Life after “The Call” and What’s Next

Whew! What a week! My feet are definitely still ten feet off the ground! I had been told that all the waiting would melt into the background once we saw their faces but I wasn’t so sure I believed it, especially toward the end. Well, it's true. All the waiting seems like nothing now and these beautiful little boys were worth every single second! I also have to thank God that Gladney asked us to increase our age range and that we had the presence of mind to say yes. It is so hard to have blind faith sometimes but amazing to see it all coming together now. These boys could not be more perfect for our family!

This past week was one of the happiest weeks of my entire life but in some ways it was also one of the hardest. Not only was I away from home but the meetings that I had to attend started very early in the morning and ended after dinner. I had little time to myself and the work was intense, requiring my concentration, so when email after email after comment after facebook message after phone call kept pouring in, all I could do was try to ignore this explosion of love and happiness and hold in the tears of joy that kept threatening to spill forth in the most inappropriate of settings!

I have finally caught up on all your messages and let me say now what I couldn’t say then:

Thank you all so very much for your kind words and well wishes! Your happiness for us has heightened our joy and we appreciate it so very much!

If I haven't responded to you individually, please forgive me and just know that your support means so much to us.

On Friday night Mark and I made up for lost time by celebrating with a vengeance. We plastered 8 X 10 printouts of the boys to the fridge. We drank champagne. We cried tears of joy and also tears of sorrow for all that our boys and their birth family have been through. We talked excitedly and incessantly about how amazing and beautiful and amazing and beautiful these boys are. We cooked and ate more of this…

Mesir Wat

And this…

Yetakelt W'et

Yesterday we did a little shopping. More tears of joy happened in the parking lots of Baby Gap and Toys-R-Us as the realization that we finally knew who we were shopping for hit me square in the chest! We are excited to be sending care packages to Ethiopia in a couple days with our wait list buddies, Beka and Mika. Also traveling this week are Rebecca and Corrie and Jess. Everyone promises to snap a few pictures and dole out some love to our little ones! I have spent many, many months on the wait list with these ladies and, in spite of my delayed graduation, I think of them as my graduating class since most of us went on the wait list around the same time. Though I have never met them in person, we have shared so much that I feel I know them and they me. I am grateful to have these women in my life and so excited for them to meet the twins and to bring their own children home!!

Here’s what we wish we could send to the boys…

But no one had enough room in their suitcase, ha! So here’s what we narrowed it down to…

Going with Mika are matching soft snuggly jammies and two awesome little trucks! (No, I do not plan to dress them alike most of the time, but I just couldn't resist!)

Going with Beka are soft snuggly horses purchased on the Denver trip, and cloth photo albums with pictures of us, the dogs, the house, etc. to help the boys get used to the idea of their new family. ***Many of you have asked where to purchase these photo books. I bought them at One Step Ahead almost a year ago and I am sorry to say that they have since been discontinued.

Until we can get these guys home and in our arms, this will have to do. We have every bit of faith in our agency and we know that they are being well cared for in the meantime.

OK, so what’s next and when do we get them home, you ask?

Our paperwork has been submitted to the court system in Ethiopia and now we are waiting - yes, more waiting - for a court date. There are many other families with our agency, and with other agencies, that are in the queue ahead of us so this can take time and how much time varies from case to case and month to month. During our time on the wait list we have seen families wait as much as eight months and as little as two weeks for a date. Our agency is estimating the current average wait times to be about one to two months, which is a recent change in our favor, and hopefully good news for us!

Once we are assigned a court date, the actual court appointment is typically scheduled up to one month out. Our agency takes care of all the legal proceedings on our behalf so we won't travel during this stage. Some families sail through court on the first try, while others have to go back for multiple tries. There are several reasons why a family might not pass the first time but it is a buzz kill to think about all that right now so I will write more later.

After we pass court, we will travel to Ethiopia to pick up our boys!! Our travel date will depend on when our visa appointment is scheduled with the US Embassy in Addis Ababa. Travel is typically 2-6 weeks after passing court.

So, if you add up the individual pieces, you get an average wait of 2 to 5 months to get them home. As many of you know, we have not exactly had the smoothest journey so far. Record breaking has been more our style than falling within averages but we are super hopeful that this stage of the journey will be smoother. If you are the praying kind, please pray, or cross fingers or send hopes and vibes...we are doing all of the above in hopes that we can get these guys home quickly!

Thank you again for all your well wishes. We are grateful for the support you have shown to us and our sweet little Ethiopian twins!!

"There is no remedy for love but to love more." ~Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862), Journal, July 25, 1839