Enjoying the Wait- adoption update ;-)

Well we have officially been "waiting" now for two weeks. It feels good! We had some time and decided to go ahead and put up the crib. Yes, it's a bit premature, but we wanted Lucas to get used to looking at it and it's much prettier assembled than in a big ugly box.

Here are a few photos of the assembly and our finished product.







This is the view of both of the cribs in the room.. but the lighting wasn't working out too awesome for me..



So here are some more details about where we are at with the Ethiopia process...

I spent the past two weeks working on grant applications. We have finished the last one and it is ready to go on its way to be reviewed. We are praying that the grant organizations we have applied for will prayerfully consider helping us in the financial aspects of this endeavor. PLEASE PRAY :-) We don't expect to hear anything from them for awhile.. because most grant organizations review these things quarterly.

We are currently in the mid 20's in terms of the wait for referral. There were over 50 referrals in the month of March! Because there were so many, we were told to not expect a whole bunch this month (April) and May as the children are "legally abandoned" in batches by the Ethiopian court. There have been 3 referrals in the past week or so. If I were to estimate.. I would think that we would have some news late in May or perhaps June... but in the world of adoption one never knows. Another giant batch might give us something to talk about sooner than we think!

It is different than when we were waiting for Lucas, in that this time we will be getting "the call" that so many adoptive families are referring to. Although we do not have an assigned "buddy couple" this time, the Wagners from our FANA group have remained faithful in their moral support from all the way up in Minnesota! With this adoption, we will receive a referral and will be prepared for court at that time. We expect there to be about 2 months from our referral to the first court date. At this time, we expect that we will both have to travel to Ethiopia for the first court date. Once we pass court, we will be assigned a visa appointment where I will return by myself to take custody and bring baby home. We expect that to happen sometime this fall.

As you can see, there are pros and cons to both situations. With Lucas we were able to travel right away.. we just had no idea when we would be coming back. Ethiopia trips are shorter, but the process from referral to bringing baby home is much longer. I suppose all siblings are different with different pregnancies... so here is my adoptive parent equivalent :-)

I am part of the Holt International Yahoo Group... which is where we crazy waiting moms get together and track each others processes. Very similar to what I was doing during happy hour with the ladies from the FANA waiting mom's group 2 years ago at this time! It's funny how things are different. Right now, I just need to train myself to not check my email 20 times a day because I want to see who is getting referrals!!!! Really, it's hard. Even right now I want to check it!

That is all the news I have for now.. that we've moved from #26 at least 3 spots in the past week or so.. anxiously.. but not too anxiously.. waiting to see what will happen in the next month. It's exciting :-)