Leaving!!!!

We are really doing this!! We leave in about an hour for the airport in Charlotte. We fly to Munich then Frankfurt (where we meet up with the Lovin family) and then to Ethiopia!! AHHH!! So happy. We meet Solomon for the first time on Monday. Tuesday is our court date. After that we head to Awassa Solomon's birthplace to see where he is from. Then we take placement of him on October 25th. Matt leaves the 27th :( Then we wait to find out when we get our Embassy appointment so we can come home.

We Passed

It's official!!! We found out today around 4:20ish that we passed and are set to leave on Friday!! Lots to do...I can't wait.

And the waiting continues..

So our caseworker was not able to get in touch with our in country worker (Belay) to find out if anything happened with our case today or not. Hopefully we will find out tomorrow....I feel like I keep saying this. I am so ready to celebrate that we are leaving FRIDAY.

Bummed

So we found out today that the person who needed to make our case official did not show up. So our case has been postponed until Tuesday. Not the news I wanted to hear. Apparently there are no issues with our case they just have not made it official that we passed.

Our court date

So today was our first court date. I received the call around 12 EST from our caseworker. Solomon's mother did show up and relinquish her rights. The judge did not officially rule in our case but that is supposed to happen tomorrow. Our caseworker said that he is being a little slow about making things official and she seemed to think that everything would work out and that we would be able to travel as planned next Friday. NEXT FRIDAY!! AHHHH!!  I can't believe that our time is now here! We should get placement of him on October 25th!!!!!!!

Anyone who wants me to take pictures I would be happy to. Just send me an email at lmt3195 at yahoo dot com

Last week Matt and I spent a whole week at Emerald Isle Beach with our families (my in-laws, brother (not pictured), sister, niece, brother-in-law, my parents and brother-in laws parents).

We had a great time even though it rained for 80% of our time there due to some tropical storm.  So I had lots of time to relax. I read two books and got lots of sleep (things I know that will be hard to come by in a couple of weeks).

While we were on vacation we got our CIS appointment letter in the mail. So yesterday we went down to Charlotte and were able to get our fingerprints taken!! Such a huge weight is lifted off of my shoulders. I contacted a senator to see if they could expedite our fingerprints to make sure they are in Ethiopia when they need to be. The updated fingerprints have to be in Ethiopia in order for us to bring Solomon home. They usually take 4-6 weeks to arrive once they are taken, so hopefully they will be there in time.

Next up is our first court date. It is scheduled for 10/7/10. As it is scheduled in Ethiopia, a ruling will be made while we are sleeping (hopefully). MOWA (ministry of women's affairs) has to declare that Solomon is legally up for adoption and that all of our paperwork is in order so that we can adopt him. Please keep us in your prayers

1. Pray that MOWA will actually meet and give us a positive ruling so that we can travel over as planned on 10/15
2. Pray for Solomon's mom. She has to relinquish her parental rights and I can't imagine the emotions that she will be going through. Pray that God will give her peace and comfort her.

We probably will not find out how MOWA ruled on our case until late afternoon at the earliest. I will keep you posted.