Things that happened Wednesday...

Wednesday was a big day around here:

Our middle celebrated his 6th birthday.

We also got word that our case was cleared by the US Embassy.  We're booking tickets to go back to Ethiopia next week to bring home our girl!  We are delighted, overwhelmed, surprised, anxious, grateful, relieved.

By the way, did this post seem a little familiar to you?  Birthdays have served as good bookmarks for us in the past couple months.

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.

Things that happened Thursday…

Thursday was a big day around here: 

Our eldest celebrated his 8^th Birthday.

 

We also got word that our case was submitted to the US Embassy in Addis.  Baby A’s birth certificate, passport, adoption court decree, and various approval letters will be reviewed, processed, investigated, etc.  We are told that the process generally takes several weeks, but we’re so grateful that things have moved so smoothly since we’ve returned home from our first trip.

It’s been two weeks…

…since I held my baby.

 Last week went pretty fast.  It was spent getting things back to normal around here with routine and house and schedule.  Ryan and I brought home yucky colds from Ethiopia and were pretty miserable for a few days, but we enjoyed sorting through photos and video from our trip and putting updated pictures of Baby A in frames throughout the house.  I got out the 6-12 month clothes and filled her closet.  I purchased some diapers and baby bottles.  Last week was good.
  

 

 

This week didn’t pass quite as quickly.  We’re back in the grind of life.  Ryan was busy at work.  Our three year-old is battling through the cold we had last week…ugh.  We’ve anxiously had an eye on the news about the US Embassy threats and closures in the Middle East/North Africa (unlike some neighboring countries, the US Embassy in Ethiopia has remained operational).
 I sure wish we knew how much time we have in front of us before we can go back for her.  The official paperwork says the time between the two trips is somewhere between 6 weeks and several months while the Embassy completes their investigation and prepares her documentation.  We’ve been told to expect a couple months.  I feel confident that I can wait this out, but it would be so much easier on my mental health if I knew where I was in the wait.  I’ve undertaken some strenuous tests of endurance before (marathons, homeschool years, 14-hour plane rides, labor), but previously I’ve been able to count down the miles, days, hours, centimeters.  This deal is like walking blind.  It’s hard.  I don’t know if I’m miles away from my destination or if I’m going to trip over it with my next step.  In any case, I guess we know that today we are one day closer to having our family together.       

Hear Ye, Hear Ye

We received our official adoption decree from court today (which will allow us to add our girl to our health insurance plan).  As I think about the zillion families (they seemed to be from Europe and Canada, in addition to America) who appeared in court on Friday July 26^th in Addis, I know that court reporter had A LOT of paperwork to do for the number of cases that were heard that day.  I am pleasantly surprised in the turnaround time with which we received this document.  It was 7 business days, which even included translation into a language we can read and understand.

Our adoption agency staff in Ethiopia (the ones who sent this decree to us via our adoption consultant in St. Louis) will now deliver it, along with some other paperwork we left with them when we were there, to the US Embassy in Addis, who will investigate the case as they deem necessary, and then prepare a passport and birth certificate for our daughter.  Oh that this next part of the process might go as quickly and smoothly as our receipt of the court decree.