Getting ready to hop on an airplane to meet our daughter!

It's been a while since the last update! The Ethiopian courts have re-opened now that the rainy season is over. We are counting down the days (single digits!) until we get to hop on an airplane to FINALLY meet our daughter! 

We got our monthly update today. Seeing our daughter's sweet face, her beautiful smile, and her sparkling eyes is a major highlight. At the same time, it's so hard to watch her grow up so much before we even meet her in person. It has been 205 days since referral day... and our little girl will be 2 years old next month!

(we can't show her face publicly yet)

The flight is SOOOO long, but knowing that our sweet girl awaits us at the other end makes it 100% worth it. After nearly 2 days of travel, we arrive in Addis in the wee hours of the morning.
We spend the first few days getting to know our sweet girl, and then we go to court, where we formally adopt her. Once we pass court, we are traveling to our daughter's region of origin, where we hope to meet the woman who cared for her, and to visit the orphanage she was brought to initially. Then we get another few days to spend visiting with our daughter, and then comes the hardest part: we have to go back to the USA without her. The US Embassy still has to process her immigration paperwork, her passport (with OUR last name) has to be generated, and a few other things have to happen. Once we get Embassy clearance, we get to travel back to Ethiopia (about 2-6 weeks after court), to take custody, and to bring home our daughter.

Please pray for safe travels for us, and that everything goes smoothly in Ethiopia. We will try to post updates, but internet access can be patchy!