Wake Up Call

We don’t fly that often…it’s a rarity for us.  That, coupled with the fact that this is the only flight from Dulles to Ethiopia today and we paid about a bagillion dollars for our tickets, resulted in three separate alarms set to wake us this morning and a fitful night of sleep.  I was up at about 2:30am for over an hour.  I must have finally fallen back to sleep because Ryan woke me when he asked, “What’s that noise?  Do you think that’s the fire alarm?” 

Sure enough.  About 4:30am, the fire alarm began sounding here at the hotel.  It was loud.  It was bright.  It was early. 

Some people were filing out.  Some people were standing outside their rooms looking at the commotion (all the rooms on all six floors face the center of the hotel, where there are a bunch of trees and water falls).  The swans paddling in the center pool didn’t seem fazed by the event (but they should have been…I sure didn’t see any employee responsible for evacuating them in the event that it became necessary).  The fire department arrived sporting oxygen masks and pick-axes and then spent a lot of time looking at one another and at the apparently-malfunctioning alarm system.  They’ve finally got it silenced now (probably thanks to a pick-axe).

So, here we are at 5:23am, almost 2 hours before we need to leave for the airport.  Showered.  Ready.  Blogging. 

Ryan just started the tiny in-room coffee pot.  Thankfully, it was well-stocked with supplies…all decaf.  Nice.



DC Dinner Date

Well, it took a small army to get us on the plane today…you people have been so helpful.  Thank you for your encouraging calls, notes, visits, and gifts.  Thank you for bringing us food this week when I was so focused on planning for next week, that I couldn’t manage to get dinner on the table for the day at hand.  Thank you for loving and watching out for our kids while we’re away.  Thank you for tolerating our dog for the week.  Thank you for driving us to the airport.  Thank you for the caramel macadamia clusters in my carry-on bag that provided my primary source of sustenance until dinner time tonight.

This morning started with Ryan running out to grab donuts for the kids and seeing this beautiful rainbow in the sky. 

It was like God was smiling down with a nice reminder of His promises to us (you know, like the one to never leave us or forsake us, the one to never again flood the earth, and the one not to drop airplanes out of the sky and into the ocean, etc). 

Our flights were smooth and painless today.  Final destination for tonight is Washington, DC.  We enjoyed a fun dinner date at a unique restaurant- Stone’s Cove Kitbar.  “Kitbar” is a made-up word (they do that kind of thing in DC) combining kitchen and bar.  Apparently modeled after having a dinner party in someone’s home, where people kind of congregate in and around the kitchen drinking wine and watching someone cook, this restaurant has a bunch of bar seating around a large, open kitchen in the middle of the restaurant where chefs take your order and then prepare your food right there while they’re talking to you.  It was fun to see the cool variety of entrees being prepared.  We had an appetizer of lobster salad cones.  I had shrimp and grits and Ryan had a funky flatbread (which included bacon, so that was a guaranteed winner).  We were able to walk from our hotel to the restaurant and back.  It worked slick.

All reports from home seem good.  We’re grateful things seem to be going smoothly.

We’ll leave DC at 10am tomorrow morning for our 13-hour flight to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

 

Only at Walmart

I start this post by admitting that I shop at Walmart.  There it is.  I’m not proud of it.  I know I’m the only one (because I never see any of you there).  I know that shopping at Target would make me more hip, stylish, and intelligent, but I think a lot of things are a bit less expensive at Walmart, there’s a little bigger selection on some of the items I buy (I appreciate having 17 types of dog food from which to choose, you know), and I know where things are in the store, so I’m not switching now. 

 That being said, I would submit that there are a myriad of things that happen within the walls of Walmart that would never happen at any other time or under any other circumstances (adult women wearing tube tops, parents shopping with their 3 year-olds at 11pm, people screaming at the top of their lungs and threatening to call the police because their prescriptions have been filled incorrectly by the pharmacy, etc.)  Yesterday that list grew.  I cried while shopping at Walmart.

 It’s been such a whirlwind week.  We got our court date.  We tried desperately to book our airline tickets to Ethiopia with really short notice.  We ruminated nervously about the Boeing 787s that keep catching on fire.  We finalized plans for our kids while we’re away.  We thought about everything we’ll need to take with us to Ethiopia.

