Leaving on a Jet Plane

Well, the time is finally here.  In two days we will be on our way.  I thought I would be terrified considering how much I hate flying but I am actually over-the-moon excited!  I get to scratch "visit Rome" off my bucket list and I get to hold my future son---all in the same trip!

We have quite the load of luggage to take.  We each have one suitcase of our clothing, a carryon suitcase of our necessities and extra shoes, a large suitcase of donations (clothes, toothpaste, paper supplies) and a duffel bag of donations (mostly school supplies).  This along with a small backpack of things to do and eat on the plane.  We also have the honor of taking letters from several families to their children at the care center.  This is perhaps the most precious cargo.

Our girls are all set to stay at my grandmothers and our parents at various times during the ten days.  Their schedule is written and they have been given the usual lecture--"be good", "do your homework", "don't fight with each other", "remember we love you."  We will miss them terribly and hope they will at least miss us a little.  We are going to Skype them from Rome on Saturday from Adam's computer.  This I know we will be looking forward to at that point in the trip.

Please keep us in your prayers during our journey.  We know it will definitely be life-changing and we are so glad to have the unending support of our friends and family.

We're Going To Ethiopia!

Today we bought our tickets for Ethiopia!  We got the okay to travel from the agency director as she said none of the court dates are being moved or rescheduled.  She said that even if our MOWA letter is not there we will still make our appearance before the judge and fulfill that requirement.  The MOWA situation is not yet fully resolved but we do know that the head of the department lost her job and they are making other staffing changes as well.  They also said that any cases that were summoned to court before March 5 would be expedited by MOWA and not subject to the five a day rule.  That would include us!  Perhaps we finally got some good luck!

As far as our trip itinerary is concerned, I am extremely excited!  Troy's brother Adam is a priest at the Vatican in Rome so we have decided to go see him on our way to Ethiopia.  I have always wanted to go to Rome!  So, our itinerary is as follows:

     April 12th          Detroit to Toronto
     April 12-13th     Toronto to Rome
     April 17th          Rome to Addis Ababa  
     April 20th          Our Court Date
     April 21st          Addis Ababa to Rome
     April 21st          Rome to Chicago
     April 21st          Chicago to Detroit

We will be spending four days in Rome and four days in Ethiopia.  Four days does not seem nearly long enough with our little boy but we don't want too much bonding to occur as we don't know for sure when we will be back to get him.  This will only lead to more heartbreak---mostly on our part.  This will also be the longest we will have been away from the girls and don't think we can stay much longer.

We are so looking forward to this adventure as well as finally getting to meet our soon-to-be son!

We Got our Court Date . . . But . . .

April 20, 2011!!  That's the date that our little boy may officially be ours!  It has to be a good luck date as it is just two days before our 16th wedding anniversary.  I am so excited to say that in about six weeks I will get to finally hold my future son! We now have to start making travel plans . . . but . . .

Twenty-four hours after we learned of this date we also learned that MOWA, the agency in Ethiopia that writes the approval letters for the adoptions, has publically announced that they will reduce the number of letters they write to FIVE a day starting later this month.  They typically write between 40-50 per day and they aren't written until anywhere from one month to one day before your court date.  The estimates are that this is going to cause LONG delays; even up to a year in some cases.  Why now?    We are so close and have waited so long already.

We are not sure about booking our flights now as we are wondering if our court date may be changed.  I will be contacting our agency director this next week as developments unfold to find out what we should do.  We, along with thousands of others, are hoping this is just a cruel joke or will be at least put off for awhile.

We finally got to bask in the joy of good news---for all of twenty-four hours.

FINALLY---Some Progress!

Well, I know it has been forever since my last post but the past two months have been excruciating and depressing, to say the least.  We were just resubmitted to court on February 3, after waiting SEVEN weeks due to a paperwork holdup.

This is the long and short of it.  As I said in my last post our file was returned due to his birth certificate being needed upon submission.  After making contact with his Aunt who supposedly had it, the agency began having difficulty finding her to get the birth certificate.  To make matters worse this occurred around the holidays when I think many people were off or just not in any hurry to get anything done.  After about 4 weeks went by I finally had had enough and wrote a letter to the agency director as well as spoke with her on the phone.  She stated she would contact their in country lawyer and have him go to the orphanage where our child was first relinquished and see if they knew how to find the Aunt.  Of course they did, and when they found her a day later they found the birth certificate was not complete.  She needed a picture of him to complete it.  The orphanage got her a picture that day and within FIVE days of them locating her they had the completed birth certificate!  Our agency spent five weeks spinning their wheels for something that in actuality took FIVE DAYS!  What makes this all the harder is that in that same time frame Troy and I completed our second dossier---which consists of 20+ documents---all which had to be notarized and one even sent to the Secretary of State!  With his file finally complete, we were supposed to be submitted to court that week but due to the agency reviewing something in his file we were not submitted until the following week.

Between calling the agency at least twice a week to "remind them" we were waiting and at the same time getting new pictures of him from traveling families, reminding us he was growing like a weed, it has been very heartbreaking.  Because of the agency holding us up for nearly two months beyond when we should have been submitted to court, we now lose those two months having him home with us.  We will probably miss his first steps and first birthday.  I continue to remind myself that this is all in God's timing but it is hard not to be bitter.  I'm sure that will fade, however, once he comes home.

