2nd Trip to Ethiopia!

I'll be leaving early in the morning for Ethiopia and arriving there Thursday morning (ET time). I am so excited and can't wait to see Beri! Hope we receive our clearance from the Embassy soon! Her room is (and has been) all ready for her- hope she likes it! Posted some pics below. Thanks again for all the well  wishes and support- can't wait for her to meet everyone once we're home and settled :)

Submitted to Embassy!!!

After passing court it generally takes about a month or so before all of the documents (child's new birth certificate, passport, embassy medical exam, etc.) are ready for a case to be submitted to embassy. There was a typo on ONE of our documents, which took over 3 weeks to get corrected. BUT, our file was submitted to the Embassy on June 22nd :) Yeah- finally!!!!! This is the last step before being able to bring Bereket home. Once they review and approve our file they will send us an email letting us know we are cleared for travel and give us a few options of dates to choose from for our interview appointment with them. We are hoping to hear from them this week or next and travel within the next few weeks. We are feeling so very close now!!! 

Words/phrases that do not sit well with

us since starting the adoption process:

it could take anywhere from_____ to______

government

it's hard to say

timeframe

that's not something we can predict

I'm sorry

approximately

re-do

amount due

court

"minor" delay

we appreciate your patience

fees

we will let you know

paperwork

waiting

unfortunately

notarize

USCIS (Immigration)

approval

documents

and our all time favorite (regarding "timeframes"): ABOUT

...And Beri Makes Three :)

On May 3rd, our case went to court in Ethiopia and we legally became the very, very proud parents of Bereket!!! We have officially "passed" court and should be able to go and get our little girl soon! Thank you everyone for keeping us in your thoughts! We are so happy & excited to FINALLY be able to share this wonderful news with you! 

Back from Ethiopia!

We got back from Ethiopia just over a month ago and words can not describe how awesome it was to finally meet B and hold her!!! She is the most amazing little girl! She is so affectionate, sweet and has a very fun-loving, easygoing personality. We arrived in Ethiopia on Wednesday, Feb. 23rd, in the evening. We were told on Thursday morning that our case had been submitted to court the day before- yeah!!! We were in complete shock, as we did not think they were going to be able to submit it for a few more months. Finding this out just minutes before meeting B for the very first time, made for a very emotional day... in a good way though :) They then told us they were going to see if the judge could have us come in to fulfill our court appearance while we were there, also great news! We ended up doing this on Monday, Feb. 28th. Our meeting with the judge only lasted a few minutes and went really well. She told us she would have our next court date scheduled (where our case will be reviewed and everything will hopefully be finalized). After a few weeks of being home, we found out that this court date would take place in the end of April, so we are anxiously waiting for this day to come now! If all goes well, we should hopefully be able to return 4-6 weeks after "passing" court for our embassy appointment & to pick her up. There can be any number of reasons why we would not "pass" court, which would then cause further delays until we ultimately do. We are missing her like crazy and just holding onto any hope that we can right now that we will not get caught in any further delays. Hoping the next update will be good news & she will officially be ours!

Off to Ethiopia!

Tomorrow we leave for Ethiopia & are just feeling a mix of emotions right now! Our case was supposed to be submitted to court in the end of January, where we most likely would have gone for our court date sometime in March. Instead, we found out a few weeks ago that our case was not submitted and can not be until an additional document is received that is just now being required. It could take weeks or months to obtain this document. Once again, our spirits crushed. So, we made the decision to go to Ethiopia to meet B now b/c we really don't want to wait that much longer to do so! It is bittersweet. The bitter being we would rather be going for court, as we would then be 1 step closer to bringing her home. The sweet, finally being able to meet her & hold her! We can't wait for this & are so excited! We have been picturing this moment in our heads for the past year, since we were matched with B & received our first picture of her. Now, we will experience it in just a few short days! Hoping they will be able to get this last document quickly so our case can then be submitted to court! Will keep you posted!

Smooth Sailing Ahead???

We are still not allowed to post any pictures or B's full name until we pass court, so we are just referring to her as B on this blog until we do! 

We found out over the past few weeks that there were several more documents that needed to be changed or updated than originally expected :( Thought we were good to go, so we were pretty disappointed to find out how much had to be re-done! We ended up having to re-do our entire home study that was originally done with our first agency & we have also had to re-do our entire dossier too! However, we're happy to report that we flew through it 2nd time around & it is all completed now!!! Once we receive approval from the state for our new home study, our dossier will be on its way back to Ethiopia & filed for court. Hoping to receive that approval sometime this week. They are unable to predict any type of time frame for court until this is all completed. We did receive several new pictures and videos of her (at the new foster care center) and she is smiling & looks to be very content! Such a relief to see! She started pre-school classes there where she is learning numbers, the alphabet and some basic English. 

We sent a care package to B back in July (the photo with the Dora backpack, photo book of our home & family, doll, & blankie). We also added some candy, coloring books, crayons, stickers, little ball and bracelet with her name on it. We have pictures & video of her receiving it & our previous director said she loved it! The children are supposed to receive a care package with a t-shirt, photo book and other small toys when they arrive at the new foster orphanage she is at now. It all has to fit into a gallon size Ziploc bag. So, we made another photo book and had a t-shirt made for her. We also added some more crayons & a coloring pad, a princess doll, harmonica, velcro mitts & ball, stickers & some more candy. We were able to get it all smushed in there too! She will be receiving it very soon :)

So, that is where we are at with things. We've jumped over some fairly large hurdles over the past couple of months & are hoping that no more issues arise! We will continue to post any updates we receive. Selam! ("peace be upon you" in Amharic)

1st Care Package

2nd Care Package

2nd Care Package (smushed!)

