disrupting the kids, but when we saw that the hotel in Kampala was 2/3 the price and had luxuries like access to a washer and dryer, walking distance to a (very expensive) grocery store (which catered to "Muzungus" - a.k.a. white/foriegn people), and contact with other adopting Americans on the compound who provided tons of moral support. The kids were much happier about the move once they found out that their stuff... and their juice would be moved along with us.