Packing up!

We received some very encouraging news this week! Our paper work arrived in Ethiopia and will hopefully be put on the judge's desk!  We also received news that MOWCYA (Ministry of Women's, Children's and Youth Affairs) has written us a positive letter!  WOW. God is so good!  SO what will our trip to court look like on July 30th? 

*AWWA's staff will take us to court to the waiting area.

*Sometimes all of the families go before the judge one at a time and sometimes they go together.  Just depends on the day. 

*We will go into the judges offic.

*She will ask us a series of questions such as why did you choose to adopt from Ethiopia?  What do they (your children) know about the adoption?  How do you plan to raise your child?

*We SHOULD hopefully know if we pass court that same day. 

In order TO PASS we need:

1. Birth relative to give consent (if the child being adopted has a living birth relative).

2. MOWCYA letter

3. Family giving the consent

4. Judge approving the case

If for some reason, we do NOT pass court, we do not have to reappear before the judge.  We will return home and we have to wait until the judge feels that all of the paperwork (or whatever the hold up in the case) has been taken care of. We are of course praying that we pass the first time around!

So, we are feverishly packing for the trip! We are attempting to pack as much as we can in our carry ons (which apparently now they are also weighing) and pack as many donations as we can in our checked luggage.  We are very thankful for all of those that have given donations for us to take to the orphanage.  As I mentioned before we are also traveling out of Addis Ababa to the orphanage that our son is from.  We will also be taking some donations there as well.

Meanwhile, we have also been working on getting our little guy's room ready, which meant some moving around of the furniture. We found a great deal on Craigslist for a bunk bed.  I really wanted to find a bunk bed with a full bed on the bottom. This way if we had guests (see as how both of our families are do not live near us) they would still have a place to sleep.  So, thanks to my wonderful dad and husband we now have a rebuilt and painted bunk bed in A's room.  Now that that is taken care of, we can begin painting and transforming Brandt's room!  That will definitely have to wait for a few weeks!  One step at a time.  Speaking of the bunk bed's however.  I thought I'd post a picture of just how fast time flies.  How did our little girl get so big so quickly?

Thank you so very much for your prayers!  We cannot thank you enough and tell you how appreciative we are!