JUNE NUMBER-with UNCERTANTY..........

Ok Folks-we are now letting Noah who is 6 (for another week) do the honors this time-So we have our JUNE number and yes, it has moved, but we just can't know exactly how much! So OFFICIALLY we are number 6! BUT, (through sources that I know about) we KNOW for sure that we are AT LEAST number 4!! A referral went out to our friends a couple days ago, AND another family above us-we just found out, have older age parameters than we do-they want older than 12months and our parameters are 0-12 months.....so with those two taken off, we are FOUR!!

We don't know who the official numbers #1, #2, and #5 are on the list as they are not part of our All God's Children listserve group-so it is really hard to know, but if either #1 or #2 or BOTH got their referral this week or last-we could even be as low as number two best case!!!! TWO-that would be so crazy!
We wouldn't know if families #1 or #2 got their referral yet, as our agency won't count a referral until it officially is accepted with ALL paperwork turned in, and that takes several days from them getting their referral to it being "official" on our agency's official list. Whew hope you get this all! It is hard enough for us to follow, let alone people that aren't on this roller coaster ride! For those of you that want to understand the process after referral-keep reading- :-) It is LONG, but worth it to understand the process of what the next steps will be, how the 2 trips are going to work and how we are feeling at this point-I know it will be somewhat boring, but ya know-you will learn something! Right- :-) I want this to be my journal for her to read when she is older-so just bear with me!
Another tid-bit that we got this week was a look at our time frames (not the best news so far). So here is what we are tentatively looking at:
First Step: We receive and (within hopefully 3 days-if not for sure 7 days) OFFICIALLY accept our referral!

Second Step: The birth certificate of the baby and ALL her paperwork has to be in the Ethiopian court and when that happens -usually within 4-6 weeks of officially accepting our referral, the BIRTH FAMILY will appear in court in Addis Ababa. (keep in mind that if ANY paperwork is missing, or the family member that is representing the baby can't make it for some reason-which happens a lot), court will have to be rescheduled which usually occurs anywhere from about 1-4 weeks). They say we have about a 50% chance of passing court the first time-so we will need lots of prayer during this time!

Third Step: (this new rule JUST came out the first week in June from the Ethiopian government-and we are all just going with the flow-although not much fun) So, from Officially accepting OUR referral-OUR court appointment (along with the birth families) will ALSO be scheduled-this will be our FIRST travel time....this usually as a guess will happen about 2-3 weeks AFTER the birth family appointment happen-we travel for OUR court date. They make the appointments in the book for both the birth family and ours at the same time-soon after referral, but they make them for DIFFERENT weeks as the USA really has a thing about us meeting the birth family BEFORE we have officially passed court (they are worried about criminal bribery and such) so they are putting a stop to that and giving us DIFFERENT court dates now. We also may not for some reason pass court, but I think our chances are better than the birth families-our thing would be if a paper didn't show up to the court in time, etc.

This means unfortunately that we WON'T be able to meet the birth family on the first trip-as we will now have different court dates that are 2-3 weeks apart, however, we still have a CHANCE to MAYBE meet them on our last trip when we pick up our baby-as the orphanage tries to do everything they can to get them to Addis again to see us. We would love this opportunity-for our daughter especially-to be able to get video and pictures and ask the family some questions-it will rip my heart out, but would be amazingly awesome! We will however stay in Addis Ababa for about 5 days on this FIRST trip, visit the orphanage a lot and hold and see our daughter-we can't take her out of the orphanage, but we can spend a lot of time there-we also hope to go out and see some of the city-possibly her birth region, I would love to tour the Fistula Hospital as well as the Leprosy one...where people that had leprosy came to live and they make tons of things to sell and receive some care and treatment. We would love to just get out of the city and see whatever we can. I figure if we HAVE to go to Africa TWICE in just a few weeks time, we might as well see whatever we can. :-)

Now I have NO IDEA how I will possibly turn around and leave my baby there (who after we pass court and the birth family also does) in Ethiopia's eyes, that baby will be LEGALLY ours!!! But, we won't have her VISA or Passport ready, so we have to leave her and come back home. As I think of this, it reminds me of the fact that that is what one of her family members had to do, take her to an orphanage (not All God's Children-as they don't accept orphans off the street-they go to another one first) and leave her there-how can a person have to make this choice?! It kills my heart to think of it, as it kills me to think of leaving her and flying 13,000 + miles home! But I know I don't have a choice and we HAVE to do it-so we will!