A Light at the End of the Tunnel!

A lot has happened since our last post... from terrible news to great! We found out about a month ago that our agency would not be receiving their license anytime soon, if at all. Apparently there is a hold on licenses being issued and it is undecided as to when that hold will be lifted. Upon finding this news out, the director of our agency quickly began looking for another agency to take on our case (and the other families stuck in the same situation as us). This news was devastating to receive, as it was a definite possibility that this would all just fall through! Fortunately, one of the agencies contacted did agree to take the cases on, so we have officially transferred our case to this other agency. Yeah! We will be eternally grateful to them for helping us! They have been wonderful to work with and our original agency has also been great in making sure the cases transfer over smoothly and quickly. The director of our new agency has expressed several times how quickly she would like things to progress with our cases, as they know we have all been waiting a long time. Fine by us!!! So, over the past few weeks we have been flying through any paperwork that needs to be changed or updated.

Several months ago, the court process in Ethiopia changed. We originally did not need to be present at the court date, since we were filed in the system before the change took place. We will now be filed as a new case though, so it is mandatory that we attend court to meet our child before the hearing actually takes place. If all goes well in court, we will then come home for 4 - 8 weeks while they prepare her new birth certificate, passport & visa. Then, we will return to pick her up and to attend an appointment at the US Embassy where we will receive her birth certificate, passport & visa. After that, we will finally be able to bring her home  :)

We will hopefully have our case re-filed in the courts within the next couple of weeks and shortly after that has been done, we will then be notified of our court date & begin making our travel arrangements to go there for that & to meet our little girl for the first time! The children were moved over to our new agency's foster orphanage this afternoon. Please keep her & the other children in your thoughts as they spend their first night in a new place (while I am typing this)! We are worried of how "B" & the others are handling it, but comforted that they were moved together. In order to move forward with things, this move was necessary. So, that part of it makes us feel beyond excited right now! It is a HUGE step forward! We finally feel a sense of relief that this is going to happen & we are going to bring her home!

Thank you again to all of our family & friends for being there for us throughout this journey that has been much longer than we expected! It really does mean so much to us! We will continue to post any updates as we receive them! 

Ethiopian New Year

September 11th is the Ethiopian New Year, so we are wishing our little girl a very Happy New Year today! I am also wishing a Happy Birthday to my husband Pat and a Happy 1st Birthday to our niece/goddaughter (whose birthday was yesterday)! Lastly, we are remembering all who lost loved ones 9 years ago today on 9/11.

We haven't posted any updates in a while b/c we have basically just been waiting (and waiting) for everything to get situated with our agency's license. It has taken MUCH longer than they anticipated, but it will hopefully all be completed very soon! We will then be able to move forward in the process. Hope to post some good news soon!  

Court Date Rescheduled

Our case did not actually make it to court on May 6th. Our agency's license is in the process of being renewed at this time, which is needed to finalize everything in court. They are expecting to receive it within the next few weeks.  Our court date hearing will then be rescheduled, and we will proceed with the process from there.  We received updated measurements and pictures of our little one this week :) She has the most beautiful smile and it was so wonderful to receive these!!!

Court Date Scheduled!!!

Our court date hearing is scheduled for May 6, 2010! We're so excited! It can often take several attempts for families to "pass" court though. If we do pass on this date, we should hopefully be able to travel there sometime in June to pick up our little girl! If not, things will be delayed until we ultimately do pass court and remainder of paperwork has been completed. Please keep your fingers crossed that we do pass our first time around!

Thanks to everyone for all of your kind words, support and excitement! This is obviously such an exciting time for us and we are grateful to be sharing it with such wonderful family members & friends!

It's a 3 Yr. Old!!!

We received and accepted the referral for our little girl yesterday-- yeah!!!! She is 3 yrs. old, healthy & absolutely beautiful!!! We are unable to email or post her picture and name until everything goes through court & she is legally ours! They are in the process of getting the court date scheduled right now, which will hopefully take place in the next 4-8 weeks. Once we have "passed" court, we then travel there shortly after to pick her up & bring her home! We are sooo happy & excited and can't wait to bring her home to meet her new family & friends :)

Referral Coming Soon!

We have been receiving updates from our Case Worker & are hoping to receive our referral within the next couple of weeks... much sooner than originally expected! We are beyond excited & anxious to see her picture, find out how old she is & receive all of her other information! Upon accepting the referral, it is generally a couple of months before everything is finalized (provided everything goes smoothly). We are optimistically hoping to be able to travel there sometime this summer to bring her home! We'll see :)

Waiting for Referral

Our dossier arrived in Ethiopia last Monday. It now has to be reviewed & approved by the Ethiopian government in order for them to match us with a child and send us her picture and information (the referral). We are hoping to receive this sometime soon!

Welcome!

Welcome to our blog documenting the adoption of our little girl from Ethiopia! Thank you for sharing in this incredible journey with us to bring our daughter home!