On May 15th, 2007, our dossier left for Ethiopia. The next thing we were waiting for was the news that our case had been submitted to the Ethiopian courts. As we waited we were anxious to let our girls get a glimpse of our lives, and to visualize themselves here. So one of the things we did was print off a big picture of them, and then took pictures of our other kids holding the picture in various places around our house.
We had a great time making the pictures, and I think it helped all of us feel closer to each other during the waiting. We were also fortunate to get pictures of the girls from other traveling families. We treasured every scrap of contact that we got. And I think they did too. Here the girls are holding things that we sent them.
In early June we got the wonderful news that our case had been submitted to Ethiopian court. Our court date was June 29th. There are times when cases have to be submitted to court several times, so we were not 100% certain that the girls would be ours after that point. And there was still the little niggling fear that the courts would refuse us, and say a smaller, richer family would be better for the girls. But we just had to wait on God at that point. He’d already opened so many doors with this adoption. We knew that He could open this one as well.
At the end of June we got the wonderful news that our case had passed court and the girls were legally ours. Another week or two of waiting, and we also had a travel date. We’d be leaving to get the girls at the end of July. Now we had to figure out who was going. I’d been to Ethiopia twice already, once with Erika and once with Jared, for our other daughters’ adoptions. But my husband had never been to Ethiopia.
We really wanted for him to be able to go this time, especially since it seemed that with older kids, the more parental involvement in the whole process, the better. Problem was, our youngest daughters were only 2 and 5, and we just didn’t feel good about leaving both of them for more than a week. Finally after going round and round discussing every possibility, we decided that both John and I would travel, and bring our little girls with us. So, 2 kids on a 30 hour trip TO Ethiopia, and FOUR kids on the way back.
It was going to be an adventure.
