We have a date!!

We are scheduled to have court April 11!

We are NOT there for court. Our agency representative takes our place and we pray that all the paperwork will be okay and our case passes. Then we will get to pick up the kids 2 or 3 (or more) weeks later.

April 11 seems kind of far away. In reality its just 3.5 weeks away. Not that I'm already counting...off to change the Lilypie counter..

News from afar

Today I got a surprise email from Erica, a mom in Ethiopia. She sent me PICTURES of my kids!! I was thrilled! Two pictures of each kiddo. Our son already looks so different from the only picture we have. His cheeks are so squeezy...I can't wait to see him. Our daughter is smiling a gorgeous smile.

I pulled the three kids to the computer so they could see our gems. Everett's first reaction to his sister's photos?

"She looks like a boy in this picture." This sounds awful, he wasn't upset or nasty, just commenting.

I covered her recently shaved trimmed hair, allowing only her face to show. Then he replied, "Well, she's going to have to wear a bow or something. Maybe if she wasn't wearing that blue t-shirt..."

Picky, picky. This from the kid who idolizes pirate/colonial/grunge garb and teases his hair.

Our baby boy's pictures got an "awwww" from all parties present. But, oh, they are both so cute. I can't wait to share pictures of them with all of you!

Shortly after that wonderful surprise, Mel posted these tidbits...
Your little girl is just adorable and loves loves loves to have her picture taken!! She will smile ear to ear for you to take her picture and then say "Look, Look" so you will show her the picture!! Adorable!! Your son just never stops smiling and is the cutest little guy with the best belly laugh!!! He is so very happy!!

The families over there have been in our shoes and I am SO thankful that they understand how much the news and the pictures mean. Thank you Erica and Mel!

What now?

To avoid confusion among my family and friends who aren't sure of how things progress from here...

1. Right now we are expecting a FedEx (you know how I love those guys) package from AWAA. This will include a hard copy of everything Duni emailed us. Also included are acceptance forms that we will sign and send back (along with a large sum of money).

2. Girmachew, our rep in Ethiopia, will submit our paperwork to the Ethiopian courts requesting a court date.

3. Several weeks from now (hopefully) we have a successful day in court. Seth and I are NOT in Ethiopia for this. We have given power-of-attorney to Girmachew to represent us in court. On this day our kids become officially OURS. This is the day that I can plaster their cutie faces all over this blog. Betcha can't wait!

4. Girmachew requests an appointment at the American Embassy for us to get our kids visas. This determines the day we travel. This will usually fall 3-4 weeks after court.

5. We go to Ethiopia, pick up our kids, do the Embassy thing and come home. We will probably be in Ethiopia for about a week.

I'm making this seem far more simple than it is. Things can go wrong, things do go wrong, paperwork is tricky sometimes. So, we need your prayers that all pieces of the paperwork fall into the right hands in a timely manner.

FINALLY!!

We got the call...sort of. Duni called to get me to stop pestering her ease my anxiety. I'm anxious? I guess I may have communicated a bit of anxiety in an email to her. She's so nice to call and reassure me that all is going along. She said we are waiting on our daughter's bloodwork results to be processed in Germany. Gulp. Daughter? But she has the complete information on our son. Double gulp. Our son?! She offers to email me his information along with a picture, would I like that--to hold me over until she can call with our complete referral.

Would I like that? No, I'd love that! I hang up the phone, in the dumb fashion I did the last time I talked to her. Didn't ask if the kiddos were together, didn't ask ages, names, if they are in the transition home. Just weeped my thanks and hung up. I'm still a bumbling mess of emotions.

Then I started yelping and jumping up and down. The kids weren't as startled as I would have expected. I was yelling, "A picture! A picture!!" Sobbing. So excited. They looked at me nonchalantly, and Everett said, "A picture?" Where have they been the past 9 months?!

I called Seth and managed to squeak out, "Everything...is...okay. Duni called." I gave him the news, and he was happy. Happy? Evidently, he is uncomfortable expressing emotion in his office. He called me back 5 minutes later from the bathroom. From there he was quite excited.

So, we got one precious picture in an email. I looked at the message and asked the kids if we should wait to download the picture until daddy gets home and look at it together. They voted 2:1 against waiting for daddy. I was relieved, because I would have had to take a peek if the vote would have gone otherwise. Then they screamed about how cute he is and I wept a bit more.

So there you have it, sort of. I hope to give you GREAT news about our girlie in the next week or so.