Adoption Update and a Sweet, Sandy, Sleepy little boy!

We were hoping and praying that our case would be submitted to court this week after scanning and emailing our dossier to our agency who then emailed it to Ethiopia. It was going to be our “place holder” to get a date while our originals get authenticated and then head across the ocean via snail mail. Unfortunately Ethiopian internet isn’t American internet, and despite me re-scanning the whole thing to make the files as small as possible, the files were still too big for them to open in Ethiopia. The good news is that our agency thought ahead to that possibility and mailed off our copies earlier this week. We’re told they should arrive in Ethiopia next week sometime and then the whole thing has to be translated (over 60 pages of documents) and that takes about 1 1/2 weeks. Then, and only then, can we be submitted to court. Soooo – that means that best case scenario we’ll get submitted to court in 2-3 weeks… early Julyish. Yes I was enormously disappointed and yes I cried a little. But I also can rest knowing that I did everything as fast as humanly possible and that our agency is bending over backwards to do everything as fast as they can on their end too.

Why am I panicking over a few little weeks? Because court closes in Ethiopia for August and September and if we don’t get into court by then we have to wait until October… that’s agony. To be honest, there is a minuscule chance that we’ll make it. It is far more likely that we’ll get a date in October. It will take a miracle to get us a date in late July or early August. I just so happen to believe in miracles. ; ) Will you pray with us that we get a miracle and we get to fly over the ocean to meet our baby girl in the next 6 weeks? I’m ACHING to hold her in my arms!!

Speaking of flying across the ocean… did you know that we’re fully funded EXCEPT for our travel costs? Yes!! I’m amazed! But we still need $5,000 per trip – that’s $10,000 total. That’s a big number to me but not to God. So will you also pray for us that we would raise every cent needed in time for our trips? If you’d like to share our story and perhaps even be a part of the story yourself you can share this link: http://www.acharityproject.com/f/BringHomeBabyGirlCasper with ALL your friends and family! We set up a HOPE page for our little girl and would love to see you all blow it up!!

AND we also are set up as affiliates with Ordinary Hero! We’re in the middle of a grant contest and you could help us win! If you check my name during checkout after selected awesome items to purchase we receive 40% of the sales for our adoption AND if we’re one of the top 3 sellers this week we win $500 toward our adoption! You can get some awesome gear — there’s tons of cute shirts, bracelets, totes, and MORE! My favorite is the livestock. You can buy a goat or sheep for a family in Ethiopia and we’ll get 40% of the money you pay and a family in Africa gets an enormous blessing. Pretty much a win-win! Oh, and if you spend $50 you get a FREE tote… spend $75 and you get a free picture frame! So head on over to Ordinary Hero to get some great things and don’t forget to check my name so we can win that grant!! Grant contest ends Saturday!

Mareto and I have been spending lots of time at the beach this week to get Mama’s mind off waiting for a court date and to have quality fun time with my little boy. He is such a blessing and is going to be an amazing big brother!!!

on the way home…