To recap

Some of this may be review from previous posts on the other site but to recap the last 2 months (and especially the last two weeks) B and I accepted a referral for a precious 4 month old (at the time) infant girl. Once we accepted the referral our agency petitions the court system in Ethiopia to get our case on the docket. In Ethiopia, the approval process involves all of the paperwork, for both the prospective parents as well as the child, being presented to a judge. The judge will also interview any birth family (if they are known) Once the judge is satisfied that the parents have met the standards set by the government and that the child is legitimately available for adoption, they approve the match. Once the court has approved it, the child is your legal child in the eyes of both the law in Ethiopia and the United States. Our case went before the judge on June 12 and we received an email about 3:15 that day that we had been approved!!!

Of course, while she is now our child, but she is there and we are here. Once the court approves the match, the agency applies for an appointment with the officials at the US Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This is necessary to secure her immigration visa to come to the US. We were expecting our appointment to be, at the earliest, July 15, but more likely July 22 or 29. We were just beginning to look at options for our travel when we received another email 4 days later that our embassy appointment is July 8 and we are to be in Ethiopia by July 3. We scrambled to get travel arrangements made. If you have every traveled you know that short notice plus a budget equals a challenge. We had intended to go to Rome and Cairo first (since one of the flight routes goes on that path). There were no flights at all from Cairo and the flights from Rome were really really expensive so our trip to see the pyramids and Coliseum will have to wait. Instead we are headed to Amsterdam. We leave on Saturday, June 29 and will be spending 5 days in Amsterdam. We will head to Ethiopia on July 3.

There is one little "glitch" though but I'll save that story for tomorrow.