It’s a Girl!
“Christy, you need to come in here,” I shouted from the computer room. I was trying not to sound bossy, but I knew this was something she needed to read.
“Please,” I added. There was an email she absolutely had to read.
Earlier in the day, I had just lamented to a friend from college that it appeared that the earliest we were going to be assigned a Court Date was early October. And that was an optimistic estimate. Our hope was to have Little Girl home by Christmas, which was appearing much more unlikely.
Which made the email I was asking Christy to read all the more surprising. It said, “We have just been informed by our staff in Ethiopia that your court case has been heard and approved! Congratulations!”
We both read the email again. Speechless.
Finally, I asked, “Is this for real? Do you think they…like…sent it to the wrong family or something?” If so, I thought, that would be a horribly cruel joke – even though it would have obviously been an accident.
Just to ease any concerns about getting a bogus email, I called our adoption agency. They confirmed that the email was, indeed, legitimate. Apparently we were a last-minute addition today. Everything happened rather quickly and there wasn’t even time to notify the home office that we were going to be included in the court hearings today. So all of us were surprised today.
I was floored.
I don’t think there’s ever been a time in my life that I’ve wanted to just run outside and shout for joy at the top of my lungs in the streets. Not even when the Colts won the Super Bowl. 🙂 But I certainly felt that way today. I didn’t. But I certainly could have.
So we’re now a family of five! There’s lots of paperwork (that we don’t have to handle), but families generally travel to Ethiopia 6-8 weeks after court approval. It appears that we’re going to Ethiopia sometime in September!!
That’s a lot earlier than Christmas.
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Um, first of all, WHERE ARE THOSE UPDATED PICTURES?? Not to be pushy or anything…
This is just incredible! As an adoptive parent, I fully understand the joy you are experiencing today! I specifically remember the day we got our updated 600 (now the 800)…we weren’t sure we were going to get it in time to travel with our group…Chinese New Year stood in the way, if not…meaning more delays…and I wanted to get to my baby BAD! We got it on Caroline’s first birthday! It was just such a God thing. I knew at that moment that everything had been orchestrated in His timing! It was awesome!
And funny that you should mention the Colts winning the Super Bowl. Guess where we were during that game? On a plane from Beijing to Guangzhou to finally meet our darling Caroline!!! We couldn’t watch the game…which was totally agonizing…but I’ll never forget getting off the plane in GZ and finding out that the Colts won!! Just hours before we met Caroline! It really was like Christmas!
I cannot wait to hear more of your story! And follow along on your journey to meet your daughter! So exciting!
BRING THAT BABY HOME!!! I am praising God for this shocking miracle. He never ceases to amaze or surprise. What a good God.
We’re working on it, Liz. We’re working on it!
😉
Congratulations!!!! We are so excited for you guys, and can’t wait to meet her!!!
Excited for your little one, too, Shannon!
Congratulations! I am so happy for you, this is amazing news!
Out of curiousity, can I ask her age and name, or are you unable/not wanting to share that info yet?
Either way, congrats on the new daughter!
I’ll be posting that publicly soon. Her name is still up for discussion. 🙂
Unfortunately, we’ve been asked by our agency to wait until she’s home with us to share pictures online 🙁 I totally understand the reasoning, but it still makes us sad.
Thanks for your comment on my blog! I think I have “chatted” with your wife some through the Yahoo group, right? It was so exciting to hear you guys had passed court and didnt’ even know you had a court date 🙂 To be honest, I wish our situation had been like that because we were so nervous! Thankfully, it all worked out.
Are you a pastor? I got that impression from your blog, but maybe you are just in ministry in another way. My husband is the Executive Pastor for our church. We are in the midst of our 2nd church plant right now – our first service is 2 weeks away!
Hopefully soon after that we’ll be flying around the world to bring home our daughter. It would be so fun to be in the same travel group! Let’s hope for travel dates soon!!
Yeah, I’m the preacher at a small church south of Muncie, IN. I used to have a bio up but I guess I took it down at one point and forgot to put it up. I also have another blog that talks about ministry-related stuff (The Tale of Anakin Redeemed), which I should probably promote more heavily from this site, too. Still trying to figure out how to make the two of them work in conjunction with each other. 🙂
Wow – so your first service is in 2 weeks and you’re in the middle of planning for a travel date? Woah! Sounds stressful. We’ll be praying for your church’s launch in addition to your adoption journey!
Christy has probably chatted with you online. I’ll ask her when she gets home tonight.