Fun question to answer:)

First, thank you sweet friends for praying for us…and now celebrating with us that we have a court date…JUST TWO WEEKS AWAY! HOOT! I’m so excited!!! Please pray with us that by God’s miraculous hand that we pass the first time! How we feel your prayers! How we are humbled and so appreciate for them!!! Thank you precious friends for being a part of our journey!

I have gotten this question a lot today–so I thought it’d be easiest to explain on my blog: “Does this mean you will travel to Ethiopia twice under the new policy?”

No:). We will actually just travel ONCE! The new policy states that any case OPENED in court by May 9th will be under old policy and only travel once. Our case was actually opened last Wednesday, so as of last Wednesday we knew we would only travel one time. There are definitely pros and cons to the 1 or 2 trip policy—so while we would be ECSTATIC to see our baby boy on the 13th on our court date—we’ll actually have to wait until we PASS court (Almaz or someone from Hannah’s Hope Orphanage will represent us in court on the 13th) and then we’ll wait to travel when we receive a court date. They say the chances of passing court the FIRST time are 50/50. SO…we would LOOOOOVE to have you all join us in prayer that this happens!

Many things have to line up so you pass the first time. Some of them include: 1) the MOWA (Ministry of Women’s Affairs) must submit the paper work to court…many times this is the reason families don’t pass court the first time. Some times all the papers required don’t make it to the court. 2) Birth mother or any living relative who was the guardian of child must be present in court (some times they don’t show up because they needed to work or they can’t be found to be told their need to be in court) and 3) some times the judge might ask to see more documentation from the birth family. Soooo…many things have to line up. If you don’t pass, the good news is that everything that was there is checked off and doesn’t have to be there again for your next court appointment. The rescheduled dates can be any where from a few days to weeks away…but we are praying we pass the first time.

After we pass court–Isaac will legally be ours, and we will wait on travel dates which will be scheduled around our embassy appointment when we’ll get our sweetie’s visa to come home. And then a few days later…we’ll travel home. SO…in a nut shell this is what is ahead—and the timeline is all in the Lord’s hands.

So…court date, travel date and then embassy date…and we’ll be good to go. Please pray for the Lord’s hand to be on every detail—and most importantly for His hand to be on Isaac. Thank you for joining us on our journey to our son—let the court countdown begin!

XOXO!

Andrea