We received our official “Notice of Favorable Determination Concerning Application for Advance Processing of an Orphan Petition.” This basically means that my petition for her Visa has been approved...and is the final step in the US government determining that we are capable of being parents. Whoo Hoo! It happened with lightening speed (considering this IS a government agency) with only 7 weeks from application to approval received in the mail. This is in no small part due to the fact that a new centralized processing center was established to process only international adoption related visas. I actually held back our application a couple of days to ensure that it would be processed through the new center.
Now we are waiting again...this time for a court date. We will have to travel to Ethiopia for the court appointment, but passing means that we would legally be her parents...hopefully only a couple of months away.
So, please pray that we get a court date assigned soon...and that we pass court before the rainy season (courts close for 6-8 weeks).Not passing before the rainy season court closure could mean a couple of more months in care for our little one and of course, we'd rather have her home.
Mark and I are overjoyed to announce that we have accepted the referral of a beautiful 7 month old baby girl!
I got the call at work last Tuesday. Although, we knew we'd be getting the call at any time, we'd been thinking that for a couple of weeks.I was beginning to get a bit down. Mother's day had come and gone and now my birthday was in two days and no call yet. I vented to a friend at work who had a box of fortune cookies near her desk (I'm assuming left over from all the PeiWei her department orders ). This was my fortune...
A few hours later, my cell phone rang and Stephanie from our agency asked if I had a moment to talk. Those were the code words I'd been waiting to hear. I actually asked her to hang on a moment as I gave my camera (which I had been lugging around in my purse for weeks) to my friend Christy so she could film the whole thing. It really isn't all that eventful. I was pretty stunned and just kept saying , "uh huh, uh huh". I had to look back at my pad of paper the next day to see what on earth I had written down!Sorry about the very quite sound, but you should be able to tell the part where she told me it was a girl.
I called Mark and we ran home to open the email containing her photos and information. What a surreal experience, sitting in front of a computer and with a deep breath and a click..."meeting" your future child. We immediately forwarded the info to our pediatrician (specializing in foreign adoptions) for review...and headed out for dinner and a couple of stiff drinks. Can you see the "deer in headlights" look in our eyes? :)
The consultation with the doctor was scheduled for Thursday, my birthday. The call was after lunch and the morning seemed to be dragging on forever. We were both so nervous hoping that everything would be okay. As the time grew nearer, I grew more nauseous. The doctors first words were, "Congratulations! This is just about as good as it gets!" She is healthy and doing well. We were thrilled and immediately called our agency to accept her referral. We then went out for dinner to celebrate my birthday.
We are not allowed to post pictures, but let me assure you, she is beautiful. We will be traveling to Ethiopia for our court date (hopefully in July), but will have to come home for a couple of months before going back again for the Visa appointment and bringing her home. We have a lot to do to get ready, but hope to have her home by mid October for her first birthday. We are thrilled beyond words!
I called our agency today to inquire about something else and couldn't resist asking for a number update, even though it has only been a week since the last one. :) We're movin' up the list, slowly but surely. We're getting really excited (and a little overwhelmed) about all of the things we need to do to make the house and nursery baby ready. Good thing we have plenty of time before baby comes home.
I was down in South Texas this weekend visiting my sister's family and my mom who had flown in from Georgia. We had a great time and my sister sent me home with a car-load of baby gear. Much appreciated!
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