"What now?" you ask.  Now we wait some more.  We should learn of our court date in about four to five weeks.  I am terrified now to make predictions on timing seeing as what we just went through.  Lately, court dates have been scheduled about three months from submission.  Could be more . . . could be less.  Only God knows.

Merry Holidays and Starting Over

I hope that everyone had a great holiday and got to enjoy it with family and friends.  Ours was nice although it was hard knowing we had a little one halfway around the world who would not be with us this year.  We did receive a picture of him with the welcome gifts we sent.  He was even wearing the Little Brother onsie and looked adorable in it!

 I have not posted anything recently as we have had little progress with our case.  Several weeks ago I was contacted by our agency that said they submitted our case to court but it was returned because his birth certificate was not included in the file.  Apparently, they were allowed to submit cases without them and then they would procure them prior to the court date and add them to the file.  Not anymore---they must have them when they submit the file.  On the bright side, the next day an e-mail from our agency stated the bio family had the certificate and they could get it any time.  They thought we should be resubmitted to court the following week (week of Christmas).  Of course, due to the holidays I have no way of finding out if we were as the adoption agency office is closed until January 3rd.  Once we are submitted it will be at least 4 weeks until we learn of our court date which at this rate will most likely be the latter half of February or March :(

Another bit of news we recieved this week was that we will most likely need to redo our ENTIRE dossier!  The Ethiopian courts and MOWA (Ministry of Womens Affairs) will not review any dossiers greater than eighteen months old.  Ours is already over eighteen months.  As you may recall the dossier is a compilation of at least 20+ documents that we must gather and have notarized as well as some that must be authenticated at the state and federal level.  It is not something that you necessarily want to do again!  I, however, have begun work on it as I do not want any more delays let alone get over there for court and have the judge tell us we didn't pass because our paperwork if too old.  I keep asking myself, and God, how many more hoops are we going to have to jump through just to be able to open our hearts to a child that needs a loving home and family?

Our little one did get two gifts this Christmas even though he is half a world away.  My Aunt Darlene crocheted a beautiful blanket for him.  The colors in it are those of the Ethiopian flag.

My sister-in-law Kelly bought him this adorable stuffed Snoopy doll.  She bought one for her infant daughter (only in pink) and thought it would be appropriate as my youngest daughter Jenna was attached to her Snoopy for many years.  Soo cute!

This week I will be officially starting to paint his room, hoping it will bring us good news soon!

What Now?

Now that we have our referral, "What now?" you ask.  Well, we wait some more!  We are currently at the end of having our homestudy update completed.  Our approval through Immigration (USCIS) expires on 1/9/11 and in order to extend our approval we have to submit an updated homestudy.  This approval is needed at the end of the process in order to get our son a VISA so we can bring him home. 

We are also waiting to hear his file has been submitted to the court and shortly thereafter we will be given a court date.  Hopefully we will learn of our court date sometime before Christmas.  It is at this court date that Troy and I will have to go over to Ethiopia to appear before the judge.  It is also on this trip we will get to meet and finally hold our son!  We were told this date would most likely be in January sometime.  If we pass court he will officially be OUR son.  If we do not they will set another date, hopefully have everything they need for that one, and will review our case again.  We do not have to appear for that court date.  Let's keep our fingers crossed that we pass the first time!!

We have been getting some great photos of our little guy from families that are also with our agency that have recently been there for their court dates.  I am not able to publically post his picture until he is officially ours but trust me,  he is CUTE!  Some of the feedback I've gotten about him say he is a "sweetie" and "good-natured."  Hopefully we will get to find out for ourselves sooner than later!

The Wait Is Over!!

I am pleased to announce that we have officially accepted the referral of a GORGEOUS four month old BABY BOY!!   We got the call on Thursday November 4 at 12:40pm.  We had received a call only three days earlier regarding an 18 month old girl but due to some medical issues we had to decline.  We never expected another call so soon!  The call went something like this:

     Me:  "Hello."  (Understand I saw on my phone who was calling)
     Merrily:  " Hello, Kim?  This is Merrily from AAI.  How are  you?"
     Me:  "Good, I think.  How are you?"
     Merrily:  "Good.  I never expected to be calling you again
        this soon but here I am!  Do you have time to talk?"
     Me:  "Of course."  (My voice shaking)
     Merrily:  "Would you like to talk about a little boy?"
     Me:  "OF COURSE!!"

She then went on to give the details of his reason for coming into care, his health status, development, and the results of several lab tests.  She then said she would e-mail me his information and a picture.  The worst part was Troy and I were 20 minutes from home at a meeting!!  Let me tell you, I don't think I heard a word that was said the rest of the meeting and the ride home seemed more like two hours!!  When we got home I of course ran right over to the computer and pulled up the e-mail.  With Troy standing behind me, I went right for the picture.  When it came up I think we were both speechless!  He is beautiful!!  Big brown eyes, a bald head, a tiny button nose, and a HUGE smile on his face :)  This child just oozes personality!!  Unfortunately, I am not allowed to post any pictures of him until we pass court and he is officially ours.  I,  however, have given you a sneak peek below.

We ask of our family and friends that you keep this little boy in your prayers as he will not be truly "safe" until we bring him home.  He is in our agencies excellent care center but he is still in a third world country and these babies often get sick, ie. pneumonia, flu, chicken pox, and the medical care is not what we come to expect here.  We believe God led us to this little one and he will make sure he comes home safe and sound!





His Hands


  FINALLY!!!!