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.