Home Again...

We are home, Lidiya has a family and all is well! When I have time, I'll post details and photos...

Tickets Booked!

Friday morning, we received an email from the US Embassy in Addis Ababa confirming our interview on Tuesday September 13th. The final phase of our adoption process is about to be completed. Shira's sister, Andrea, is traveling with Shira to bring Lidiya home, and they leave Friday September 9th. Now, it's real.

CLEARED!!

Friday morning at 4:39 am, an email arrived from the American Embassy in Addis Ababa with the subject line "Cleared Case". I read it in the pre-dawn darkness to see if it was what I thought it was...and it was! We must now submit three preferred dates after September 6th and await confirmation of one of those dates from the Embassy. We can't believe it! There has been so much emailing and paperwork over the past couple of years, and our last visit with Lidiya was almost 6 months ago - in a way, it still doesn't seem real. Once we submit our dates and receive our assigned interview, once the tickets are booked, we believe it will begin to feel like it's really going to happen.

We've been telling Maya that Lidiya is coming "soon", but she's been hearing that since February. In February, "soon" was the truth. Who knew that we'd see so many changes to the Ethiopian adoption program (for the better) to prolong (not so great) this "soon" for all of us? Now when Maya asks us, we tell her soon and mean it, but she's probably to the point where she just thinks to herself, "tell me something I don't know", poor kid.

Maya has been talking daily about her baby sister coming from "Eefiopia", "Addis Abababa" and Africa, "which is way far away - we can't see Africa". She knows that Mommy will get on a big plane and fly a long time to pick Lidiya up, just like Mommy and Daddy did when Maya came home. She talks about Lidiya's nannies and her nannies being one in the same. She has stopped wondering where Lidiya's mommy and daddy are going to sleep when they all get here and now talks about Maya's Mommy and Daddy being Lidiya's Mommy and Daddy, too. So, even if she probably doesn't think this is ever going to happen, at least we know she's starting to get it.

"I can't wait to see the new baby!" she said. "Soon, soon," said the mommy and daddy together. "You will see the baby very soon." -Over the Moom, Karen Katz

Happy Birthday to You!

Today is Lidiya's first birthday, and WE are the ones that got the present! Our caseworker sent us 5 new pictures and an update. Take a look at this happy birthday girl, all 22 inches and 28.85 pounds of her:

Hello, This is the US Embassy Calling

We received an email this morning that the US Embassy has received the telephone number it requested. Now, we wait for a telephone call between the US Embassy and an Ethiopian policeman to take place. Will this be it? I will keep checking my email as soon as I wake up in the morning. There is nothing I've grown to love more than seeing an email in my inbox that was sent at 4:30am from Ethiopia. With each one I read there is progress being made.

More, Please...

This is what's been happening in Ethiopia while we sleep at night: additional documentation is requested, submitted and reviewed. More documentation is requested, submitted and reviewed. A phone number in Addis is requested. It will be submitted. A phone call will take place between the US Embassy and the Ethiopian police. A decision may or may not be made.

No Surprise

This morning around 3:30 am, while we were sleeping soundly with air conditioners ablazing, the US Embassy in Addis Ababa was working on Lidiya's file. They sent an email out to Gladney, of which we also received a copy, indicating the need for two additional documents that were to have originated in Ethiopia. Both are a reasonable request to ensure the ethics of our adoption, and we hope they are easily obtainable. But then again, not much in adoption is easy of late. We've reason to believe that, once these documents are provided, we will be cleared for travel! FIngers crossed...

In the meantime, we will spend today celebrating Maya's third birthday! She's been talking so much about Lidiya, going to get Lidiya in "Eefiopia", Mommy going on a plane for a long time, etc. She continues to kiss her pictures on the computer screen. Maya even thought Lidiya might be at daycare this morning when I dropped her off. That would have been a nice birthday surprise for us all.