few updates...

nothing real exciting happening yet but we do have a few updates to share. the ethiopia program has monthly conference calls to give us updates which has been a huge blessing. my heart breaks for those families adopting from other countries like Rwanda and do not have even the little comfort that comes from having these conference calls.

so here is what we learned...
1. although the government is still deciding what to do about the abandoned children in the city of Addis Ababa referrals are still going well. there were 12 more referrals at the end of May which was exciting to hear. that means that our time frame has not been moved which is what we feared when they said that 25% were no longer available to adopt at this time. so our DTE date was within the first two weeks of February [sorry i don't have the paperwork in front of me to give you exact dates] and the wait time from there is 9-11 months.

2. the courts in ethiopia have not started slowing down yet in preparation for their break in early fall [they are off from the end of august to the middle of october]. so there will be more referrals coming in june and most likely july. we do not expect to hear anything in the next few months but that does mean once they are back in session we shouldn't be too far off. without the break, october would be the earliest we would hear something [according to current trends] so maybe december.

3. when we travel to ethiopia to get david we will be staying in a really neat guest house instead of the hilton hotel. america world got wind that families living in ethiopia found it hard to watch all of these "foreng" [what ethiopians call foreigners - i have no idea on the spelling] come in and take their babies and hide in this huge hotel. pictures will never due justice to the poverty that exists in ethiopia and neither will my words but know that the hilton in ethiopia looks just like a hilton here in the US - very big, very crisp and lush. the difference is that unlike here the buildings/homes next to it are literally shacks. we give our pets better homes than what most people live in ethiopia.

i even found out from another blogger that is staying at the guest house right now that they walked to the Zebra Grill for dinner which our team ate at while in ethiopia two years ago. so i can picture the area we will some day be staying in. it gave my heart great joy and peace to have a fairly concrete picture of the future.

4. lastly, our power of attorney is still sitting at the Embassy so it has not been approved yet which means it has not met up with the rest of our paperwork in ethiopia yet.

wow, that was a lot. thank you for your continued prayers and encouragement. the waiting has been tough on me [rande] the whole time but it is now getting tougher for casey as well. he is anxious for david to be home - i think he is ready to start playing with a little boy.