Did You Say "June 30th?"

On Friday Donovan and I received official word that Noemi’s court date is scheduled for June 30^th!  Yes, I’ll say it again…

JUNE 30^th!!! You got it, only a few weeks away. Amen and Hallelujah!

As you can imagine, our heads are spinning with gleeful anticipation.  If she passes court on the 30^th it could be as soon as 3 weeks after that we would travel to bring her home.  Yikes.  Let’s be honest, it’s not like we haven’t had time to prepare…I mean...we have been working at this whole parenthood thing for  years, folks. But last month we were under the impression that it would be fall/winter before we would be going to get her.  Based on the timelines of those before us, things were slowing down and hiccups seemed to abound.   That’s not to say that there still couldn’t be a hiccup or two or three in there for us--hiccups in the adoption world are to be expected and are like our drawn out labor pains—but we are hopeful.

IF Noemi passes court on the 30^th (meaning all of her Ethiopian paperwork is in order—something we or our agency has no control over) than she is legally ours.  At that point, we are finally allowed to release her photo!  AAI will then schedule a date with the Embassy in Ethiopia for Noemi to be issued her visa and passport to travel to the US with us.  We will fly over to be present for the Embassy appointment.  If she doesn’t pass court, another date will be scheduled for her within the next month or so.  For example, all of the families from Group L who failed court on June 8^th were rescheduled for the day before Noemi, June 29^th. 

In the mean time, Donovan and I have shifted into GIDM.  Get It Done Mode, baby.   Let’s see… we have a long list of things to accomplish in (possibly) a short amount of time:

1. Complete the bathroom renovation (that means an actual toilet must be present in the same room as the tub).

2.    Set up the nursery…paint, find furniture, make curtains out of cute yellow vintage fabric and alphabetize my children’s literature collection (just kidding).

3.    Buy necessary stuff—like diapers, clothes and butt paste.

4.    Buy a car to replace mine—the old Subaru finally died.  We’re going straight for the Mini.  Van, that is. Make fun all you want--I'll look freakin' chic. 

That’s just to name a few of the majors…

Stay tuned for soon-to-come GIDM photos of our progress!