My ears must have been ringing....

WE GOT A COURT DATE!!!!!!!
I just posted about these things and a few hours later we get an email with an Oct 7th court date!!!! Holy crap is all I can say...sorry for the explatives...at least I am restraining! I was hoping for good news/updated info on the munchkin on Monday but waiting two extra days was worth it!!
In any case, it is a long ways off and means we are waiting through court closures, but the benefit is that we dont' have to wait all through court closures wondering when they will reopen and then getting stuck in that backlog I was just talking about of people who have been lining up for theirs all during court closure and not getting one till like Nov or Dec. YEAH! I don't know what else to say!!!!!!!!!
Baby boy...we are comming to bring you home!!! I can't wait to kiss your little face!!! And as Tessa would say "Love you up!"

What Happens Next?

So, I have been promising to post this and have just not gotten around to it.


Well, the answer to that question is waiting....more waiting....

To quote our agency "3-5 months" of more waiting.

What are we waiting for?

Here's how it works in Ethiopian adoption. Once you formally accept your referral, our agency submits our paperwork to the Ethiopian court systems. Yes, back in early 2009, all of those months of paperchasing are finally doing their duty!!! Once the paperwork goes through who knows how many layers of beurocracy in the ET court system, we are assigned a court date. We don't have to physically be there for this court date (a representative from our adoption agency will represent us) but we do have to pass which doesn't always happen on the first try. Typically, if you don't pass it is due to the fact that the courts did not have time to get to your case that day (i.e. they are overburdened by the exponentially increasing number of adoptions from ET). If you don't pass, you are assigned another court date, at another undisclosed time at some random point in the future. If and when you do pass, in the eyes of the Ethiopian govt, we will be the parents of our little boy!!!!

Then the ball really starts rolling and we get to the good stuff. TRAVEL!!!

Travel is scheduled around standing appointments that our agency has at the US Embassy in ET. We have to be present for this appointment which occurs on our trip over to pick up our son and is needed so that we can get a visa for him to travel home with us on. He will already have been issued an ET passport since he won't officially be a US citizen until after we "re-adopt" him when we get home. So our agency has 2 standing embassy appointments per month and they schedule travel around these but also in groups of at least 5 families. This all being said, once you pass court we will likely travel in 3 to 6 weeks depending on the logistics. Not much time to pack, buy plane tickets for halfway across the world and notify work that you will be taking your maternity leave in a few short weeks.

So the one glitch in this plan is or course the fact that we are dealing a third world country, their government and court systems. And every year on unknown dates, for an undisclosed amount of time (typically 6 weeks) the court systems in ET close. Of course that closure has to happen shortly after we get our referral. This year, although the courts have not yet sent out their formal announcement, there are rumors that it will close on or about August 21st. So...if we don't get a court date before then, those average's go out the window and we not only have to wait through who knows how long of court closure, but also through the backlog that will have occured as a result of this closure. A backlog of scheduling cases and a backlog of hearing those actual cases.

Our paperwork was submit approximately 2 weeks ago (we hope) and I am praying and hoping that we sneak in before Aug 21st, but in my heart I know and feel that it will not happen. The difference means picking our little boy up in December rather than Sept or Oct. Ahhhhh....or should I say Ughhh?

Does this all make sense?

Cute Stories and Tessa

So I have to share two of the sweetest stories...

My favorite was while we were on vacation at the MD shore two weeks ago. We have obviously told Tessa about her new baby brother and she see's his cute little picture every day. While she will tell you his name, I am not sure quite how much she really comprehends what it all actually means.

But...on our last day at the beach there was an African family camped out next to our group on the sand. It looked to be a grandmother, father and mother, maybe an aunt and a little baby boy that I would later find out was 9 months old. He was cute, and bald and of course, black.

In any case, Tessa of course wanted to go over and see the baby. As a two year old, she loves all babies and kids. On the way over when we asked her "Do you see the little baby?" She thoughtfully said...

"Thats my brother!"

She may not understand what adoption is, where babies come from or how different her life will be in (hopefully) a few short months, but she knows her brother is black. Interesting...and cute!

And my morning....

We are leaving for Portland, OR for my cousins wedding today. And Tessa knows we are going in an airplane to get there. She also knows that we are, one day, going in an airplane to pick up her baby brother. When we were cuddling in bed this morning, I reminded her that we would be going in an airplane today and her immediate response was...

"To pick up my brother?"

Looks like even his little sister can't wait to bring him home. The funny part is that she always asks if she can go with us to pick him up as we have and continue to explain that just mommy and daddy are going to fly to Ethiopia to bring him home. Appparently she is not giving up that easily!

No Pictures

To answer the question that I keep getting about wanting to see photos of the little munchkin....I am sorry to say but if you want to see them you will have to come by (or actually see us since carry around a printed one like every proud mama). Unfortunately we are not supposed to post, email, or put the pictures on the internet because it could jepordize the adoption...not exactly sure what the story is with this, but I am not going even find out. Hopefully in a few short months when we bring him home we will be able to plaster his photo all over our blog, facebook, picasa, etc. We can't wait to show the world his cute little face!!

Ouch!

Shots are not so much fun.

Jeff got 5 and I got 4 but one of mine counted for all 5 of Jeffs...that nasty Tetnus shot. I can't wait to enjoy a week with a throbbing arm! Really I can't. It is going to be a sweet and constant, nagging reminder of my little boy and the trip I get to make to bring him home!

