April 9, 2013 we will appear in Ethiopian court. I cannot say a time, because apparently they are pretty loose about following times and appointments....so please, just block the entire day (actually it will be April 8-9 for you in the USA because we'll be 11 hours ahead) and pray. Please! Pray that the judge would rule in our favor and we would hear the sweet words that Elliana is ours.
So, what other details are there? We have purchased our tickets and we will leave Arizona at 11:20pm on Thursday, April 4. Hopefully since it is a red eye we will get some sleep (haha, yeah right!) It is a huge blessing this worked out for this flight so Brent didn't have to take Thursday off work.
We will fly to Charlotte then to DC. From DC we have a straight flight to Addis Ababa, which is the capital of Ethiopia and also the city where we will stay.
We hear that we will get to spend a couple hours each day with Elliana. We are told to be careful not to attach too much for our sake, but more for the child's sake, since we will be leaving and the child is left there to return to day to day activity for at least a month. or two. or three. Join us in praying that it will not be that long before our second trip. God continues to pour blessing on us as we continue this process. We were told it could be 2-8 weeks from preliminary court (which ours was on Feb 26) to the court hearing for consent. If you do the math, we got our phone call exactly 15 days after our preliminary hearing. Now, the time between the preliminary hearing and the court hearing for consent is actually going to be exactly 6 weeks.
Let me tell you though, what a blessing it is that we have heard already. First, for obvious reasons, so we don't have to keep waiting and wondering. We have a date, we have a timeline, we have something to look forward to. But also, for the sake of purchasing plane tickets! We have communication with all of the families working with West Sands and I have never heard of this much of an advance notice. Since we have had a referral and started actually paying closer attention to the timelines, most people have had TWO days notice!! Two days. We were prepping for that, but it is saving us a lot of money to be able to get tickets three weeks ahead of time rather than just days.
We have an amazing travel agent and are so thankful for her! If you are an adoptive family reading this and need an agent, please consider using Erica Shubin with MKI travel. She was recommended to us by fellow West Sands families. She is an adoptive mama herself and travels to Ethiopia for her ministry. She is AWESOME and has been a blessing to get to know and work with. Can't say enough good things about her!! Her email is erica.shubin@mkigrouptravel.com
So we have our tickets, so we figured it was time to get our vaccines! We were going to do it a while ago, but insurance wasn't going to cover them and I couldn't get several of them because I'm nursing. Then when I did try to make appointments it was so hard to get us in and well, you know how that goes. I just never scheduled. So, now that it is crunch time we figured we better get it done!
And yet, another blessing of God's provision--turns out our insurance covers them 100% for preventative vaccines! It was SUPER easy because we just went to the CVS Minute Clinic after Brent got home from work. (wow, those clinics are so cool! I'm never going to a doctor's office again!)
So we got vaccinated for Hep A and I got a flu shot, too! Addis Ababa doesn't have malaria biting mosquitoes, so we didn't have to get that and Hep A was the only thing safe for me to get anyway.
And because every post is better with a picture.....
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