Category: Adoption

We received word that our court date was moved up to May 8, 2009. We do not know when our Embassy appointment is yet. It could still be the first week of June, but may move to the second week. I am excited that our court date moved up, even if it is only four days.

I am seriously laughing at myself right now, less than an hour after my last post we received our court date.

The big day is May 12, 2009!  With an anticipated visa appointment for June 5, 2009 (my parents’ anniversary 🙂 )  We would actually arrive in Ethiopia on June 1 (our anniversary 🙂 )  I am so happy and relieved right now.  Please keep our big day in your prayers and that everything goes smoothly.

As many in the adoption world know you hurry and get stuff done, just so you can wait, this happens over and over in the process.  You would think a person would just get used to this cycle and deal with it, but it is oh so hard.  Each wait is different, some are longer, some are for just a piece of paper, but they are all hard.  The wait for a court date is no exception.  I am currently driving myself crazy with all the possibilities.  I am hoping getting my feeling out of my head will help, sharing them with my adoption buddies that have gone through this, are going through this, or will be going through it.

It used to be expected that you would travel in about two or three months after referral, you usually received your court date shortly after referral and it was about six to eight weeks after referral.  The popularity of the program, plus a judge’s maternity leave have changed this part of the process.  Of course, anyone who is or has adopted internationally would tell you just to expect and accept change.  The problem is change isn’t always easy to accept.  The court dates are currently being scheduled anywhere from three months to about four and half months after referral, most people are learning their court dates about a month after referral.  If current trends stay the same that puts us with a court date at the end of May beginning of June, which for the most part doesn’t bother me, I can wait to June to meet my boys.  The thing I am struggling with is court isn’t always passed the first time and I am afraid that would put a second court date dangerously close to rainy season (for those of you not familiar with Ethiopian adoption, the courts close end of July/beginning of August to sometime around October for the big rains).  I don’t like the thought of cutting it so close.  It really scares me.

Okay now for those of you thinking I am just a pessimist and need to be optimistic, I have lots of optimistic thoughts too.  (I really am driving myself crazy.)  The rumors started last week that the judge on maternity leave was back!  This got me thinking and dreaming of meeting my boys even sooner.  Would court dates start being scheduled faster and passing sooner?  What does that mean for us?  What does that mean for the families who already have court dates?  Would it expected time of travel be closer to the original two to three months instead of four or sometimes five?

I think my nerves and thoughts would calm down considerably if we just found out our date.  I think I would be more patient.  I feel guilty for being so impatient during this stage of the process, after all, I get to stare at my sweet babies faces whenever I want.  I might not get to hold them, but I know they are being well cared for, just knowing who they are really is amazing.

In the meantime, I love seeing others’ waits finally coming to an end.  Two families from our agency passed court last week both on their second tries.  I have followed both of their stories from the beginning or very near the beginning.  Congratulations to Misty and Dan, and Rachel and Sean (twin baby boys!!!)!

That has been how Matt and I have been feeling lately. I cannot put into words how grateful we are for our boys. The wait while long and seemingly endless was worth it. Knowing how perfect they are for us makes me wonder why I ever questioned God’s timing. He knew what he was doing, in fact he even gave me exactly what I wanted, twin boys. How awesome is that?

It has been exactly one week since our referral and my head still has not come out of the clouds. I cannot believe I have already known their faces for one week, time is passing quickly. I hope it continues to pass so quickly as we wait to travel. Oh how we cannot wait to hold them for the first time. I do not think it will feel completely real until that moment, at least not for me. Matt already seems more attached which warms my heart even more. To see him so excited brings such joy to me. He never thought he wanted twins, let alone two babies at once, but he is beyond excited and it makes me love him even more.

(My darling boys I go to bed each night thinking of you and wake up doing the same. You are in my thoughts and prayers all day long. I hope you are eating well and being nice to your nannies.)

