Everyone Keeps Asking...What's Next?

Welp, we shipped off our "Parent Agreement" to AAI, saying that we agree to smother Noemi with love forever. Let's just take a second to think about how unbelievable that feels...

OK.  The next big step is our court hearing in Ethiopia.  We will be assigned a court date by our agency, hopefully, in another month or so.  The court date will likely be a few months after that.  In fact, the director of our agency told me that she hopes to get us in before the court closes for a two-month break in August.  The courts close during Ethiopia’s rainy season, so if we do not get in before that we will have to wait until October (aaaaaack!).  The court date is our actual adoption hearing.  Once we “pass” court, we will be Noemi’s legal parents.  AAI will assign us a group, whereby a number of AAI families will be heard in court on the same date.  We will not travel for this date as it often changes last minute.  A Power of Attorney will represent all of the AAI families on that day. 

In recent weeks, many families have not been passing court and have had a new, later court date assigned. As you can imagine, this has been extremely frustrating and discouraging for all of the families involved.   There are numerous reasons why a family might fail—a document is missing—something is not properly sealed, etc.  Even though all of our documents on the US side of things are in order, Ethiopian officials will need to prepare a host of things on Noemi’s end.  We have no control over that.  It is entirely out of our hands. Ethiopia is very overwhelmed with increasing number of adoptions and it can only be adding to the court struggles.

After the adoption decree is issued and we are officially Noemi’s parents, an appointment with the Embassy will be scheduled.  The appointment will be for Noemi’s visa to travel to the USA.  We will be given a few weeks warning to pack our bags and fly over the Ethiopia for that appointment; and we will stay for approximately two weeks. 

All told…

It’ll be a while before we go to Ethiopia (sigh).  As I have said before, I am not in the business of banking on dates because it can only lead to disappointment. And right now we have so much to be thankful for.  We are choosing to focus on the gift we have been given this week and pray for a speedy court date so that we can bring Noemi home.  We are going to try (try being the operative word) not to focus on timelines and the complicated process ahead, but just pray and celebrate through it!  Please continue to pray and celebrate with us!