 At some point during the week, we realized that we hadn’t purchased any gifts to take for our baby when we meet her next week.  We’ve got a room full of special toys and dolls that have been given for her, but we wanted to get something else to take now (something that may well be lost in the shuffle of an orphanage full of kids…something she probably won’t bring with her when she comes home for good in a couple months).  So, as any good and thoughtful mother would do…I put it on my Walmart list.

Fast forward to yesterday…I was doing my weekly shopping.  Alone.  I can choose to fight the crowds and shop on the weekends, solo, or I can take my entourage and have the place to ourselves on a weekday morning.  I often do the latter, but this week we have some morning activities, so I decided to do the dreaded Weekend-Walmart-Run.

 I made my way through cosmetic and hygiene items, picked up a couple household items and office supplies, and was kind of excited to zip through the baby section to find some kind of cute lovey to take for our girl.  I was pleased to find a nice little selection of soft dolls with rattles/bells inside, even one racially-appropriate (thank you, Walmart).  There were stuffed animals attached to teethers and some attached to silky blankets, etc. 

 I was waffling back and forth about what to get, and it hit me that I don’t know my daughter.  I don’t know if she would prefer a baby doll rattle or a silky blanket.  I don’t even know if she has teeth to use a teether.  I don’t know if she can crawl.  I don’t know if her personality is zebra stripes or pink flowers or red paisley.  She’s almost 8 months-old, and I’ve never met her.    

 And then, I lost it a little.  I cried.  I’m not usually a cryer.  Sure, my eyes well-up sometimes (more these days than ever…not sure if it’s motherhood or adoption or getting old).  But before this, I probably can’t tell you the last time tears ran down my face and I required a tissue.  I’m not cold and heartless.  I get mad and upset and desperate sometimes.  I just don’t cry.  Except yesterday, in aisle G4 at Walmart.

 

 

Next Stop…Ethiopia

We've been in a bit of a whirlwind this week with lots of adoption action.  In the middle of the week, we heard that Baby A's birthmother had contacted the orphanage director (the newspaper ad must have been effective), and they went with her to court on Wednesday, where she gave her consent for the adoption.  Additionally, the staff in Ethiopia contacted the Ministry of Women's Affairs and found out that they had completed and sent their approval letter to the judge.  We were delighted with all this news and thought we'd be in a good position come next Monday (July 15), when the next hearing was scheduled.

 

Then the next day (Thursday), we got a call saying that the judge had issued us a court date!  So, we’ve got our marching orders…on Friday July 26^th, we get to stand before the judge, and declare our intent to adopt our daughter.

 

During this first trip, we'll spend time with our girl; appear in court; travel four hours south of the capital to the smaller town where she was born; and potentially visit with her birthmother.  The adoption will be considered final once we've appeared in court (FYI- as far as we know, the courts will close for the rainy season sometime around the beginning of August, so we're very grateful to get our hearing in before that time).  Then we'll return home (sans baby, ugh!!).  The US Embassy in Ethiopia (which does not close for rainy season) will complete some details for immigration/passport/birth certificate, and call us back over for an appointment with them roughly 4-6 weeks later.   We'll go back for our second trip to appear for that interview and bring our baby home (perhaps the beginning of September).

 

So once again, we could use your prayers:

• for safe travel
• for the logistics of lodging/transportation/documentation/court appearance to run smoothly
• for energy, patience, and health for Ryan’s parents who will be caring for our kids while we’re away
• for safety, health, peace and security for the kids…this is, by far, the longest that we’ve ever been away
• for our first moments and hours and days with Anna to be washed over with an extra measure of grace
• for our peace and sanity on a really hard day in a couple weeks when we'll have to board a plane and leave our daughter behind while we fly back to a home and a family that will seem a little empty for the next few weeks

Court Update (Again)

Ok, where to begin….

First, thing I heard today (Monday, June 24^th) was that there would be no update for us.  As of 11:00am our time (7:00pm in Ethiopia), the staff in St. Louis hadn’t received any emails from Ethiopia today at all and had even tried calling and couldn’t get through by phone, so they assumed the CHI staff in Ethiopia was having issues with their electricity, as happens sometimes. 

