We feel so blessed!  We got the call today!  We have a court date!!!!  October 27th :)  We have several other families that we know that will be traveling at a very similar time and I thought it would be wonderful to get the same flights.  But Chad had an even better idea.  Airline miles!!  What are the chances that we could use them?  Not very good, except God seemed to be working!  Chad spent about an hour on the phone and when it was all said and done we saved about $2500 by using our miles!  The lady who assisted Chad was really surprised by how well it all worked out....so were we!   WHAT A BLESSING!  We have a two day layover in Germany...but hey, mini-vacation!:)  I've never been to Europe before!  It's perfect!  We are soooo blessed!

We are also so excited for the families we get to be in Ethiopia with!  We know it will be such a blessing to travel with people we've already started to form friendships with. 

If everything were to go well....we might be on the timeline for an embassy Date of December 7th.  That would be SOOOOOO great.  If we miss that, the next date is 2 weeks later, December 21st.  Either one would be SOOOO great, but I'm praying for the 7th:)  I'd love to have our boys home in 2010!  We are just so excited to see God's timing playing out!

This week we got an e-mail stating that our court application has been turned in and they will continue to assign court dates even though courts are now closed until late September.  This was such a wonderful surprise!!  We had expected to wait until Sept 28th, have the application turned in with TONS of others and then wait weeks to get a date.  Now we should hear next week what our court date is!!!  It will likely be in early November, but how exciting to be able to book our plane tickets and get our lodging arranged and child care lined up (for Abi and Ben, cause no they are not coming:)!  Several other friends of ours also got this great news which means it's very likely we will get to travel with people we've already met in person or at least on-line, people we've been hoping to meet! 

We also got 10 new pictures of our boys!  It is so fun to look at them!!  We also know that they are already in Addis, which is fun to know:)  With each picture, you can imagine a little bit of personality. 

Please pray that we hear early in the week about a court date...cause it will be hard to "wait" knowing that the info could be coming any time.  I guess I just need to work on some projects and keep myself busy!  We've been moving furniture and beds, so I do have plenty of cleaning and organizing to do.  I'm also re-reading the book "The Hole in Our Gospel" to get ideas for our church because we are doing a sermon series on it is fall.  WHAT A POWERFUL BOOK!  If you get the chance, READ IT! 

Look forward to posting our court date when we hear.....that's so exciting to say!!!

We been matched with two precious boys!!  They are siblings (the have to be with Bethany).  “Z” is approx 5.5 years old, and “A” is about 3 years old.  “Z” is described as very active, enjoying soccer and running.  From his pictures, I’d say he’s a real charmer!!  What a beautiful smile!  Younger brother “A” is described saying, “quiet yet communicates well”.  He likes to sing and one of his favorite prayer is “Thank you God”.  “A” has one of the sweetest faces in the world!  Can wait to meet these precious boys!

Hopefully on Monday, we will be turn in our acceptance paperwork and making sure everything else is up-to-date.  We had an appointment today to update our fingerprints, which expire after 15 months (go figure, it doesn't seem possible for them to change, right?).  Now we have to update our  Immigration Pre-approval which expires in October.  The extra paper work would have had to be done even without the referral of these two boys, but let me tell you.....it's much more exciting knowing the names and faces of the precious boys we've been matched with!!! 

Next , we wait for a court date (which under new rules we have to travel for).  Court closes every year for 6-8 weeks in Aug/Sept.  This year they close Aug 8 until September 28^th.  I’m assuming we will be hoping and praying for a court date in Oct or Nov and maybe will be able to travel again for the embassy date in Dec or Jan to bring the boys home.  These approximations are likely only if things go smoothly.  There are no guarantees on the timing, especially because no families have yet traveled under these new rules.  No one knows exactly what the two trips will look like and what the timing will be.

We are so excited to finally be at this point, with names and faces of these precious children!   We covet your prayers for their health and well being.  We also pray that they will adjust well to all the changes they have and will be going through.  Praise God for bringing us to this point in our journey!

Last week, a family from our agency received a sibling referral for two little girls, aged 2.5 and 1.5!  They had their papers in Ethiopia since May of last year.  Our papers went in July, and so I was very curious how close we were getting to the top of the sibling waiting list.  So I had to ask.   This is the response our Social Worker got from Corporate, “So what I can say is that this family is at the top of the list - and if/when we get a referral for a sibling group that is in-line with their preferences and is a good match for them, we will let you know asap!”

