Finally an Update!!!!!

Hey Everyone,

I know it has been along time since I have updated, but really there has been little news to share. We waited, we waited, and we waited. We updated our homestudy and changed our age range on February 26th from 0-3 to 0-4 years (since Bailey was now a year older). And a weak later there was news . . . BIG NEWS! We officially received a referral on March 5th, 2010. Our social worker called me at school during my 4th hour "prep hour." The world literally dropped below my feet and started to spin as she shared with me all of the information concerning a 4 1/2 year old little boy.

He is fairly healthy, with a few minor medical issues, but nothing serious - common sort of issues for children in Ethiopia. *Note - I have to be very careful on what information I share publically (blog, email, etc). We had his medical records reviewed by our local pediatrician. We also had some additional questions which we sent over to be answered by Ethiopian staff and doctors. It took exactly two weeks to finally get all of the information we needed to make this big decision. Yesterday, (March 19th) we finally received the final answers to all of our questions. We then (yesterday) sent off a formal acceptance email - stating that we would love to have this 4 1/2 year old boy join our family.

Our social worker got right back to us with all of the acceptance paperwork we needed to sign and send off. We spent last night celebrating and signing paperwork. We faxed off the forms this morning and sent off the second set via mail (they will arrive on Monday). Once our agency gets our paperwork, they will set-up the court date in Ethiopia.

Due to a new Ethiopian law, adoptive parents are now required to make two trips to Ethiopia. On our first trip, we will attend court along with the birth family. Custody will be transfered from the birth family to us. Based on current "court date trends" we are expecting to travel sometime in May.

As soon as we hear, we will let everyone know what our tentative travel plans are. Court dates get changed often and/or canceled. Thus, we will get a tentative date, but it will not become official until one week prior to the date.

I will continue to update with new information.

Scott, Katrina and Bailey