Paperwork, and Plane Tickets, and Praise OH MY!!!

WE ARE GOING TO ETHIOPIA!!! Yep, that's right - we got a court date! After our referral on 10/10, I really thought that we were done with such amazing news for this month. They prepare you that it could take more than 6 weeks to gather all the paperwork, get it to the Ethiopian Courts and then wait for them to issue you a court date. We got a court date in 2.5 weeks. To say that I was shocked...would be an understatement.

So, WE GET TO GO AND MEET OUR GIRL! I am so excited. I think I cried more over the court date phone call than the referral call. The fact that I am going to see her, going to get to hold her, going to go before a judge to declare my intent to make her my own, makes her seem so real to me. Even more so than seeing her picture for the first time. I can't wait to hold that little girl in my arms.

So, we have plane tickets purchased and are starting to make our plans to travel. There are lots of phone calls, planning, purchasing, etc. that needs to happen before we travel, as well as making a plan for my sweet little kids that I am leaving in the hands of dear friends here. Really my list goes on and on, but I am daily giving it the Lord's hand, and asking him to please work out all the details. He has been so faithful to do so thus far, and I trust that He will continue to do so.

So, what will it look like when we get there? We have an itinerary for each day that includes such things as cultural dinners, shopping in the market place, etc., but the majority of our time will be spent just loving on and cherishing the moments that we get to go to Hannah's Hope to hold our baby, and love on and play with all the other kids there. Oh, my heart aches at the thought of it. We will have a day of court where we go before the judge to answer questions about ourselves and declare officially our desire to adopt R.

and then...we have to leave her. I know this will break my heart, I know that I probably will be a wreck until I get to go back to her, I know that I will carry my phone around like crazy waiting for the news that we get to go back. I also know that she is in good hands at the Transition Home in Ethiopia - those special mothers really do care for those little ones well, and I know and trust that she is in the even better and tender hands of her Heavenly Father, whose timing will be perfect and whose care for her will be much better than even mine.