This means the wait is still very unpredictable.  It could still be many, many months, but we are FINALLY at the top of the list!   We are so excited, and yet a bit nervous as well.  We are entering the hardest part of the “wait”.  Being at the top and knowing it could be anytime is harder than knowing you are #5 or 6 on the list.  I know it will get even harder once we have the precious pictures of our children and have to wait to have court and embassy dates assigned.

Please pray for us.  Pray for peace and patience.  We have really done pretty well with the 12 month wait so far (by God’s grace).  Also, please pray for the children that God has planned for our family.  It seems that most children are only in the orphanage for a couple months before they are matched with a family.  This means they may be at the orphanage now or may be coming in the next couple months.  One important thing to remember about adoption is that in order for them to join our family they have experienced the loss of their birth family.  So it is likely that our future children are currently or soon going to be experiencing a tremendous amount of grief and loss.  It breaks my heart to think of their pain!  Please pray for God’s peace, for His protection, and His love to surround them at this time!

The current rule is that adoptive families will have to travel twice.  Once for the court date (this is the new trip) and once for the embassy date (this is the trip when you are able to bring your kids home!).  The first families who have to travel twice are waiting for their court dates.  It seems like the dates are taking longer to be assigned (it’s been about 2 months since referral, and it was common to have a court date within 4-6 weeks).  We are praying for all those families who are trying to be ready at any moment to buy plane tickets, find child care for their kids they have at home, schedule time off of work etc.  I can’t imagine how stressful that would be and please join us in praying that the Ethiopian courts would be able to figure out this new system soon!

We are so blessed to be surrounded by so many loving friends and family during this adoption journey.  Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers.  We look forward to the day we can announce that we have been matched with precious children!!

For about the last couple of days there has been rumors that the Ethiopian government may require adoptive families to attend court for the adoption process...now it's official.  We have gotten confirmation from our agency that this will be the case starting in April.  That likely means two trips....(unless they would streamline the paperwork between court and embassy so that it would be one trip that last 3-4 weeks).  This will involve more cost (extra plane tickets & cost of stay) and more "vacation" time and time away from Abi and Ben, but we know that it's worth it. Thankfully Chad has a lot of vacation stored up!

The reason for this change is apparently due to some families who have passed court and when they come for their embassy date to bring the kids home, have changed their minds.  I can hardly imagine!  But this is just one step the government is taking to safe-guard the kids and to assure that the adoptive parents have seen the kids and there is not much chance of a "surprise".

At this point I'm just sad for all those who have referrals and are waiting for court dates....they didn't plan on traveling for 3-4 months and now they might have to get on a plane in less than a month.  AND then again a month later.  Their are a lot of families that I know that are stressing so please be in prayer for all the families in process.  I also am sad for all the social workers how have to relate this to all their clients...I'm sure it's frustrating/hard to have to tell everyone about this rather big change in the process.  You are told to expect change when dealing with international adoptions...but it doesn't always make those changes easy.

The news for me is kinda mixed.  Because we haven't been matched yet, everything seems so hypothetical...it just isn't very real yet.  But as I think about it -  I'm excited to see my kids that much sooner (4-6 weeks), but I think it will be hard to see them and then have to leave them:(  That just seems SOOO hard for us and the kids!  One good thing is that they will come home and become citizens as soon as they touch down in the USA.  If you don't see your kids before court, you have to do extra paperwork (time and money) to get citizenship.  Some families I know have been home for almost a year and their kids are still "aliens".  I've heard some states are worse than others and MI not so bad, but it will be nice to have a little less cost and paperwork needed after they are home!

Another benifit that someone meantioned is the opportunity to meet any living birth parents (they have always been required to attend court).  That would be a very special time...probably difficult, but I've heard a lot of positive feedback from those who have had this opportunity. 

We are still hoping and praying for a referral in the next 6 months and we would love to bring our kids home sometime in 2010, but we know that their is know way of knowing or even estimating when we will be matched.  Thank you to all of you who are "following" us on this journey and praying for us along the way!