Taking a little trip to.......

ETHIOPIA!

What? 

Feel like you missed a step?

You didn't. We are still waiting on our gal's paperwork, but IT IS TIME.

Our family has been through a rougher than normal process that has made our wait somewhat abnormal. In fact, the entire process has changed since we started. Because of this change everyone now waits longer after referral to meet their child. Ugh. Then since we are experiencing a paperwork delay after our referral, we are waiting even longer (than the new long normal) to meet our gal. THEN because of the same paperwork delay, it is very likely that we won't make it to court before courts close for the rainy season (therefore automatically adding 2 more months to our timeline). So we are waiting even longer to meet our gal. Add all that time up? It is a lot of time.

The positive to the process change is that the time between court and embassy has gotten significantly shorter. The process used to be two trips. One trip for court and then 6 to 12 weeks the child would be issued a visa by embassy and cleared to go back to bring home (because now they can legally immigrate to the US). Since it is now expected to be only 2 to 5 weeks between court and embassy, I plan on staying the duration until I can bring our sweet gal home. So we had planned on four round trip plane tickets and now only need two. Quite the difference. 

Hmmmm......so add these things up? Money allocated already for adoption + a crazy wait + dying to meet my gal + another close friend in the same situation + an amazing husband and support system back home to help = ONE THRILLED LEAVING IN 2 WEEKS MAMA!

Although I've been stewing on this for awhile, this literally all unfolded in the last 12ish hours. 

This pic below can not capture the excitement and squeals as Rhonda and I sat together booking our tickets! (pardon the blurry - it was taken by a 5 year old :) 

I am hoping to find out from our agency what some of immediate needs may be so we can bring over a bunch of donations. If you'd like to help out or see a list of what might be needed, just contact me!

Please be praying as I prepare for this trip.....it's coming up fast!