Court Date...Kinda

Wanted to give you all our most recent news! Once we were submitted to court, November 14, we thought we were waiting to hear when our court date would be. Instead we got an email telling us things have changed a little. Usually, change is not a good thing in adoptions, but this time it isn't that bad.

Apparently, there will be two Ethiopian court dates for baby G. The first one is for the orphanage, any living relatives, and our agency to be present for. The second one is for the adoptive parents to be interviewed. These take place on two separate days. In the past, they have given the agency both dates at the same time.  Recently, the judge has decided to wait until the first court appointment before they are scheduling the date for the adoptive parents.

So, Baby G's first court date is December 5th! That's right a week from tomorrow! Wohoo! No, this is not the date we will be going to, but it is a very important day in the life of our little one! Hopefully, after this court appearance, we will have the date that we will be going over to Ethiopia to meet our sweet boy and stand before the judge ourselves!

To say that we would appreciate your prayers is a massive understatement! Ethiopia is 9 hours ahead of us, so the appointment will take place in the middle of the night for us on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning-please pray for our family!

Case Submitted.

Wednesday morning we got the email that we have been waiting, praying, begging and pleading would finally come-Baby G's paperwork was completed and submitted to court! PRAISE THE LORD! We are so incredibly thankful that our family is one step closer!

Thank you so much for your prayers, encouragement, and support! We cannot thank you enough for that-it truly has meant more than you will ever know! These past 5 months, since we have had a name and face to go with our adoption plans, have been difficult, to say the least. As we have seen him change and grow, each day we aren't with him gets harder, but the Lord has heard your prayers and ours helping us and him along the way. We are forever grateful.

What's next? Next, we will be getting an email with our court date! This will be our first trip over there-where we actually get to meet him, hold him, give him lots of hugs, kisses and attention! It will also be when we go to court to make the adoption official on the Ethiopian side of things. When? That's a tough one. I hate to put a time-frame on it since the last one was so far off! "Typically" you hear back with your scheduled date 1-2 weeks after submitted. Then it can be anywhere from a week to usually 6 weeks before your actual court date.

Please keep the prayers up-we are still hopeful that we may be able to make it over there before the end of the year! Please join us in those prayers!