Then, suddenly a couple hours later (somebody in Ethiopia was working late!!!), we did get an update, via St. Louis, on the court hearing that took place on Friday:  The orphanage director appeared in court with the police document noting that the birth mother cannot be located.  The court ordered that a notice be posted in the newspaper to search for her.  So, the notice will be posted and another court date was issued for July 2^nd, at which time the orphanage director will appear and provide the documentation showing the ad ran in the newspaper.  (Still don’t know anything about that other letter from the Ministry of Women’s Affairs…I sent back a question about the status of that). 

And in a separate little paragraph after the court update, our adoption consultant relayed the following to us:

“Our staff also said that they don’t think the courts are going to close on July 6^th.  It looks like they are going to stay open longer.  They haven’t received an official closing date from the courts yet, but it looks like they are going to be open longer.” 

What excellent news!!  This, very frankly, was not on our radar screen as a possible solution to our situation.  But, isn’t it just like God to answer in a way that is beyond what we expect or ask.  I don’t really know what this means for us, other than we’re going to wait again to hear what happens in court on July 2^nd and keep praying like crazy that we’ll have the opportunity to hightail it over there before courts close for the summer, whenever that occurs.  Wheww!!  What a marathon.

Court Update

Just a quick adoption update.  There is another hearing this Friday (June 21st) in Ethiopia regarding our girl. 

The birthmother cannot be located and has effectively disappeared.  Apparently the protocol in this situation is that the orphanage director takes a letter to the court from the police stating that they cannot locate the woman.  The judge may be satisfied by this letter or she may ask for further information, documentation, etc.  Please pray for the former.

In addition, there is one other important approval letter that needs to be presented to the judge from the Ministry of Women’s and Children’s Affairs.  This letter was not completed and ready at the first birth parent hearing on June 10^th.  And, we’ve since heard that this agency has been “in meetings” and is behind on the completion of these letters.  Please pray that ours is complete and that it is presented to the judge this Friday.    

If these two items are in place on Friday, perhaps there is a chance that the judge would see fit to push this adoption through by granting us a hearing in Ethiopia prior to the July 6^th court closure.  We would like nothing more.  Please pray that the judge might be sympathetic to the situation and inherently aware of what it would mean for our baby to be united with her family as soon as possible.  Please pray that she might be compelled to schedule an adoptive family hearing now before courts close. 

Father, if it is Possible…

The good news- We were delighted to receive word yesterday, that our birth family has a court date this coming Monday (June 10^th) in Ethiopia, to finalize their part of this adoption.  That’s the last step before we travel for court.  Traditionally, the adoptive family (that’s us) has been given a court date about 4 weeks after the birth family appears in court.

 The bad news- Our anticipation and excitement was short-lived.  Today, we received word that the Ethiopian courts will close on July 6^th for the rainy season.  This is an annual closure, though our adoption agency noted that the closure is unusually early this year.  Apparently roads wash out and there’s flooding that makes it impossible for people from outlying regions to get in to the capital city for court business, so the courts just close.  We knew the courts would close this summer for a couple months.  However, it traditionally happens in late July or at the beginning of August.  When we got the notice about our birth family court date, we thought surely we’d get our court trip in before things shut down for the rains. 

 The synopsis-

• Birth family court date scheduled in Ethiopia-06/10/13
• Approximate date we would have court scheduled in Ethiopia-07/08/13
• Confirmed Ethiopian court closure-07/06/13

 Problematic discrepancy-2 Days

 Are you kidding me??!!  Two Days!  You’re telling me that a couple days may cost us months with our daughter?  Without going all clinical and psychological here, they are some precious, critical months.  I want those months.  A couple months more of attachment.  A couple months more of healthcare, of enough formula, of met needs.  A couple months less of developmental delays to be addressed.  A couple months less of being an orphan.  I don’t want to be ugly.  I’m trying to be patient.  I am certainly a more patient person now than when we began this adoption journey.  But, here’s how I do NOT want to spend my summer…waiting out rain and knowing that our girl is spending another day without a mommy and daddy!  No more backgrounds to be checked, no more forms to complete, just rain.  As my friend Chris Carter on ESPN would say, “C’mon man!”

 The request- Would you please join us in showering the throne of heaven with persistent supplication to this end?  Please, God, that the birth family would make it to court on Monday and that all would go smoothly.  Please, God, that there’d be no hiccups or hang ups or missing paperwork.  Please, God, that we might be granted a court date prior to the court closure on July 6^th.  We know it is possible.  We know He’s big enough for this.