"When will you go to Ethiopia?"

This is the question we hear most often. I can tell people several times that we have no idea- probably end of May or beginning of June- but they will ask and ask again. I don't mind. I just think its funny. We have been told we will not know our travel date until about 7-10 days before travel. So that means we will not know for another 4-8 weeks depending on when our court date is.

Remember that we are assigned a court date in Ethiopia - we are not present for that court date- our representative goes to court on our behalf and if all goes well the children our legally ours at the end of the day. Then there is paperwork to be processed and we are assigned a visa appointment and that is when we travel- the visa date can be anywhere between 3 and 6 weeks after the court date. It could be -possibly even as short as 2 weeks- but the last group traveled three weeks after their court date and this next group is being told it will probably be about 4 weeks later. So, today I emailed our case manager, Tracy, to ask if she might have a court date for us soon...her first reply was:

Dear Emily,
I am in contact with our CWA representative and may have news for you, but need clarification before I tell you something in error. Watch for more tomorrow!
Hang in there!

Tracy
Ethiopia Program Director

and her second email- later this evening was:


Dear Emily,

I hope to have good news for you tomorrow! Don’t you hate suspense?
Be preparing to travel soon!
Take care and God bless,

Tracy
Ethiopia Program Director



So hopefully we will have a court date tomorrow...usually the court date is about 10-15 days out from the time you receive notice of it.

Keep us in your prayers- we have quite a bit to do to prepare for travel!