Update

Well, I know that no one is really looking at this blog, but I feel
Like I need to get this off my chest. We are waiting for a police form that only the head of the orphanage can get. Problem is the orphanage our boys came from was shut down 4 weeks ago and the head of the orphanage was thrown in jail. He is still in jail. So we wait. I can't believe it has been 9 months since our referral. I am a very patient man but this is trying even my patience. Pray for our boys to come home.

Court Date

Well, we finally got our court date! It is May 20th. We have our plane tickets and hotel booked. It is now less than 4 weeks and we are pretty excited to meet our boys! Ethiopian government has been making changes around adoption processes and we have seen additional delay because of it. We are still hoping that our immigration date will still come 4-6 weeks after our court date though. That will be a very hard wait after we have met our boys. Praying for them to come home as quickly as possible. Also, once we pass court, they are officially our sons so we will finally be able to share pictures!

Update

Well, we are in line for a court date. We hope to hear what our date is from the courts in a few days. The anticipation is tough to deal with. Each picture we get of them gets harder and harder to deal with the fact that they aren't with us. We did get some good news. We were really afraid of the thought of going over to Ethiopia, meeting our sons, and having to leave them at the orphanage and not see them again for 4-8 weeks! Our Adoption agency (Adoption Avenues) just opened up a foster home. This will enable us to move our child from the orphanage to this foster home after the court date and until we can pick them up. This is a huge relief. We will have lots of updates and pictures (the orphanages have pretty strict rules for this). We will also get to be in the same building and have tons of access to them during our court date. The orphanage only gives you limited access. We know god has a plan for us and just hope we can bring our babies home as soon as possible!

Referrals!!!

Well, after about 2 1/2 years it finally happened... yes, I said referrals. We only expected one, but God is placing us with 2 beautiful boys. Micah is just over 1 and Kai is only 1 month old. They aren't blood brothers. We have a lot of information on Micah, who was left at the orphanage by his mother at 9 months. But we don't have any information on the baby, he was abandoned at birth.

We will be traveling sometime in January to sign the court papers (we can then post photos), come home, then return to Ethiopia 3 weeks later to pick them up! I can't wait! A bit nervous too...I don't have anything ready, let alone have 2 of everything!

We just cannot stop looking at Micah's picture! He is beautiful! Can't wait to get a picture of Kai. We are beyond happy.

Thank you to all of you who have purchased our books, prayed for us and have made this dream possible! Without all of you, we wouldn't be able to do this. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Long Wait

It has been a while since we last posted. We have been just trying to patiently wait. It is hard. It is 5 months since our dossier was registered in Ethiopia. We were originally told 4 months but now it is more like 6 or 7 due to changes and court delays (their courts close for the "rainy" season and reopen on October 1st). So we are hoping the we get news after the 1st of October. It will be tough to go through another Christmas without at least a photo.

Dossier in Ethiopia!

I emailed our adoption agency this week and found out that our Dossier is translated and in Ethiopia! We are officially in the cue! Now we just wait for a picture. Should be about 4 or 5 months before we see our little one. We are really excited!

Dossier Done!

Well, It's official. We just sent our entire dossier all with state certifications to our adoption agency. It has been a long road and it feels good to finally get over this step. It is out of our hands now. Next our agency will get our paperwork certified by the US Government and then by the Ethiopian Government (after it's translated) and we are officially on the wait list! Should be another 4 or 5 months until we get a picture/referral. Can't wait.