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.

Breathing a sigh of relief

Yesterday we found out from the nice lady at the NBC that our re-fingerprint appointment with CIS would be 10-20-10....No!!! We leave for Ethiopia on 10-15 and have our court date on 10-18 so no way we could make that appointment or want to come back from Ethiopia just to be fingerprinted. I asked the nice CIS lady if there was anything she could do to change our appointment...she said no and said that we could try talking to our local CIS (Charlotte, NC office). Devastating.  I then recontacted our local senator, contacted another senator and contacted a NC representative to see if they could help. All this time I had been playing phone tag with Kristin our caseworker with Gladney. We finally connected yesterday and she told me that we had done everything she could think of to do. She encouraged us to go to our local office and plead our case. She said that it can take 4-6 weeks for our fingerprints to get to the right place in Ethiopia, but that they could help expedite things if needed. Then Matt and I asked for everyone to pray that somehow someone would help!

So I made an appointment with the Charlotte CIS office to see what they could do. Luckily Matt and I were able to go down this morning at 8am. Both of our jobs have been so encouraging and allowed us time off. We waited our turn and told our story to the woman behind the window at CIS. She said that since the NBC took over adoptions there really was nothing they could do to help. Then she said maybe we could try asking the fingerprint office but that there was probably nothing they could do. Well I lost it and started crying and cried all the way out the building. Matt had to get directions and off we went to the fingerprint office. Once there, we talked with another kind woman and told her our situation. She told us that as soon as we get our appointment letter from CIS we could come anytime to get fingerprinted it shouldn't be a problem!! Yeah!!! So excited!! So now back to stalking our mailbox and hoping that letter comes today so we can go tomorrow and get us one step closer to Solomon.

Thank you so much for everyone who prayed for us...God definitely heard our prayers.

Frustrated...

I thought I would share what is going on. We have to get fingerprinted for the US Citizen and Immigration Services (CIS) as part of our adoption paperwork. Fingerprints are only "good" for 15 months (don't ask me why) with the CIS. Our fingerprints expire with CIS on 10/7.  So why is this a big deal...well we have to have current fingerprints in order to bring Solomon home. We leave on 10/15 for our court date in Ethiopia.

I sent a request to get an appointment to be re-fingerprinted back in August (it was back to the paperchase days of checking the mailbox every day to see if our appointment letter was here). Well we still do not have an appointment. AHHH!!!!  Last week I started getting really nervous that this was going to set us back and that we would have to come back from Ethiopia without Solomon (my plan is to stay until we bring him home). So I tried to contact our local CIS office in Charlotte to see if they could help (this is where we go to get fingerprinted)..well let me tell you that this can not be done. Their phone number is disconnected and their email no longer works. It tells you that you need to call the CIS national benefits center (NBC) or email them (having to wait 2 business days for them to respond). So I tried calling them and the person on the line didn't understand what I was talking about and told me that all adoption information needed to be sent by email to the NBC. So I emailed telling them my situation and seeing if someone could help get us an appointment to be re-fingerprinted before we left for Ethiopia. I waited my 2 days for someone to respond and this person was not very helpful...telling me I needed a SIM number for her to access my file. I don't know that I have a SIM number. So I went through all of the millions of adoption paperwork that we have to see if there was a SIM number on something..never found it.

So I remember reading about another families struggles with fingerprints and decided to contact our Senator's office as they suggested. They also told me I needed to email someone with their office (still haven't heard back from them). So I emailed the NBC again hoping for someone else to help me and a nice woman was able to tell me that our file is in the computer system and she should know our appointment time tomorrow and would we like to email her tomorrow to find out our appointment date..YES!!! (not sure why the first lady I emailed couldn't tell me this) I am so nervous. I so want an appointment before we leave for Ethiopia and there is a small chance that it could happen.  If for some reason our appointment is set for after we leave I will be calling the senators office non stop to see if they can help give us an earlier time.

So that is a lot of rambling and probably doesn't make much sense. The important thing to remember is to Please Pray that our appointment is before we leave on 10/15 and that the fingerprints make it in time to Ethiopia so that we can bring Solomon home quickly.

Happy three years

Happy Anniversary to my wonderful husband! Today we celebrate three years together as mr and mrs. I am so excited to start this next year as a family of three. I love you Matt!

One month from today we will be flying to Ethiopia...crazy!!!

Another update

We got a new update and one of the cutest pictures yet. Here is what our agency rep. had to say about him. 


S. is such a happy little guy.  I’ve probably said that before, but it bears repeating.  He’s so interactive and playful.  The slightest interaction with him brings a huge grin to his face and causes him to laugh loudly.  Today, I visited with him while he stood in his crib and kept his perch there above his little corner of Foster Care 2.  He likes to know what’s going on, so if he’s in his crib, and not playing on the floor, then most likely, he’s standing up keeping himself up-to-date on the goings on in his room.  What a delight he is! 



I am loving his little personality....Only 45 more days till we get to meet Solomon!!