9 Days and Counting..........

Well the plane tickets are purchased, the hotel reservations confirmed and the packing lists are being made! It seems unbelievable that we will be holding our sweet, baby boy soon. We fly out on November 9th and will return home on the 17th. Our court date is on Friday 12th so we would really appreciate all of your prayers. We are praying all the paperwork will be in order so that we pass without any problems.

The hardest part of this trip is knowing that we will have to leave Micah there and fly home without him. We are praying that we will receive our embassy date quickly so that we can bring him home soon!

We have a court date!!!

I am so excited to be able to tell you all that we finally have a court date!! :) We received an email last night letting us know that our court date is Nov. 12th which means we need to be in Ethiopia by the 10th. We spent alot of time working on travel plans today but finally managed to purchase tickets from Nov. 9th-16th. It is hard to believe that in 21 days I will be holding Micah in my arms. I am already trying to prepare my heart to leave him but am also praying we will be back soon to bring him home. Lots and lots to do before we travel!

Still Waiting on Court Date

Well courts in Ethiopia opened up again this week after being closed for almost 2 months. Our case was submitted on Sept. 7 th and we are praying that we will be given a court date soon. Our agency told us that we can expect a December court date, which means that we could possibly be bringing Micah home in January or February. We were hoping to have him home by Christmas but maybe our Christmas gift will be holding him on our first trip to Ethiopia. :)

This past week I was able to get all the paperwork together to send in our request for an I-600A extension. I am excited to know that should be the last bit of paperwork that will expire.

We also received a picture of Micah receiving his welcome bag. It was nice seeing him in the outfit I sent over for him.

The kids all seem to be adjusted to their new school schedules and are doing well. Caleb is busy playing pee-wee football and loves it! The leaves are all showing a hint of color and the nights are brisk and cool. Fall is one of my favorite times of year and I am trying to focus on enjoying everyday as we wait till we can bring our baby boy home.

An Update Since Our Referral

Well it is almost a month since we got our referral. We continue to wait for the Ethiopian courts to open up again on September 28th so that we can get our court date. We are hoping and praying that we will find out what our travel dates are by mid September so that we can start making travel plans.

Our social worker was here on Saturday doing a homestudy update so that we can file for a I-171H extention. Hopefully this will be the last time we have to file for any kind of extention.

The best news is that over the past two days we have seen 4 recent pictures of our baby boy! He is absolutely beautiful and I can't wait till I can share them with you.

Please join us in praying that we will can get a court date as soon as possible!

Referral!!!!

I am THRILLED to announce that we finally received a referral for a baby boy! Dawit is between 3-4 months old, since he was abandoned they do not have an exact age. He is absolutely beautiful and we are in love already! We officially accepted the referral today and now begin the wait for a court date. The bad news is that the Ethiopian courts have closed down, beginning today for their rainy season and will not open up again until the end of September. We will be among the first cases to be submitted once they do open up so we are hoping to be traveling for court sometime in October if all goes well. If we pass court the first time then we will have to apply for an embassy date which we were told can take 6 - 8 wks. It is on this second trip for our embassy appointment that we can finally bring our son home.

We have decided to give him the name Micah and keep Dawit as his middle name. At this point we are not allowed to post pictures of him on the internet. Once we pass court he is legally ours, and then I can share him with all of you! Please pray for his protection and that we can bring him home as soon as possible.

Still no news!

Well I was hoping and praying that the next time I post I would have some exciting news. We are still waiting for a referral and are trying to be patient. I would've never guessed that we would get into June and still not have a picture of our baby but as we learned thru our first adoption it is entirely out of our hands. We will just keep praying that it all works out in God's timing!

On to other news, we are officially on summer break and the kids are loving it! Joshua graduated from Kindergarten and felt very important in his graduation cap. :) Allison will be entering Junior High in the fall which is hard for me to believe and Caleb will be in 4th grade. We have been able to go swimming and boating this week and really enjoyed the time in the sunshine.

The next two weeks will be full with Bible Memory Camp, volleyball camp and then we have vacation bible school the last week in June.

Who knows maybe one of these days when I am least expecting it we will get the call!!! :)

Happy Mother's Day!

I feel truly blessed to have the opportunity to be a mother to the children God has given us. Was thinking a referral on Friday would be a great Mother's day gift but who knows maybe we will get it tomorrow. :) Wishing all mothers a very Happy Mother's Day!