Trip 1 to Ethiopia (extra short version)

The (really) short version: We flew to Ethiopia, we met our wonderful little bug, we passed court, and she is officially our daughter!!!

We hope to go back for Embassy in about 4 weeks (hopefully less).

Our trip was amazing, but jet lag is rough, and I still haven't sorted through all our pictures... but just wanted to post this for those of you who don't follow our story anywhere else. :)

Referral! Referral! Referral!

After 1319 days (43.5 months) of waiting, we got THE CALL today from our agency!!!! We have a daughter! 

She is 16 months old and SOOOOO cute. We can't share pictures of her until after we have passed court, but here is her little hand.

 

We are so excited and happy!

It will take several more months before we get to travel to meet her, and then several more weeks or months after that before we get to bring her home... so the wait is far from over. However, being able to see her little face makes the wait SO much more rewarding!

We have a daughter!!!!!

26 months since DTE!

Oops, we have been 26 months DTE for 10 days. I completely forgot to mark the day. I guess it's not a bad thing that time went by so quickly I didn't notice...

To give you an idea of what I've been up to this last month, here is a painting I created of an Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony. It's not quite done, but it's getting close.

Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony, 8x10 watercolor

We had to renew our fingerprints with the USCIS for the second time last week. It's kind of silly that they 'expire'... but hey, the government needs to earn money somehow...

Ah yes. And since this post is supposed to be part of the DTE count-down (or count-up, rather), here is the monthly picture of #26:

We're waiting for you, sweet girl! I can't wait to hold you in my arms!

25 months DTE!

Our dossier has been in Ethiopia for 25 months now! At this point, our waiting time is higher than our number on the wait list... but we could very well find ourselves waiting for another year.

Many families had their court appointments last month, and we rejoice with them, as well as with the families that get to travel this month to go to Embassy and bring their kids home.

September 11 is the day that Ethiopia celebrates New Year. Melkam Addis Amet!

Some of you might like a print of my newest painting: an Ethiopian market scene! I have 8x10 and 11x14 prints available in my Etsy shop HERE.

My newest painting: Ethiopian market

I am really looking forward to seeing Addis Ababa myself some time next year. Hopefully I'll be able to take lots of pictures for future paintings!
More importantly, I can't WAIT to meet and hold our daughter... we continue to wait (more or less patiently) for our referral!

18 months waiting since DTE!

OK, it has officially been 1.5 years now since our dossier was sent to Ethiopia. That is 18 months, or about 548 days. *Phew!* We could very likely find ourselves waiting for another year or more before receiving a referral... so we continue to wait... and pray... and wait... and update our documents... and pray... and wait...

Life is very busy and kind of normal these days. I don't have much time to sit and pine over the fact that we miss our daughter-to-be, can't wait to meet her, and to hold her in our arms and grow her into our family. We've reached the point in our wait where people start asking us: "So, are you guys actually still adopting?!" - YES! Yes we are! It just takes a really long time!

Please join me in prayer for MOVEMENT in all stages of Ethiopian adoptions. There are so many families who are waiting, and so many children who need families. Please pray for expedient (and ethical) processing of the clearances each child must receive before being able to be referred. Please pray for families to get referrals, and that the process of court and Embassy go smoothly. Please pray that the hearts of the children who need families are protected while they wait... after their losses, the wait is so much harder for them than it ever can be for us!

Guest post by sweet Momma K

Hello all! I first want to thank Katie for allowing me to submit this guest post. I really love her artwork, and being an adoptive mom of a beautiful girl from Ethiopia, it definitely strikes a chord with me. We have a number of prints up throughout our house.

I am writing to ask for a HUGE favor, but more on that in a bit..

First – let me introduce myself. As mentioned above, I am K, a single mom of a fantastic 3 year old Ethiopian princess.

I felt so blessed by my first adoption experience, I wanted to embark on bringing home another beautiful child.

As many of you may know, the international adoption road is a long and winding one. There have been some changes throughout this process that have caused me to look for financial support through fundraising. I have been working on multiple things to raise money, but have also taken advantage of an adoption fundraising website called Just Love Coffee. The idea of this website is to allow people to buy items (coffee, apparel, mugs, etc.) with a portion of the proceeds sent to our family to assist in our adoption.

The website for dedicated to our family is: https://justlovecoffee.com/about/beneficiary/ourblendedfamily/

Now for the favor part: I would greatly appreciate any support that you (or your friends / families) might be in a position to provide through purchases from this site. Every purchase will make a huge difference in my goal of growing to be a family of three. Hopefully you can also take care of some holiday shopping while you are at it.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading this post and any assistance you are in a position to provide.

~K