Jeff: Typhoid Fever, Yellow Fever, Hep A booster, Meningococal, Polio

Brooke: Tetnus, Typhoid Fever, Yellow Fever, Meningococal

I only made out with less shots becuase I had been to Africa before...and I had lifetime Hep A, B and Polio then. Unfortunately my Tetnus, Yellow Fever and Typhoid had all expired so I had to get them once again. And fortunately for Jeff when we traveled to Thailand in 07 he has his first Hep A booster and of course Tetnus!

Here's to one more step closer to our little man!

Stuff

Well, I knew this would be the hardest time. And it is.

The wait after seeing my little boy's face is excruciating. You cannot imagine unless you have lived through it. The only other thing that has come close was wondering if he was my son for 2 weeks.

I think about him constantly. Whether it is his name, what he is doing, what time of day it is for him (i.e. is he having his dinner bottle or is someone kissing him goodnight?), what shade of blue to paint his nursery, will he be home in time for the holidays, what will Tessa think of him, how will she handle being a big sister (and losing 100% of the attention all the time), will the pained expression on his face in his referral photo be gone the next time I see him, am I the only one who thinks his face looks distressed in the photo, what size clothes will I need to bring when we go get him, will he have gained enough weight to be in the size appropriate for his age by US standards by his first birthday, does he know that there is a family out there who loves him as he sleeps alone or with a crib full of other babies on the other side of the Earth, did I make the right choice buying the infant car seat or will he be too big for it by the time we go get him, is there any chance we will make it through court closing, is this wait going to get that much harder when court closes and we have not gotten a date, how many nipples should I bring with Avent bottles with disposable liners I have decided to bring, will he nurse, will I be able to produce milk again, will the supplementer work, will we have to miss a wedding to go get him, what does his giggle sound like, what will my boss say about maternity leave, when will he get to meet his cousins, does anyone else have any idea how it is possible to fall totally and completely in love with someone you have never met? I could write a novel with the things I think about him....and it has been less than a week since I have known he would be ours.

In any case, the one good thing is that there is so much STUFF to do during this part of the wait. The last part of the wait was so fast that it didn't really matter that there was nothing to do but wait. I am going crazy with the things I have to do. Reading books, picking paint colors, transitioning Tessa to a big girl room (and stocking that room with the big girl bed, etc), buying little boy clothes, etc. I thought it would be easier because I had done it before...but this is nothing like before. I have no idea when (i.e. no due date). I don't know how old or big he will be. I am going to try something that is not set up by nature (i.e. nursing without being pregnant before and/or with having him had a bottle this whole time) to be successful. His skin and haircare will be completely different. Attachment is a whole different story with a newborn than with a 6 or even 3 month old. We have to learn about that and work hard at it. PACKING...YIKES! Picking a name...crap...we should have really done that before we had a pic...it makes it so much harder. So many questions....like how many nipples to bring so I don't have to wash them since I may not be able to anyway. In any case, I am busy. Thankfully so. And thankfully I work full time so the business on top of that really doesn't give me much time to go totally crazy waiting. Because I think I could.

I want to kiss his little cheeks. I want to hold him and tell him I love him. I want to see the expression on Tessa's face when she see's him for the first time.

So this is the stuff of waiting to go pick up your son...in case you were wondering.

And another call!!!!!!

Not the call I was expecting on the Thursday before the holiday weekend. Eugene, OR...hmmm that is where our agency is. No way. They must be calling to let us know they got the document I sent (the 171H approval that finally came).

Nope. The message I got from Jenn at Holt said she had some "information" for us and was hoping to get in touch with us before the holiday weekend.

By the time I had called Jeff to tell him we needed to get on a conference call to call Holt back ASAP, he was already on the phone with Jenn (in the midst of shock, apparently my rational though process went out the window and I forgot that when they call you with a referral they try all numbers until they can get through to someone).


It was a referral!!!!


A 3 month old little boy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I don't know what else to write but !!!!!!!!!!!. We are beyond excited! The shock of that day is still fresh in my memory...the trembling, the sweating, haha...I really couldn't believe it! No matter how fast we had been moving up the wait list, we really still weren't supposed to get a referral until the fall!


So, why has it taken my 2 weeks to post, to share this amazing info? Well, typically we would have almost immediately...once you get your referral info it needs to be reviewed, looked at by a physician, etc and then you have to formally accept the referral. Well, we weren't able to formally accept our referral until this week. Because of some errors in his paperwork, we had to wait (not so patiently) for almost 2 weeks for our agency to hear back from their staff in ET with correct information. It has been an excruciating 2 weeks but finally we know that the beautiful little boy in the 2 pictures we have is our new son!!!!!!! The second call came on Tuesday, the day he turned 3 months old, after weeks of me calling our agency daily, power and Internet outages in ET, court closure date announcements, sudden closing of the Ministry of Women's Affairs in ET, etc, etc.


This week we are on vacation at the MD shore where my family has gone every year since before I was born with a number of other families. What a great place to relish in the glow of a new life, a new addition to our family, a new son, grandparents and aunts for the 4th time, parents for the 2nd time, hope for a little (very little) 3 month old boy.


We are excited to share FINALLY this news!!! I will post more when we are home and have more access to Internet about next steps but know for now know that we are elated beyond words.


And that the wait continues...it will likely be another 3 to 5 months until we can go pick our munchkin up.