Court Closure

Currently the courts are set to close from late August through September. This may or may not affect our court date, but it definitely does not help our odds. We are now planning on traveling in the winter. If we pass court earlier and can travel, we will be pleasantly surprised! Keep us and the many other families affected my this news in your prayers.

Update

Here's a quick update since I have been out of town and not posting. We have court mid-August and, if we pass, will travel mid-September. We have picked out a name for our little man. His name will be Elias (Eli) Kingsley H****** (can't share his Ethiopian name until we pass court). We are hopeful that we will pass court the first time, but only 60% of cases pass the first time (due to paperwork not making it to court on-time, witnesses not showing up, the power being out, etc.). Please keep us in your prayers over the next few weeks.

Also, we aren't ready to travel yet and don't know how much room we have, but we hope to take over some donations of clothing (new or gently used - Walmart, Target, Kohls or a consignment store - up to size 8, I think), formula, small toys (matchbox cars, bouncy balls, candy...think party store or dollar store), etc. If you are interested in donating a few things, please let us know.

I will update when the nursery is done (it's in the works, I promise) and when we have some news on court. Until then, please keep our family, and the many other families in our Agency in your prayers! It currently looks like the courts will close for approx. 6 weeks starting mid-late August, so we will see!

Let the waiting begin (again)!

We have officially accepted our referral and begun the process of applying for a court date!! Everyone is asking how long until little "H" is home. I wish I knew! It might be a few months, it might be more than 6. There is just no way of knowing. But, rest assured, when we pass YOU WILL KNOW!

The referral call completely caught us by surprise. We didn't think we'd have a referral for at least a few more weeks. On Monday, 7/6/09 at 12:13pm EST my cell phone rang. I was in the midst of heating up my lunch and almost didn't check it, but I decided to anyway. I saw it was a 703#. This is the area code for our agency, but also for a number of family and friends, so I seriously thought it was someone whose # I didn't recognize. I say hello and hear, "Jenny, this is Nicole from America World." Oh, Hi!, I say, thinking she's calling to confirm something because surely this isn't "the call." Then I hear, " I have good news!!!" Then, everything goes blank. My mind becomes a wasteland! I search for minutes (at least it felt like minutes) to find Ben's number (so we can conference call) because my brain is NOT finding any number for him. It also couldn't remember our last name so I could look it up in my contacts. Complete and utter blanks!!!

Well, I eventually find it! After we get off the phone with Nicole I run home (leaving my lunch in the microwave, which, luckily, one of my coworkers handled) to meet Ben and Maddie (Ben left work and picked up Maddie on his way home) to see pictures of our sweet boy!!!!

That was our day. After that the day was filled with staring at H's face, paperwork, staring at H's face, emails to Doctors, staring at H's face, crazy phone calls with family and friends WHILE staring at H's face...yeah, you get the drift?! Then dinner with friends!

So, now, we wait! But we have a son and he is priceless! And we have a wonderful family that is taking a small care package to him soon. And a family friend that is going to Ethiopia for 3 weeks to visit family, and she's going to go meet our boy, love on him, and take some pictures!!! I am incredibly jealous, but I'm also so glad that she'll be able to see him and report back first hand!

We will update when we pass court! Until then, the blog will be filled with me reminding myself that this will all happen in the Lord's timing!!!!

And, possibly, we'll announce a name at some point. We're still working through that! Ben wants H's name to be a middle name. Either way, we will have to come up with either a first or middle name. Let the games begin!!!!

It's a BOY!!!!!!!!!

We received our referral today for the cutest little boy I have ever seen! He is 3 months old and has smiling down packed! We are all absolutely in love with him head over heels and cannot wait until we can share more information about our son! We still have so much we want to learn about him, too! First I'll need to catch my breath and collect my thoughts...that might take some time!

Received our referral 6 months, 3 weeks and 3 days after our Dossier was sent!!! That's amazing!

Update

Per our agency, the courts will re-open to cases of children who were abandoned in Addis Ababa on July 2nd. This is WONDERFUL news for all of the families that were caught-up in the investigation! Please keep praying that they will pass before the court closures (likely Aug 7-Sept 27). They have already waitied too long!

Also, there were a few more referrals at the end of last week and the beginning of this week (boys and girls). So, we're getting closer! I still think we have a few more weeks of waiting, but I don't mind! I am cheering on the people in front of me in the mean-time! C'mon Jodi and Tracy!!! (strangely enough, I have cousins by those names, they are sisters)!

Guess our referral date

We have decided it would be fun to guess our referral date, just like we guessed Maddie's birth date (I was off by a few weeks on that one). We are hoping to have our referral some time in the next 2 months, so please send me your guesses! Give me something to do while we pass the time waiting!!! ;o)

Investigation News

It is our understanding that the investigation is over, nothing suspicious was found, and new courts dates will be given out soon. We continue to pray for quick and efficient court dates for all of the families adopting!

We believe we are close to the top of the list and should be receiving our referral soon. Depending on the children that come in to the house it might be another month or two, but we hope not. We will make sure we post when we have accepted our referral! I pray that Maddie and I are in town so we can share eveything with Ben, instead of enjoying it 500 miles apart!

Six months and counting!

We are still eagerly awaiting the referral of our son. As you can see on our new

features on the right hand side, there have been a lot of referrals recenlty!!! We are starting to get excited, to say the least!

We pray that we will hear news on the investigation this month and it will be good news. There are many families that are eager to pass court prior to the closings (August-September) so they can travel to meet their child(ren). We hope that your prayers will continute to be with them during this trying time.

One Year!

We started the adoption process a year ago today.  When we started this process we were more optimistic, and maybe even idealistic, than we are today.  But we remain strong knowing that this was the path to which God called us.  Though I might not have the needed patience to never want this process to be quicker, I do have faith that things will happen when they are meant to and our son will be home when it is time.  We feel blessed to be trusted with another of the Lord's children and we eagerly anticipate what the coming year has in store for us!!!

New Blog Features

Check out our newest blog features on the right hand side.  The first one is a list of DTEs ahead of us in line (the ones we know, at least).  The second (below the list of blogs I follow) is a calculation of where we are in-line for our referral.  It's just a best guess, so don't put too much faith it in.  And it's only for the boy-either line.  Not where we think we might be overall.