Update on travel timeline

We listened to our agency's latest "webinar" tonight and learned that we can expect the following timeline:
-Court date 3-6 weeks after referral (That would be anytime in April for us.)
-Travel 4-5 months after referral (That's July or August!)
As usual, nothing is ever set in stone or highly predictable in the adoption process, but we were excited to hear that these time lines are shorter than what our specialist told us last week (6-8 wks till court, 6 months till embassy date).
They also said that it sounds like the new rule about families traveling twice might be postponed for the moment. We had heard rumors that it was supposed to go into effect April 9, but the court staff in Ethiopia still hasn't met to discuss logistics, so our agency's Ethiopia Program director doesn't see how it could happen that quickly. Nonetheless we're poised to travel if it does suddenly go into effect. We'll keep you posted.

Books to familiarize children with adoption

We've been asking around, and the following books keep coming up as good books for you to read to your kids (adopted or biological) so when suddenly K & I have a son they'll sort of know how that happened.
Over the Moon by Karen Katz
A Mother for Choco by Keiko Kasza
Owen and Mzee by Isabella Hatkoff (our favorite!)
The Family Book by Todd Parr
Motherbridge of Love by Xinran and Josee Massee
We Belong Together by Todd Parr

Updates on the court - travel situation

Our agency has no news for us yet on whether we'll be traveling for A's court date, but I found another agency that updates its clients on the latest rumors. We'll all ingest this info with a grain of salt, but enjoy the flavor of having something to nibble on till we get more news. http://www.bethany.org/blogs/ethiopiablog.nsf Once you click that link, scroll down to see the posts on the court situation.

The egg is walking!

Dear friends and family:

We are THRILLED to announce that we have a SON! On this blog we'll call him A. He was born August 18, 2008. He is healthy and we think he’s perfect! Our agency called on Monday, March 15, 2010, to give us the referral and we had to wait until our pediatrician looked over the paperwork and approved it before we could accept. We officially accepted by phone on Thursday, March 18, and signed off on the acceptance paperwork on Friday the 19th. Everything is in order now and it’s official. We’re so glad to share our joy with you!

Here’s what happens next. In a month or so we’ll be assigned a court day for about 6-8 weeks after referral. Right now our agency is not sure whether we will need to travel over there for that or not. I would be thrilled to do so, but it’s up in the air for the moment. Then, if we pass court, he becomes legally our son and his paperwork gets filed for an Embassy appointment. It has been taking about 4 months between court date and embassy date, so we’re estimating a May court date and a September embassy date, but you all know how adoption timelines go. The good news is that our agency doesn’t have a long backlog of families waiting for embassy appointments now, so this might be one of the few cases where things actually could move faster than expected – if we’re really lucky!

Unfortunately, we are not allowed to share A’s photograph electronically before the court date. We look forward to sharing plenty of photos after we return from his court date. In the meantime, trust me: we’ll be carrying it around his referral photo with us EVERYWHERE.

We’re thrilled to share this news with all of you. Thank you for your support throughout this long process, and for celebrating this amazing milestone with us!