4 Days and Counting!!

Our court date is fast approaching and we are hopeful that we will get through on our first try. It seems that families are getting through faster now than they were after the courts reopened in September. We have made some tentative plans for travel based on our Feb 5th court date. We wanted to travel on the 17th of March, but the Thursday of that week, the 20th is a holiday and the embassy will be closed. So we will likely travel on the 10th of March or maybe the 27th of March. It all depends on the 5th of Feb!!! Keep your fingers crossed and say your prayers!!

We received an email today from Rhonda Fox, the mother that traveled last week to get her little boy, Efrem. I have a couple pictures of Efrem on the blog with Kidus from a couple of months back. Rhonda told me that Kidus is so sweet!! His laugh is to die for and her girls fell in love with him. She said it was very sad when they left, because Efrem gave Kidus a hug and Kidus cried and cried. She did not think that Efrem really understood what was going on. She also told me that Kidus does not look or act like he is 5 years old. She thinks that he is closer to 3 or 4. Efrem is 31/2 and Rhonda beleives that Kidus is his age. I have thought that before in some of the photos that we received.
She also said that she had met Natinael. He is also a sweetheart!!! She did not get to spend much time with him because the older kids were in school most of the day. She had met him before when she traveled there. Can you imagine the families that Natie has seen come and go and always the one left behind? Not this time!! We are coming soon to get you Natinael!

We are so excited and can't wait to get our boys home. We seem to have everything ready and just need to concentrate on travel plans and packing all the right things.

The office staff is having a "baby shower" or "kid shower" for us tomorrow night. Mainly just to get together and celebrate life as we know it right now. Because it will never be the same!!

Thank you all for your support, love and prayers.

Court Date!!!!

We finally received notice that we have a court date!! On Saturday we had about an hour between basketball games for the girls and so we ran to the office to check on a few things. I thought I should check my email and when I did there was a general email to the "group" about "Ethiopian Updates". Cheryl (the director at AFAA) usually makes just a lot of generic post about the courts or Ethiopia in general. This particular post was about court dates for 7 children. I quickly read down the list to find tha Kidus and Natinael were second from the bottom. OH MY!!! I ran down the hall to Clint's office and starting banging on the door. (This was the one time I didn't care about interrupting his dictation!!!) "We have a court date!!!!" The tears were were already flowing!!!
So now what......Our court date is scheduled for Feb 5th. This is an appt that is handled by the AFAA representative, Tigist. If we pass court on that date then we will travel 6 weeks later. That should put us traveling around the 17th of March. That is spring break for the girls and would be perfect timing. But......we have to get through courts on the 5th or all will be pushed back until we do.
I had so many emotions just like the day we received our referral. Of course, happiness but a little panic and a little sadness for the families that are still waiting for a court date. My friend Karen in Phoenix, her little boys were NOT on that list among others that have been waiting. Karen has sent all the pictures that we have cherished and also a lot of support along the way. So of course I was sad for her, her family and those little boys, Fikre and Habtamu. (I hope you know what your support has meant and you too will be on that list soon!!!!) Karen did send me one more photo in celebration of our court date. This is good! Thanks Karen!I will leave you all with this........

We love you all, our wonderful family!! We will keep in touch!

News About The Photo Albums

We finally received word from Ethiopia about the photo albums. They have made to the boys. Here is what Tigist had to say......When you sent the pictures and I gave it to them they were happy that they will be joining their adoptive families. They are very happy to see them. We have opened their file and I will let you know when I have the court dates.

So this brings me to my next question... What does "we have opened their file" mean? I thought our file had been in Ethiopia since July. So I fired off another email to Cheryl, the director asking about the status of our case and asking for a very detailed explanation of exactly where we are with the process.

This has been such a frustrating experience. The wait is just killing us and the really bad thing is that we are powerless. They have our children and our money and there is not a thing we can do about it, but wait.......