WE HAVE A COURT DATE!!!

Happy Halloween everyone! We have a court date---November 30, 2009!! I just checked my email and there was the message from Tami, sent today! So excited.

Ethiopian Culture

I love to travel and I love to learn about different cultures. I am very much looking forward to our journey to Ethiopia and especially meeting our son.

I have read all the obligatory books on adopting from Africa and Ethiopia. I am now focusing my attention on books and media on Ethiopian culture. We have TiVO* and while still in the paperchasing phase of the adoption I entered the keyword "Ethiopia" into TiVO* to have it search for shows on tv relating to the keyword topic. TiVO* found several shows but two were useful.

• As strange as it sounds, Biz*arre* Fo*ods* with A*ndrew* Zi*mmern* was very informative. Of course, you get to see some of the wilder food choices in Ethiopia but the footage of the Mercato in Addis Ababa, Harar and other areas was great. They also showed a coffee ceremony and explained the process and the purpose of some of the foods involved.


• Our favorite was the Globe* Trekk*er TV show on Ethiopia. We enjoyed it so much, I went to our local library to check out the DVD series on Eastern Africa, which includes the Ethiopia show.

I am also reading a fiction book set in Ethiopia--

I haven't finished the book yet but I am enjoying it. Through the fictional story of two brothers, both surgeons, the book tells the historical and cultural story of Ethiopia.

Weighing Our Options

Matt and I have been looking at our options for traveling to Ethiopia. We have decided on two options (and possibly a third):

• British* Airways from JFK to London, overnight in London and then on to Addis Ababa. Matt is English, so this is an easy option. The only problem with BA is that their flights into Addis Ababa arrive around 2 a.m.


• Emirates*from JFK to Dubai, overnight in Dubai and then on to Addis Ababa. We like the fact that it breaks the long flight up and we have always wanted to visit Dubai.
  

We haven't really looked at the KLM* flights through Amsterdam, but I think that option is a distant third. All options are great airlines, it will probably come down to scheduling and pricing (which means Emirates* will win out).

Cyber-Stalking Court Dates

I thought completing all these house projects would keep me busy and my mind off the constant wait that accompanies international adoption. Instead, the carpenter, the carpet installers and others seem to have taken over my house and I am relegated to one room in my house whiling away the day herding dogs out of the way of the workers and spending time on my laptop reading news and adoption blogs in between taking Chloe to her activities. I just want the work to be done now so I can do laundry and clean up the mess of boxes and books dispossessed during the work (never thought I would say I wanted to do either of those things).

So, while I sit here watching the carpenter come in and out, saw and hammer, I search for court dates. I just read that a family that received their referral one month before us received their court date in early November today. Another family, who received their referral two weeks before us got a court date this week of the 2nd of November (that's earlier than the other family who got their referral before them). Point is, November court dates are being scheduled for people who received their referrals in September. That's good news.

And Now that We Have Our Referral, What's Next?

We spoke with our agency last Wednesday and discussed what comes next. In Ethiopia our dossier is being translated and placed with Oliver's file to be presented to the Ethiopian government along with medical tests that must be completed in order to bring Oliver home.

For us, we do little on the adoption front but wait for our court date. In Ethiopian adoption, a court date will be scheduled where our file and Oliver's file will be presented by an attorney, hired by our agency, who will represent us. The court declares the adoption legal and in Ethiopia we will officially be Oliver's parents. When we travel to Ethiopia to pick up Oliver we must complete the U.S. portion of the international adoption in order to have the U.S. allow Oliver admittance and recognize the adoption.

Life seems to be full ahead as we wait for our court date (we should know the date it is scheduled in a couple of weeks if not sooner). It seems unlikely we will have a November court date so I am hoping for a early December court date. In the meantime, Chloe and I went to Build-A-Bear* and Chloe picked out a bear, put in Brahm's lullaby and gave it life for her little brother to enjoy when he arrives home. I thought it was something she could do to make the adoption real for her.

Celebrating our Referral

Sorry, the photos were taken on my iPhone* so they aren't the best.

Matt was supposed to work late on Friday so we didn't expect him home for dinner. Of course, when we received "the call", he shared the good news with his co-workers and shot out the door.

Chloe had Chinese* school on Friday afternoon so I took her to art and dance. The school is an ad hoc school run by parents with children adopted from China and the NYC Chinese Cultural Center. I told Chloe she could share our good news with everyone at school. After class was over I went into the room with the other mothers and asked Chloe if she wanted to share her big news.

She started jumping up and down and yelled out with much excitement, "Barak Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize"!

WHAT?!

"No, that's the President's big news--what's your big news?" I asked.

"Oh, we got our referral for my brother in Eth-ee-pee-o-ha," she said non-chalantly, upset no one else shared her joy on the President's prize. I don't think its sunk in yet with her.

To celebrate our referral we went to eat Ethiopian food at Lalibela* Restaurant in S. Orange*, NJ. This was our first time having Ethiopian food and our waiter, Austin, was very helpful. The table of four adults next to us was so impressed that Chloe tried and ate the Ethiopian food---that's our girl.

We spent the rest of the weekend sharing the good news with friends, staring at the one photo we have of Oliver and kicking the house projects into high gear.

We will speak further with our agency this week or next and find out what's the next step in bringing home Oliver.

WE HAVE A SON!!!!

We got the call from Tami at 3:54 p.m. today that we have a son!! I was caught completely off guard. I almost didn't answer the phone as Chloe and I were playing Le*go Star*Wars on the Wii*!! Glad I picked up the phone!! Tami asked if I was having a good day and I told her I was pretty sure I was going to have a great one now! After Tami double-checked our email address to send the report and photo I asked her to send it to Matt---I then couldn't remember his email address I was so excited.

Until Oliver is officially declared our son by the Ethiopian courts we cannot post any identifying information.

Matt is on his way home and we are going for Ethiopian food tonight to celebrate.I know there are other referrals for our agency today so I am eager to hear all about them!!

160 Days Waiting

160 days can be converted to one of these units:
13,824,000 seconds
230,400 minutes
3840 hours
22 weeks (rounded down)

The time and date website is probably my most visited site on the internet. I use it to number crunch and speculate the date of our referral. When I see someone post their referral news, I go to the date/time calculator and calculate their wait time. Why I do this I don't know. Its not helping me in the wait---especially when the wait times are shorter than ours. {SIGH}

It also seems that the Ethiopia courts did not reopen this week as expected. Word on the rumor mill is that they are to open sometime the week of October 18th. People that were given court dates for the expected reopening of the court have been rescheduled to that week. Our agency told us that they didn't expect a backlog of court cases after the reopening, but they told us that that before the courts didn't open as expected. {SIGH}

In my number crunching tonight, I came to the realization that our winter break vacation we scheduled all so many, many months ago is going to have to be rescheduled. We made plans to escape the Northeast winter and head to Costa Rica in February. IF we get our referral in the next month I predict we will travel to Ethiopia in January 2010, not giving us enough time to either get a visa for Oliver to go to Costa Rica or get his green card and certainly not his certificate of U.S. citizenship and U.S. passport. I haven't rescheduled anything yet, just taking it one day at a time and checking the calendar for the school break date in March or April. {SIGH}