Madine Family

Court Date!

Posted on : 7/22/2010 | By : Joanna

We have a court date!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, so we didn't make the cut off before the courts closed for the rainy season, but we're just so thrilled not to be in limbo any more! Thank you, Thank you , Thank you for all of your prayers, encouragement and support.

Our court date is scheduled for September 28th, the second day the courts are back open. This is the day, if all goes well, that we will legally become the parents of the cutest baby girl. Seriously, in about 2 months, we could finally be PARENTS. We're just in awe of this process and although it can't happen soon enough, we are really trusting God's timing. He is in control.

We cannot book travel yet. We're waiting on an "okay" from our agency. We also don't know the exact dates that we'll be gone, but we're pretty sure we'll have to be in Ethiopia for at least five days with about 30 hours travel there and back. We'll keep you posted.

Our only concern is that last year the courts closed for a shorter length of time, but then delayed opening by a couple of weeks. All of the families with court dates just after the scheduled opening had to scramble and get worked in around and after other families already scheduled. We pray since they are closed for longer, they won't mess around and make our lives crazy at the last minute.

We also got a medical assessment the other day. I was sad to hear that she had pneumonia about a month ago, but was treated and recovered well. She's hitting all of her milestones and growing well. The medical staff described her as a "smiley baby who likes when her caretakers giggle her". I'm assuming they mean "tickle. That little statement pierced my heart and set the tears flowing. We are so happy she is doing well, but I want to "giggle" her. We want her home.

Prayer Requests:

1). Please pray for baby girl's health.

2).Please pray that our case will actually get heard on Sept 28th...and that we "pass".

3). Please pray for Kristen and Chrissy (2 friends of mine that are in Ethiopia this week to bring their children home). Safe travel, good health, easy transitions, strong bonding/attachment.

Lots Going On

Posted on : 7/08/2010 | By : Joanna

It's been about a month since my last post, and since that time we've just been waiting and waiting. You'd think we'd be pretty good at this waiting thing, but it has been pretty hard. All of the families in our Yahoo group who were not required to travel for their court dates (we call them "1-trippers") have passed court (meaning they are legally parents) and have begun traveling to get their little ones. To date, none of the "2-trippers" (that's us) have been assigned court dates; HOWEVER, we found out yesterday that our file was submitted to court last week! What happens from here is a little fuzzy, but here's how we think it works:

-Our file is submitted to court

-a couple of weeks later we are assigned a court date (3-4 weeks out and possible tentative)

-in the mean time, soon after our court dates are assigned, the birth family has their court appearance.

-if all goes according to plan with their hearing, we will be given the okay to book flights, maybe 2 weeks in advance of travel.

Bottom line: There is still a chance that we will make it through before the courts close for the rainy season...so lets do some double time on the praying! and we'll keep you posted.

The next question (if not the first) is, "So when is she coming home?". The answer to that is, "We really don't know". Unfortunately, as some of you already know, a big issue unfolded this week. The US Embassy in Ethiopia decided to reduce the number of Visa appointments issued per month (usually 20 per agency) to only 10 appointments. Basically, it has the potential of drastically slowing down the next leg of our journey. There are approximately 30 families with our agency who are waiting for appointments to pick up their children, and this is the only thing stopping them from bringing their children home. There are some rumors that the reduced appointments are only for the summer, but we don't know that for sure. Thank you to everyone who emailed their state representatives on behalf of the children of Ethiopia. If you have not already contacted them, please wait until we get some further direction from our agency. We want to make our voices known, but we want to be careful not to offend the Ethiopian officials and risk any sort of adverse reaction. International adoption can be very precarious, so we're going to proceed with caution for now. We know that the agencies are all doing their best to advocate for the children. Depending on how much of the bottle neck clears out before we reach that stage, we're probably looking at traveling to bring her home in October or November. I'm usually saying December just to be safe :).

Anyway, while we've been waiting , waiting waiting, we've been doing, doing, doing.

I have succumbed (finally and much to the amazement of other adoptive mothers) to retail therapy. I bought some cute little hair clips and ties at the dollar store and a perfect little storage container at JoAnn's (50% off). I'm pretty sure this is just the beginning of a major hair obsession. Let's hope she's grown some since her last picture! :)

I bought this cute baby photo album and filled it with pictures of "Mommy and Daddy". We'll leave it with her when we travel for court and meet her for the first time.

We completed the toy storage things. There are actually three of these that stack (see previous post). We're trying not to stack them for as long as possible to allow the oil based paint to cure so they won't stick to each other.

I've made lots of progress on the baby blanket I'm crocheting, but took a detour to start work sewing the crib bedding. I couldn't find anything I really liked in the stores, but fell in love with this fabric...so of course I had to make it. :) I should be done in a couple of weeks, but here's a preview (modern and feminine, but not a stitch of pink in sight. I figure she'll get plenty of pink in her clothes, etc).

I also wanted to ask for some specific prayers if you have the time:

1).Pray we make it through court before the closures (Update: some agencies are reporting that the courts will close Aug 6-Sept 27th, but our agency has not gotten confirmation from the courts on this. Please keep praying that we get a court date soon...and that it is before the closure).

