Adoption Update

Our Dossier has been submitted!

Woohoo!!!!!

It safely arrived in Virginia at our adoption agency head quarters on Friday last week and it is set to be couriered to Ethiopia on January 18th! We are excited to be officially done with our paper work and ready for the MOWCYA (Ministry of Women's Children's and Youth Affairs) to review it in Ethiopia.

The Ethiopian government has changed the way they will proceed with court hearings in regards to adoptions. These changes are very new (we heard about them a little over a week ago) so we are not sure how they will unfold or affect our case. What they have done is added a birth parent court date that will precede the adoptive parent court date. The MOWCYA will then issue a letter of referral for the adoptive parents and this means that our Embassy clearances could come sooner than 6-8 weeks after court. Possibly meaning we would have just one trip to Ethiopia rather than two. I could expand on this, but I won't, because I can get pretty long winded (or long handed in this case) and I don't want to bore you; but if you would like more information on this, email me separately and I can give you a more detailed explanation as to why this would shorten our wait time. deenapettit@hotmail.com

So, that being said, we are playing the waiting game. If our dossier arrives around January 19th or 20th and we follow the timeline trends, we could be traveling for court around the first of April. Whether or not we get to bring the boys back with us is to be determined (except God knows already :) which is always reassuring).

Onto some fun happenings around here:

We had a wonderful holiday season. We spent Christmas Eve at home celebrating, baking cookies, singing worship songs and watching movies. We woke up on Christmas morning and Brian read the Christmas story, we then opened gifts and skyped with family back in Colorado and in California. Aunt Julie and Uncle Dave came over for brunch and we shared a carb loaded meal with more sugar than a CocaCola plant. It was wonderful to have some familiar, family faces around our home on Christmas. Julie always brings a cheerful spirit and a beautiful seasonal boquet whenever she comes over! I just love her. The kids are in love with Uncle Dave and Aunt Julie so it was a joyful and comforting day.

Brian's parents came for a visit the day after Christmas and we had an eventful seven days! We ran all over the place, seeing the sights, eating yummy food and shopping for the kids. Jeanne bought all of our kids new coats and we found some great deals on clothes to start building a wardrobe for our older boys. They played with our kids, spoiled us and we had a great time. It's always nice having them here at what they call, "their vacation home." We knew if we moved away from retired grandparents that we would still be seeing them! Now if my parents and Brian's dad would hurry up and retire, we could have all of the grandparents on rotation out here and maybe sneak in a few more date nights.

We received an update on our boys in Ethiopia a few days ago. It came with updated pictures and answers to questions that we have asked them. It was a delight to read. I just love hearing all of the details of their day, knowing that they love eating and that they are getting snacks between meals makes my heart swell. One of our questions for them was :what do you want to be when you grow up: one said a doctor and the other a teacher. They both said if those professions don't work out they would like to play professional basketball. This just cracked me up! Choose the profession first and if that doesn't work, just fall back on basketball. I love their determination and passion to help others. I'm excited to get to know them more, but these updates are little sneak peeks into their hearts and its a treat for us!

Thank you to all of you that have been praying for us and supporting us along the way. We have such amazing family and friends and God continues to put people in our path here in Oregon that bless us with prayers and support. It's such an amazing thing to see, this support system growing around our family, sharing in our story.

All my love!