First Court Date!

We FINALLY have some good news/progress to report!  We found out this morning that our first court date has been scheduled for January 14.  This is also the supposed deadline for MOWCYA to give their final letter of consent.  These two items are the last pieces of the puzzle before we can travel.  Unfortunately, MOWCYA hasn't been signing these letters over the last month or two, so we are hoping and praying that things start moving in the right direction with that.

For now, we are thankful to be taking one step closer to bringing home our kids.

Court Date Update

We heard all last week that discussions were happening about a potential court date for us.  However, after waiting each day, no first court date was ever set.  The good news is that it sounds like the judge is planning on scheduling one for us next week.  We'll believe it when we hear it's officially on the calendar.  :)

In the meantime, their room waits for them.

Week Three

Tomorrow (Monday) will be three weeks since we were submitted to court.  We were told by our agency that hopefully this week we will get a date for the first court.  However, we also need the MOWCYA letter of consent in order to get the go-ahead to travel.  Unfortunately, it seems like these final letters have been delayed to most people currently in the Ethiopian adoption process.  None of us are sure what is holding things up, but we are all praying that they get back into gear SOON.

Gratefully, we heard from a traveling family this past weekend who was picking up their children in Ethiopia.  Our kids are at the same orphanage that their children were and so this family not only spent time with our kids but also took pictures and even a video!  We have been blessed to get little video snippets along the way, but it is still always thrilling to see news ones of them moving around.   We watch them over and over, gazing at their little faces and observing all their slight actions.  (In this video they were blowing bubbles.) :)

It breaks our hearts to have watched them grow up in pictures for almost a year now, but these updates from other families have always been an encouragement to us.  We are thankful for each of them (there are many) who took the time to take photos and videos, play with them, hug them, deliver gifts and pray over them.  We are trusting God that He is comforting their hearts and keeping them safe until we can bring them home.

Waiting Again

I know my last post was so enthusiastic about the future and potential travel and how things would be moving along for us.  Well, as we anticipated, we are waiting again for things to move in Ethiopia.

Currently, all of our paperwork has been submitted to court. Everything is correct.  Everything is up to date.  It's sitting on someones desk.  This is the kind of thing that makes me want to rip my hair out.  For the previous several years, when someone gets to this point in the process, there typically has been somewhat of a predictable timeline.  (I outlined this in my previous post.)  Once submitted to court, a family usually hears about their first court date within a week or so.  We are on day 12 of not knowing anything.  I've heard from some people with other agencies who are also stalled at this point.  And unfortunately, as with so many times before, there is no end in sight or idea of how or when we might progress.  It seems like it's a matter of when the proper authorities just make up their mind that they want to move our case forward.

So our nightly prayers are for the person who has control of our file - that they are moved by the Spirit of God to process our case.  Please continue to pray specifically for this for us.

In the meantime, we are in full swing basketball season at our house.  Which means faithful practice and playing. . . even in the snow!