2). Pray that more Embassy appointments are added (Update: The Embassy is telling our agency that the reduced appointments will only be for the summer, some people have even been told directly by the Embassy that the reduction will only be for July. That may help reduce the bottleneck for Visa appointments, but they seriously need to add more if possible.

3). Pray for one of my good friends who has been waiting much longer that us and found out there is a glitch with her paperwork. (Her soon to be daughter is in the hospital and could use some prayer too)

4). ~~Pray for another close friend who is scheduled to pick up her baby girl in the next few weeks, but will get pushed back if her new INS fingerprints don't come through in time.~~ (Answered Prayer! See Her comment below- Fingerprints were located)

We thank God for this amazing journey and these amazing women whom I am lucky enough to call friends.

8 months old

Posted on : 6/14/2010 | By : Joanna

She is 8 months old tomorrow (the 15th). I'm trying to view this time passing as another month closer to her, rather than another month of her life we have missed...I said "trying". :)

I started my vaccinations last week and still have a bruise from the tetanus one.:( That one really hurt, and I said a bad word at the doctor's office. Not a good sign since I hear the Yellow Fever one is the worst. We should both be done with all of ours in the next couple of weeks.

We don't expect any news about a court dates for any of us two-trippers for two or three weeks. Trying to be patient. I don't have to like it :)

God chose her for us and the agony of waiting that we are enduring is nothing compared to what she has already been through. She is being very well taken care of . We get reports from traveling families that the babies are very loved and are picked up as soon as they cry, which is one of the reasons we chose Ethiopia
and our agency.
As far as her being chosen for us, I think left out a few not so coincidental details from her referral post.
1). The date that her birth family signed the relinquishment form was the day we were added to our agency's wait list.
2). I looked back at our calendar to see what we were doing on her birthday. We were attending a candle light vigil at our church honoring the two babies we lost...praying that God would bless us with a child. We came home and called some friends of ours (scheduled a couple of weeks prior) to discuss their recent news that they were perusing domestic adoption. We basically grilled them :) It was our first step in this amazing journey.

Missing "our" baby girl ....

For your listening pleasure: Adele- "Make You Feel my Love"

Nesting and Praying for a Court Date

Posted on : 6/08/2010 | By : Joanna

It's been about one month since we accepted the referral of our future daughter and although we've been very busy, the wait is getting very hard. People keep asking me questions like, "Aren't you excited?!". My answer is "yes", but excitement isn't really the word I'd use. Our excitement over her referral lasted only a few short moments, then my mind turned to thoughts of sadness and worry. Sadness over the pain and loss she and her birth family are going through. Worry over the transition she is facing now and will face when she comes home to us. You see, the sobering part is that I love her so much already, but I don't even know her. I've never laid eyes on her. I have never held her in my arms or kissed those chubby cheeks. Now that I know who she is, the wait is very hard. I long for her, but also realize that she has no idea who we are or that we are even coming. All I know is that God chose us for her and her for us, but I pray He unites us sooner than later.

The biggest struggle of the waiting is the uncertainty. We are part of a rule change in the Ethiopian court system and are required to travel to ET for our court date. To date, none of the families in our agency who are required to travel twice have received notice of their court dates...and some have been waiting a month longer then us. It seems that the courts and the agencies are still trying to figure out how it is all going to work. We are all trying to be patient, but with the rainy season court closures beginning in mid August, that's easier said than done.

So I'm asking for prayers again, not when you happen to think of it, but right now, please.
Write "COURT DATE" on a post it, stick it somewhere visible and...
pray for us to get a court date before the end of July whenever you see it. Getting delayed by the rainy season court closures could mean an extra two months that she would have to spend in a orphanage and I can't bear the though of that. than you in advance :)

On a more up-beat note. We did receive a surprise email with new pics the other day. She's two months older in these pictures then in her referral pics. We're happy to see that she's growing well, but sad to be missing this time with her. She is even cuter than in her first pics (if you can believe that) and even has a little smile in one of them, just what I needed to see. If you see me around, just ask...I'm more then happy to show her off.

We've been nesting :) We bought a dresser for the nursery on craig's list and painted it.

Before....

After!

We've also been working very hard on a big toy storage contraption. This is only the shell. It will have a back on it and wood across the bottom front of each row to form bins. We're going to paint it white like the dresser and may even add a bit of trim. It's 3.5ft wide and 4ft high (huge lack of storage in our little cottage). We're going to anchor them together, but each row can be used on it's own, maybe as a row of benches in a playroom down the line.

The answer to your question is "No. We cannot build one for you." :)

Again, prayer requests please:
1) Court date very soon.
2) continued good health for baby girl
3) peace and comfort for her birth family
4) healing and blessing for the people of Ethiopia and Africa.

Waiting for a Court Date

Posted on : 5/22/2010 | By : Joanna

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.

Best Birthday Gift Ever!

Posted on : 5/17/2010 | By : Joanna

It's a GIRL!!!!!!

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!

Please enjoy: Ingrid Michaelson- Everybody

Four!

Posted on : 5/06/2010 | By : Joanna

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!