The process and where we are....

Many of you have asked what the next steps are. I will try my best to explain the process from receiving a referral to bringing our child home.

                                   

 

Step 1: Our agency sends all the documents that have been gathered to show that our son is a true orphan by international standards and is adoptable. These are sent to the the Ministry of Women and Youth Affairs (MOWCYA).

Step 2: A family is issued a MOWCYA/Birth Parent court date for their case. On that date, MOWCYA is subpoenaed for an adoption recommendation letter, and a birth parent is requested to appear to give their consent for the adoption. (this will be N's Aunt )

We were assigned a MOWCYA date yesterday

for May 29th !!!!!

Step 3:  if MOWCYA writes a favorable letter (which we believe will happen the first time) a court date will be assigned within a week. These dates are usually 2-4 weeks after the MOWCYA date.

Since our MOWCYA date is at the end of this month that means we will most likely have a court date and travel to Ethiopia to meet our son around the middle to end of June!!!!

Step 4: Receive our Court Date then Fly to Ethiopia on a Jet Plane... don't know when we'll be back again,  Yes I'm know I am a dork, moving on....

Step 5: Return home while we wait for post court paperwork submission to the US Embassy. (Things like passports and court decrees- this usually takes 3-5 weeks).


Step 6: Get cleared by US Embassy in Addis Ababa and receive a VISA interview date for our son.

Step 6: Travel for the Embassy appointment and bring N home to his new forever family!!!!

If you do the math the shortest timeline would be court in Mid-June

and bring him home Mid-July.

 

The longer part would be court first of July and

 bringing him home  mid to end of August.

 

Either way we trust that God's timing is perfect and are anxiously awaiting meeting N!

We received a few more pictures that I wish I could share in their entirety but until then here is a cropped pic :)

 

           

 

Wondering what his hand is on?

          That is a trace of my hand...we are holding hands folks!

                   Miles apart but close together. 

                             I wish I could show you that beautiful grin too !!!!!!!!!!!!

 

In the next post I am going to share some of the work we intend to do while we are on our court trip and our hope for you to partner with us to bring much needed supplies to Ethiopia.