Looking Ahead

This Tuesday, October 1st, as a routine part of the review process, the Embassy will  interview Baby A's birthmother.  We were pleased that our adoption agency staff was able to quickly locate and contact her upon the Embassy's request for an interview.  We are now praying that all the parties are able to meet as scheduled on Tuesday at 10am.  Ethiopia is 8 hours ahead of us, so it'll be Tuesday 2am (our time).

We're hopeful that once the Embassy speaks with Baby A's birthmom, most of their questions will be answered, and they will have need to request little else in the way of additional documentation or interviews.  In theory, they could complete their investigation quite shortly and give us clearance to travel.

Good News

On Friday, we heard from the US Embassy in Ethiopia.  They have begun their review of our case.  We're hoping this process will be complete in about four weeks, and we'll have clearance to travel for our Embassy interview and to bring home our girl.  This four-week time frame would assume that the Embassy would be able to get in touch with everyone they wish to contact without difficulty (orphanage directors, local/state officials, Baby A's birthmother).  Our prayer right now is that lines of communication would work well, cell phones would have coverage, people would make connections in a timely and efficient manner.

We're glad that our case is progressing.  The past month felt like an eternity.  We'd be elated if we got to book plane tickets for the end of October.


PS--I'm not particularly proud of this milestone, but I'll have you know that I just typed this post straight onto blogspot...not a word document.  And, I uploaded it myself, in only two tries ("my people" are downstairs engaged in an NFL game).  Blog-schlmog...I'm still not enjoying this          

No News

This is just a quick post to say that we haven't heard anything new from Ethiopia.  We know that our case is at the Embassy in Addis.  We know that they will review all the details and interview Baby A's birth mother (and perhaps the orphanage directors, local or state officials who have previously given approval on our case, etc).  We know that our adoption agency, as well as other agencies that operate in Ethiopia, worked to push a lot of families through court before the rainy-season closure.  We know all those families are now at the same point in the process as us.  Surely, the Embassy is swamped.

We are still hopeful to travel mid-October to bring home our girl.  We'll let you know when we have news.