We have confirmed that our sweet girl was moved to our agency's transition home shortly after our referral!! This is not standard procedure, usually the children don't get moved until after a preliminary court date. Thank-you SO much to all of our friends and family who continue to pray for her. This brings some peace to my heart knowing that she is being properly cared for.
We've received three new pictures of her since our referral. Oh, how I wish I could share them with you!!! Unfortunately we can't post pictures or share her name online until we pass court. Suffice it to say that she is beautiful and precious and I've studied every pixel of her precious face to no end!
The next exciting news is that our case was submitted to the Ethiopian courts on December 7!! Now we wait to hear when the preliminary court date will take place. After that we will be assigned our actual court date where we will appear before the Ethiopian judge and (hopefully) be declared her parents! Unfortunately the journey does not end there. We will have to return home while the U.S. Embassy finishes making things official on their end. Then we get to go back and get her. Ugh. SO hard to wait. I literally feel like part of myself is a world away. I have never felt this way before! I can't concentrate. My mind is constantly distracted by the fact that I have a daughter...in Africa...and this wait to bring her home is just plain hard.
We did hear from another family who was at our agency's transition home last week. They were able to find our sweet girl and spend some time with her! Their report was that she was very quiet and likes to observe. Just like her mommy (until you get to know me :)).
So...we continue to wait for our travel dates. I'm torn between the excitement of finally meeting our daughter and the sadness of knowing that a few days later I'm going to have to leave her. Who makes up this lame system anyway?? I'm not thrilled about leaving my three boys either. It's going to be a messy couple of months. So much joy mixed with so much sadness.
I'll leave you with a bit of precious brotherly love...
The other night Caleb asked me for a picture of her and later I found this hanging below it on his bulletin board. I love that he is already concerned for her and writing words of comfort. I will take those words of comfort too...I may be weeping now, but this too shall pass. Someday this painful part of our journey will be a distant memory and she'll be in my arms.
