August 5th

A minor change with our court date. I am not surprised or disappointed; I had a feeling that there was no way the MOWA was going to issue the letter for our case to be heard. I am just so thankful to HAVE a court date and to know that things are moving again.

Our court date was rescheduled for August 5th. With a tentative embassy date for September 3rd. Meaning we would probably leave the last week of August to head to Ethiopia. We might be arriving to Ethiopia on my birthday, August 29th! Wouldn’t that be the best birthday present ever?!

It was also announced that the Ethiopian courts will stay open this year. They normally close from August to October. Its good to know that if we encounter any more glitches that we still have time! Wish us luck!

We have a court date!

Exciting news today. We received a court date for July 20th. We are excited to have this court date, but are still somewhat guarded.

Here is the deal-

The MOWA (Ministry of Women's Affairs) looks over our case and writes a letter. This letter has to be with our file for the Ethiopian judge to hear the case. Normally this is an easy process. Normally! BUT..MOWA has closed for TWO weeks for training. Timing not so great. So, the courts are now letting familes get court dates, but now this MOWA has closed.

The judge has asked MOWA to please write letters for all the families with my agency who have been delayed. We were ALL given court dates for July 20th.

MOWA is not to reopen until July 24th. Again, this timing thing really sucks!
So, hopefully with the Judge asking for this, MOWA can make this happen.
If not? well, once a again our case will not be heard. BUT....at least we are making some progress. The ban is over and suspension is lifted! If our case doesnt get through on the 20th, hopefully before court closure, which is in August.

I feel like we are getting closer to finally become the parents of Baby Tiny.

To be continued..........

Still no news..maybe Monday?

My feeling was right.....Friday was rumored to be a day when we would find out how or when our adoption hearing will proceed. Apparently, one of the CHI reps in Ethiopia went to court on Friday. The judge asked her to wait around until noon. At noon, the judge asked her to come back on Monday.

So, that's tomorrow. The CHI rep also stated that other agencies were told to come back on Tuesday. I am hopeful. I am thinking that agency by agency that the courts are going to maybe start giving out some new court dates. I am just guessing at this, but I think we might hear some news next week. Lets hope! We are so ready to go pick up baby tiny!



If I don't hear news this week, that means we will have to re-apply with the CIS, to obtain our babies visa. It will expire this fall!! That means, if we had to travel this fall we would have to make sure that is current..or there is no bringing baby home! To re-apply, that means a new homestudy. The good thing is, I have all the documents needed to redo the homestudy - I have spent the last 3 weeks getting those together!

I have our wonderful social worker Nikki on standby....she can whip that together and I can get an appointment with the CIS/INS office to get it going again. Last year it took almost 6 weeks to get that approval back, so I am going to make sure that we will allow enough time to get it back so if we cant go until this fall, we will be ready. NO document will hold us up on getting to Ethiopia.
Lets just hope we wont need it!

Not getting my hopes up.....

July 1st. Its now been almost TWO months since our court date that was never heard. I am not getting my hopes up that we are going to even hear anything this week. I want to hear so bad that we have a new court date or that we have a surprise and just find out the court has legally made Amara ours.

There are SO many rumors, I don't know what is true or not anymore. Many agencies are telling waiting families that they will hear something later this week regarding the cases. Many agencies are saying the investigation is not over. I cant even remember what our agency has confirmed or not confirmed at this point. I am so tired of week after week I get excited thinking this will be the week that we hear something.

I am beyond sad, I am now mad and frustrated. I am so mad that we are missing out on the first year of this sweet little babies life. Either way, whatever age she is when we finally can bring her home, we are dedicated to her. It will be quite a story to share with her some day.

My gut feeling is that we will not bring her home this summer. There are only a few weeks until courts close in Ethiopia..until October. I have a feeling she will be 1 when we finally get to meet her. I hope I am wrong, but this is what I am feeling right now.

I know our agency is doing the best they can with finding out what is going on in Ethiopia. Our director of the Ethiopia program just returned from Addis. She took the most beautiful photos of our baby. I received them yesterday and cant stop looking at her sweet little face! I know new video will be coming soon. I'm sure its a huge task to get all the photos downloaded and sent to all the families that are waiting to travel to pick up their children.

I am looking foward to my husband returning home tommorow from his business trip in Asia. We are throwing a party in a couple weeks at our home, just to pass the time of this waiting. It should be a great time!