We've seen her, we're smitten...now what?

What happens next?  The question I hear (and love answering!) at least a couple times each day.  The answer is, again, we wait!

Our paperwork is all ready to go, it just needs to be translated into Amharic (the predominant language in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia).  Then we get submitted to court and wait to be assigned a court date.  (This may actually have already happened...the agency is getting confirmation.)  Right now the court dates going out are for the end of December, so we're hoping for January.  (Ethiopia celebrates Christmas on January 7th this year...how amazing would it be to be there for that??!)  If I had to guess though, I'd say it's more likely to be end of January/beginning of February.

So we'll travel over for Ethiopian court...get to spend lots of time getting to know our little lady in the orphanage and hopefully take a little extra time to see some of the amazing country she's from as well.  On this trip we also hope to meet her birth mother, which makes me a little teary just thinking about her heart through all of this.

Then we say goodbye and head back home without our little girl,which makes me a little teary thinking about my heart through all of this.  The US embassy will then investigate our case and once they give their clearance and issue her Visa we can head back over again to bring her back to her new home.  This can take anywhere from 6 weeks to 4+ months...but it's definitely going to be on the shorter end of the spectrum, right??!

There's still a lot that can go amiss between now and that super long plane ride home with our baby girl...so please pray for a smooth process with as few bumps in the road as possible.  Will let you know when we have news of a court date!