We Passed!!

We got the email at 12:59pm today. We are hers! Celebrating, collecting our thoughts, more to follow...

Sigh...

We were notified this morning that our court hearing took place as planned, and MOWA did review our file but have yet to issue their letter. Belay, Gladney's in-country coordinator, indicated that he suspects MOWA will issue an opinion the early part of next week. Thanks to those of you who sent your positive thoughts! At least MOWA isn't requesting any additional documentation before issuing an opinion on our case!

Well,...

...we received word today that MOWA has reviewed our marriage license and finds it acceptable. We can, at this point, expect a favorable letter. Our court date is this Friday, but we have been told that there is a chance MOWA may not be able to complete our letter by that time. Court will proceed, regardless of whether MOWA is able to issue our letter by Friday. If MOWA is able to complete our letter by Friday, then we pass! If not, then we must wait for MOWA to do so. We appreciate any positive thoughts you may want to send toward Addis Ababa for Friday!

New Court Date

Our second court date has been scheduled for June 24th. The courts are expected to review the requested marriage license and issue another opinion on our case. At this point, we've been given no reason to believe the courts will change their once favorable opinion of our adopting Baby L. Let's hope second time's a charm!

Another Court Date

Last week we sent Ethiopia a copy of our marriage license. At the end of last week, we were told that because of this additional piece of documentation, MOWA will request that the court review our file again. That means we must wait for the assignment of another court date. Thankfully, we don't have to travel and be present for this second court date. Not that we wouldn't love to return to Ethiopia for another week, but logistically it would be a tough one to finagle. Our agency told us they hope to hear this week of a new court date for our case. It gives me pause to think that Baby L is completely unaware of the transcontinental goings-on that will determine her life long fate. We hope that, in time, she finds that we were worth all of this.

We..Are...Almost...There...

Yesterday just before noon, I received a call from our new Gladney caseworker, Kristin. I nonchalantly answered the phone upon seeing the 817 area code sure to indicate a call from Gladney, even though I thought to myself, "This could be it!". Nonchalance pays off. It wasn't. But it almost was! Apparently, while we were sleeping on Sunday night MOWA was reviewing Baby L's case. They indicated that they need an additional document from us that was not an initial requirement. So, Krisitn and I brainstormed on how to best get a copy of our unusually sized marriage license to Ethiopia as fast as possible. Up to Staples I went to shrink down our license to a normal 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper. FAXed it to Texas where Gladney is based. Kristin then FAXed it to the appropriate hands in Ethiopia. Hopefully, MOWA reviewed this last night while we slept and we hear something today!

The Top Ten

We received notice today from Gladney that three more backlogged cases have been processed. That means we are in the "final ten": ten cases that have already had a successful court hearing and are awaiting MOWA approval in order to finalize the adoption. We are hopeful that we may hear something next week. After all, MOWA miraculously processed eleven cases this week alone. Thank you MOWA! A total of ten cases next week we now know is not completely impossible...

...Or Yet...

Our case is still a portion of a backlog of cases that have had a successful court hearing (like we did on March 17th) but are waiting for the letter of approval to finalize the adoption from the Ministry of Womens Affairs (MOWA). There were 31 cases total when the work on this backlog began. Yesterday, I received an email telling us that of the 31 cases, 14 have received their MOWA letters. So, there are 17 cases left. We could be the 15th letter to be issued or the 31st and final letter to be issued. Either way, we feel we are very, very close...

Until then, here is the latest update we received on Baby L:

"Baby L is just too incredibly adorable—you have to love the toothy smile she is sporting in the photo!!

Lidiya’s measurements:
Head circumference: 43.9 cm = 17.28 in
Weight: 8.8 kg = 19.4 lbs
Height: 67.5 cm = 26.57 in"