How long until he is 16?

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More documents in hand and pictures and tears

This week was eventful- from getting our official court date on Monday- the same day that we started our fund-raising site, buying plane tickets in Tuesday, getting the nationally authenticated power of attorney on Wednesday and getting new photos of K and her sister on Thursday.  It has been a whirlwind of a week. I became quite emotional when E, our case worker, told me that K's sister did come to visit when she was in Addis for her court date. I was sent several pictures of the two of them, and a couple of just K. I am really happy her sister chose to visit. I know it may have stirred up deep emotions, and maybe cause regression in grieving, but i would have hated to tell K down the road, that her sister had the opportunity to visit and say good bye, but chose not to. I also really hope to have some sort of contact with her sister in the years to come- and having those pictures are priceless. We were so fortunate to have raised over $500 to help with travel. These funds are going to help Sam and Gabe travel for our embassy/home-coming trip. I really feel it is important we all travel together and come home complete (a complete wreck- ha).
Anyhow- today we visited the State Museum....i have a few pictures

Court trip planning

I was so excited to get the email on Monday that we received our court date. I cheered through the office at Sustainable Carolina and was just so jolted by excitement Our day is Friday, April 12. I will be leaving South Carolina on April 9th at 6 am, arriving April 10th at 7am. I am flying Ethiopia Air, the straight shot right from Dulles. I loved that flight when I went on Sam's embassy trip. An interesting case of serendipity or divine intervention- I decided to go with a local travel agent, the one who helped me with my recent Florida trip. I called her and explained the trip I needed and that we are adopting a child and it turns out that she is adopted, too. We talked about adoption, our families and kids/school. She is a big adoption advocate/supporter and was just overjoyed to help me. She found me the most direct flight, right from Columbia, for a great great price. *If you are reading Mrs. Lynne- thanks so so much for your help and support.

Another bit of good news- at least two other WHFC families are traveling for court as well, and I look forward to meeting them. I tweaked and edited K's family book and ordered two copies. One to take and leave with her and one to give her again later in case the first one gets lost. I do not believe many children are at the transition house, so i hope to bring some nice little gifts for those there. I hope to find out more about the children there tomorrow when I talk with our case manager.
One additional bit of adoption serendipity- a new colleague of John's adopted twins from Ethiopia two years ago! He is excited to get to know him and his family a bit more.
We have been so fortunate to start a little fundraising page and have received several hundred dollars from family and friends. We are so grateful and lucky to have such supportive people in our lives. We are also contending with issues of fear and ridicule, stemming from lack of understanding and general ignorance of our family's situation. I never expected everyone to be supportive . Of course we have always felt in the back of our minds that we will meet people who feel they have a place to be vocally judgmental . Oh well, its their loss. They may have a deep seeded feeling against adoption, against mixed race families or somehow feel that our biological children should always be favored over our adopted children. The fact is, John and I do not have bio children together. Our kids are from previous marriages and we chose adoption first and foremost as our chosen route to expand our family. We could likely have our own children by birth, but feel spiritually and ethically called to adopt older SN children. We are not seeking support from everyone, or even an understanding. But we do ask that those who choose to ridicule and cast judgment evaluate the values guiding their own lives first. 

COURT DATE!! and FUND RAISING

We have a court date *more later
APRIL 12TH~!~~
Fundraising Site!

Still waiting for court..going solo is a big possibility

I thought that by my spring break we would be scheduled for court and on our way to seeing K for the first time- but that has not yet happened. To top it off, we have had some rather difficult issues arise concerning John's employment. Well after months of work stress, the closing of a factory and a lawsuit involving the partners  John is now venturing on to a new position with a new company . The position is with a company that is near Rock Hill, SC- an hour away. We are excited about it though- and he starts next week. At the present time I am still working part time with the University of South Carolina with Sustainable Caroline. The big monkey-wrench of Johns new job is that this position is in a high-paced environment with large scale projects already in production and a three month probationary period in which there is a big evaluation at the end. So after some serious discussions with each other and our social worker- we have now officially processed a power of attorney and sent the it along with a request to the US and Ethiopian embassies to be authenticated- explaining our situation and requesting permission that I travel alone for court. I hate to have to do this, but we can not jeopardize John's new position nor do we want to wait an extra three months for court. We fully expect all of us to travel for K's homecoming and to bring Sam to visit some key places in Ethiopia. We really need to start saving money in order to take Sam back to Ethiopia for a "heritage trip" and also take Gabriel, who has asked several times to visit Ethiopia.  We should hopefully have these documents back by the end of next week- and I will be taking them with me in person to the high court in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We could get notified of a court date any day now.  Lets hope and pray that my presence in court is enough and we can pass with just me in attendance. Other agencies have sent only one parent for court as a basic practice. Our agency rarely has done this. All that adoption stress is staying at the back of my mind, as I try and focus on family time in this beautiful weather!
We really enjoyed a beautiful early spring day yesterday. The kids, John and I were outside for over 5 hours- a trip to the zoo and playing outside with bikes, dogs, tortoises and the trampoline.

Half asleep on a Monday night

Mondays are draining- I have leadership meetings at work, grading and teaching and attending a night class, plus dealing with trying to get the boy's school situated for next year. We are researching many schools for the boys. My favoirte so far being the Columbia Jewish Day School. We feel this will be a perfect fit and the educational philosophy of this school is amazing. I have also had to spend time fielding emails from Sams teacher- his behavior at his pre school is has been less than stellar. The honey moon phase may be over. Anyhow, Mondays are a bit crazy- I work from 830 to 430 and then have night class til 745....so almost 12 hours on campus!

John has a weird job situation- his soon to be former work place is experiencing some mega turmoil- like huge legal battles with over 2/3 of the staff laid off/. John is actually still there- but likely not for long. He starts a promising new position soon but because of the 3 month probationary time frame- it looks like we must request special permission for me to travel to Ethiopia for court solo....not ideal.
However we will all travel to bring K home- we are fortunate to have prepaid for our food and lodging and now must focus on the airfare. We are looking at close to $7K for both trips.
$1500 for me (court) and then another $6000 + for our homecoming trip. Whew

I have doctored a picture - I am not able to show her face or name.