Six Months

Six months! This last month has been by far the hardest month of waiting. We did find out a few weeks ago that we are #5 on the waitlist. So that is good news, and enough to hold us over until the next update :)

To keep busy, because three kids isn't keeping us busy enough, we are working on researching vaccinations we will need when we travel. I think a haz mat suit and a strict diet of only bottled water is the only guaranteed way of not getting sick while travelling to Ethiopia. Everything else carries its own risk it seems.

A lesson I have to keep learning

One of my favorite quotes is:

"If you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plan"

Again and again I have to learn this lesson. Just about the time I feel like I have things under control, God throws something at me I hadn't expected. So in relation to our adoption, the reason I am learning this lesson is due to changes happening in the Ethiopian court system. As it stands now, it looks like we will be required to testify in court (in person) that we want to parent the child we have been referred to. (Theoretical child at this point, no referral yet) What this means is that we would have to travel to Addis twice.. once to attend the court hearing, and once to bring him home... with about 4-6 weeks in between trips.

I'm really struggling with this because once we pass the court date, this child is legally ours. Ours. They want me to leave my child behind for strangers to care for, for weeks. One of the many many reasons we chose Ethiopia was that we would only have to travel once, meet him and bring him home. Don't give me wrong, rationally, I understand why they made this change, and it really is for the good of all international adoption. It just wasn't what I planned for.