Fourth Step: Ok-so now we come down to the moment we have waited for for over a year and a half-we will fly out to get her and bring her home approximately 4-6 weeks after OUR court appointment-assuming once again that both us and the birth family have passed court by this point. As soon as we have both passed and her birth certificate and ALL the rest of the paperwork is at the US Embassy in Addis, we will get that wanted Embassy Date. During this 4-6 week period, her VISA and Passport will be getting made and ready to go. This is why it takes 4-6 weeks-these are the two things we are waiting for.

Ok, well that is the process-long and boring for most people but it is what we are thinking about CONSTANTLY these days. So, time frame from REFERRAL to ACTUALLY GETTING HER HOME HERE-IS ABOUT 3-4 MONTHS. OUCH-THAT HAS INCREASED DUE TO THIS 2 TRIP POLICY! But, we are trying to keep the bright side in perspective. Here are some things that we know and are staying (as much as humanly possible) grounded in:

~God is in TOTAL control of this entire process and is orchestrating each and every movement and time frame that He needs to to get us to this baby and we rest in this!

~Each and every delay we have seen and will see we have to just know that it is just another step in this journey which we have taken ONE step at time on the path of adoption. Each corner that we can't see around, God already does and He isn't surprised at all at what is coming. Knowing He isn't surprised at all is what keeps us going-we have to trust in Him that he will finish what He started in this family and in our lives, as well as baby Abigail's little life.

~He has HAND PICKED her for us-that in itself is the miracle of all of this and we hold onto that as well.

I just have to share that, I was thinking about the annual Tulip Festival at the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm in Woodburn Oregon http://www.woodenshoe.com/ that we have been to. While in bloom during their festivals you can see acres and acres of bloomed tulips and it is stunningly beautiful! There has to be thousands and thousands of flowers in bloom. This may sound Corny, but I do believe that just like the thousand and thousand of tulips that are in bloom in those fields, there are thousands and thousands of kids that need to be adopted and God is going to walk amongst them and "pick" the our baby that is just right and the perfect one for just our family. The one that from before time was made, He KNEW that she would be made to be with us-That in itself is just incredible and there are just not many words to describe it more.

Please continue to pray for us on this journey-these next few months and weeks will be trying and hard, we are tired physically and emotionally raw from the wait. Our emotions are like a roller coaster-they do go up and down, high and low and I think our heads KNOW that God is walking this road and has ordained everything, but then our hearts jump out and we loose sight for moments each day as we continue to wait. We won't lie-it is HARD, it is like NOTHING that we have EVER experienced before, but at the same time, it is SO very worth it, and the blessing have come over and over as we see people give, see and feel their support and meet some of the most amazing friends on this same journey with us-we know without a doubt we are blessed.

Our agency has been great and we know that ALL of this is new to them as this new 2 trip policy hasn't even had their first families travel under it yet and they won't until the first trip under the 2 trip policy leaves for their first trip at the end of June and their 2nd trip sometime in July-this will be the first time that we really know what to expect! We will most likely be one of the first few trips to travel under this policy.


Another thing we all have to keep in mind is that in Ethiopia-their courts typically close for our months of August and September-so, this will be another hurdle to get over-unless both the birth family AND us can BOTH pass court before it closes, we will be sitting here waiting for 2 months with nothing to do, but know that she is at Hannah's Hope getting older and we are here. There is a good chance we hope that the government will stay open into or through August at least as they have just changed all of this and probably have SO much work to do (they stayed open much of August last year which surprised everyone). Also, since Rwanda just began adopting out kids, and they are using Ethiopians court system for all of their adoptions, it has probably bogged the system down in Ethiopia's courts lately.

So, if we get our referral by the first week in July, and they keep the court open in Aug, there is a chance that both the birth family and us would get through court in Aug. and be done. We can travel to pick her up sometime in Sept / Oct and go to the Embassy at ANY time as they are not affected by the court closure and stay open year round-so as long as those first 2 court dates are done, we are good to fly and bring her home once her visa / passport is ready. We are really now just wanting her home by Christmas, but are hoping by prayer and some miracles that we can have her here much sooner.
So things to specifically pray for:


*That we get our referral soon!

*That the courts stay open longer-at least through August

*For her birth family as they get ready or already have relinquished her-that they will find comfort and be drawn close to God, who will give them peace.


*For our caseworkers and the workers in Ethiopia that they will have the resources they need when they need them and be able to accomplish a lot.

*For our emotions and patience that they will be stronger and that we will have peace!

I know this has been long-but I hope that it answers a lot of peoples questions about the process, where we are and the whole two trip thing!

Love to ya all! Adam and Amber