My day did not start just like any other day. I slept in to about 9 am, not a usual occurrence, but this dang cough has been keeping me up at night, so the additional sleep yesterday morning was appreciated. I had managed to get up start my coffee, feed the dogs, and was settling into my morning blog reading. I had just started reading Sandi’s latest posted about her Mother’s day out when my phone began to ring (9:25 am). I assumed it was my boss, who I had spoken to earlier in the morning about some dogs I was seeing in the afternoon. I looked over at my phone and it was a 314 number, I started to get a little excited, but not too excited, I get wrong numbered a lot. I answered it and it was SHARON, I started to shake, she said something along the lines that they might have a referral for us. Our home study approved us for special needs but we preferred healthy so she wanted to know if we were open to a possible health issue. I said probably, let me call Matt, or something like that, I really have no idea. Matt and I spoke and I tried to call Sharon back. I knew Sharon was getting ready to leave the office in about 30 minutes, so I was trying to catch her because I wanted to see my babies! I got her voice mail, so I called the main line and spoke to a very nice receptionist, when I asked for Sharon I was told she was out of the office, so I then asked for Nicky (who was going to have the file since Sharon would be out of the office) and was told she was in a meeting, bummer! But the receptionist apparently went and found Sharon for me, so I spoke with Sharon and she told me the basics and asked if I had any questions, ummm no? That’s right I couldn’t even think to ask their names! All I knew was gender, weight, and health concerns. So, Sharon says she will email me their photos and info and we disconnect. Matt and I had been chatting on the computer and he was getting ready to have a meeting with a client and couldn’t come home and well I didn’t want to wait! So, we did what all Mac users would do and screen shared! He could see my screen and we could audio chat at the same time, such a nice feature. We were able to see our babies together for the first time and look over some of their information together. It was a very nice moment and nope didn’t catch a bit of it on film. Here is the shocker I didn’t cry, I still haven’t really cried, just started to tear up. I keep waiting for the bawling to began, but it is probably waiting for a really awkward moment when it all finally sinks in.

I then began to try to call people to tell them the news, but no one was answering their phones, I completely forgot about my brother (sorry Jason), but I did leave his lovely wife a long, rambling message that apparently didn’t make sense. Sandi was the only one to answer, and actually she had to call me back because my phone lost signal as I was calling her. Sandi and I had a nice chat, sorry I don’t remember much of it! The rest of the day is really a blur of phone calls, emails, dogs, and other random things. I know I kept asking Matt some pretty silly questions and almost drove to the wrong clients house yesterday, boy they would have been surprised if I had just walked on in to walk their dogs!

I spoke with Sharon again in the afternoon and she said she could tell I was in a state of shock when she called in the morning and she apologized for it not being a typical referral call (they normally get your husband on the line too) and that she had to rush out of the office. Of course, that didn’t really matter to me, we got our referral and I was so HAPPY.

Okay that takes care of Meg C’s question! Now onto the others.

No Rick you cannot change your guess, Papa John does it again, seriously how does he know these things?

Gretchen and Erica they are not at the HOH yet, but I do have a friend that has been to their orphanage and she says it is a great orphanage.

Kim I can’t email or post pics, sorry. They are not officially ours until we pass court in Ethiopia, and I am guessing our court date will be in May.

Jennifer no we are not keeping the names Tom and Jerry, we will continue to use those on the blog until we figure out what we are naming them!

Tegan we have had a trailer for about a year now, pathetic I know, but we have used it to go garage sale shopping in the neighborhood.

Okay just a little more info. We cannot share too much about the boys on our blog until they are officially ours, but I can say they are absolutely adorable, identical, and born in my favorite month. I always wanted twins, seriously for as long as I can remember. Matt and I are still on cloud 9. Pray for a quick and successful court date, so we can bring them home early this summer.

Our wait was officially 11 months 4 days and well worth it. 🙂

Thank you all for your warm wishes yesterday and your support during the wait part of the process. It means so much to us. Thank you so much!

We received our referral for twin boys this morning! Matt and I are super excited right now and cannot wait to bring them home. They are 2.5 months old and absolutely precious.