Submitted to Court!

Our documents were submitted and accepted by the court on November 15th.  Yay!!  This is a very big step forward.

What does this mean?  It means that we now will wait for be assigned a court date, which may take 2 - 3 weeks (hopefully not any longer).  Once we know our date, we can begin making travel arrangements.  There are actually 2 court hearings on our case. One will take place without us; we must appear for the second one.  We are still praying that we could squeeze in the last week of December.  If not, it will most likely be January, unless there has been a large number of cases submitted this week.  Once we have a court date assigned, they will move Baby E from her orphanage to Acacia Village, where we will meet her for the first time.  This is going to be very scary for her, I am sure.  Right now, believe it or not, her orphanage is a very safe place for her.  She's going to be taken away from that safe place of sounds, smells and faces.

We also received 6 new photos this week for our November update. She is more and more beautiful every time we see her.  Those lips and big brown eyes!  It also looks like they are letting her hair grow a bit.  I cannot wait to put a big bow in it!!  She looks very healthy, but please pray for her little heart.  She is looking very sad lately.   I am hoping her December pictures will show her smiling.

We've also sent her October and November updates and pictures to her adoption specialist doctors.  They are very pleased with her overall growth and motor skills!  She still looks petite to me... so I'm thinking her and Baby Faith are going to be pretty close in height and weight.  We cannot wait to actually see her in person!

A few prayer requests:

* that we can get a speedy court date assigned -- hopefully in 2011.
* that Baby E's heart is comforted and that she hears a whisper that "I will not leave you as Orphans.. I will come to you... " 
* that Baby E will do well in her transition to Acacia Village.
* that our 3 children at home will do well with us going away and the transition to come!

As soon as I hear anything, I will let everyone know!

Peace

Even with the unknowns and the weekly changes that have been occuring in Ethiopia, Brad and I feel a sense of peace.  It's wierd -- especially for me, being the control-freak that I am -- I normally would be freaking out!  But we feel peace.  It's all apart of the plan -- the growing, the stretching, the maturing of our faith.  The trusting that things will work out -- perhaps not as we have planned in our human minds -- but exactly how He has planned for it to happen.

What we do know is that we will definitely be going to Ethiopia 2 times now.  Our first trip will be to appear in court to show our committment to adopt; our second will be to bring Baby E home.  There's probably going to be anywhere from 3 - 6 months in between trips (I am only guessing here -- we haven't received offical word yet)   We are actually excited to be able to visit Ethiopia earlier in the process to meet our daughter and soak in the country, the atmosphere and culture.  It is going to be tough, however, to get back on that plane without our daughter.  I haven't begun to process that yet. 

So, the good news is we will get to see our daughter earlier in the process.  The bad news is that it is going to add about $5,000+ to our adoption expenses.  Again, we feel peace about this and know that we will have it when the time comes.  We are hoping to do a few fundraisers this summer -- an adoption rummage/yard sale; perhaps a family fun day, and we are still collecting donations for our puzzle. 

So many of our family and friends have been generous in support and prayers.  You know who you are -- thank you again for investing in our daughter and family through prayer and support.   We cannot do this on our own and your words of wisdom, prayers and support continue to carry us.  

Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.    

I Peter 5:7

Department of State - Ethiopia Adoption Notice

More information about the delays in Ethiopia:

Adoption Notice

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Bureau of Consular Affairs
Office of Children’s Issues
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Change in Processing Timeline for Adoption Cases
March 5, 2010

The Department of State shares families’ concerns about recent media reports alleging direct recruitment of children from birth parents by adoption service providers or their employees. In response to these reports, the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa has implemented some changes to adoption visa processing. Adoptive parents should be aware that an I-604 (Determination on Child for Adoption, sometimes referred to as “orphan investigation”) must be completed in connection with every I-600 application. Depending on the circumstances of the case, this investigation may take up to several weeks or even months to complete. Therefore, adoptive parents should not plan to travel to Ethiopia until they have confirmed with their adoption agency that their visa interview appointment has been confirmed.

Adoption agencies submit case paperwork to the U.S. Embassy for review before the Embassy schedules the immigrant visa appointment. In some cases the I-604 determination could take several weeks or more from the time a case is submitted to the U.S. Embassy to the scheduling of a visa interview appointment. We understand that in such cases this will result in a longer period before parents are able to bring their adopted children to the U.S. However, this additional scrutiny is required to ensure that the adoption is legal under both U.S. and Ethiopian law. The U.S. Embassy will work with adoptive parents and their adoption agency to ensure that each case is processed in the most expeditious manner possible in accordance laws and regulations. Families should continue to work through their agency to schedule immigrant visa appointments and answer questions regarding pending cases. . .

Oh Pooh!

This just in -- looks like we will be traveling 2 times to Ethiopia -- once for court and once to bring our little girl home.  The Ethiopian Government has just announced that beginning March 1, 2010, adoptive parent(s) must appear in court for the adoption hearing.  The good news is we will get to see her (hopefully) during the first trip; bad news is we won't be able to bring her home.  Maybe in some twisted way, this change in process will make things more efficient.

One positive thing is that she will come to the US on an IR3 Visa, making her an immediate US Citizen. 
On a negative note -- that's travel expenses times 2!

As soon as I hear more from our Case Manager -- I'll give an update.

Truth is... we'd travel around the world twice to bring our daughter home.  We'll just have to work on the logistics of it! 

I-171H Received

Yay!  We received our USCIS Form I-171H Form today!  We were fingerprinted on 1/25/10 and this was approved and sent on 2/23/10.. so it took about 4 weeks!  Very awesome, since I was expecting it to take 3 months. 

That's one more thing we can cross off the list!

This form expires in 18 months, so hopefully we will have everything complete by then!