We did not get the news we were hoping for. As is so dang common in international adoption, we have hit a delay. A necessary piece of paper was missing from our file, and so our case could not be approved at the hearing. I do not really understand why the paper was not ready since our case was submitted forever ago (back on October 7), but it wasn't, and our case wasn't approved, and so we wait so more.

Our agency rep called this morning and said that the agency person in Ethiopia was going to go into the government office on Monday to try and obtain the letter and that if they are able to get the letter, they might be able to get the case approved that day and we may not have to another... more

As I often say, adoption is an emotional roller coaster for adoptive parents.

The highs are high, the lows are low and the turns and changes come fast and furious, sometimes without any warning.

Right now we are at the sickening, nauseating part of the ride, where you are hanging; waiting and waiting to reach the top of the climb.

Tonight I am having a hard time focusing on much, as I know in just a few short hours, our case will be heard in the Ethiopian... more

In all things adoption, this is a very stressful week.

First off, our court date is on this Friday, December 21. That means if all goes well, Solomon Tsega will officially be our son! It also means that if all does not go well, all of the excitement and anxiety that have been building up towards this day for almost a month now will crash and burn, and we will likely have to suffer through another two to four weeks of agonizing waiting before we make any progress.

Our agency has assured us that they have gone through our paperwork and Solomon's paperwork and that as far as they can tell everything is in order and is correct, although you just never know what the courts may... more

We got some long awaited news today! Our court date for Solomon Tsega's adoption is December 21, which means that if all goes well, on December 21 he will officially be our son, and we will have definite travel dates assigned at that point for some time in January.

Our case was submitted to court back on November 7 and our agency thought our court date would be a little bit sooner than it is, but the Ethiopian courts have been backed up and moving fairly slowly since they reopened in October from the two-month rainy season closure. Many families have been experiencing... more

I have had a lot of people emailing me and asking about how our adoption is going, so I thought I would give you an update. I hope that by having others follow along on our adoption journey for Solomon by sharing our steps of the process, our experiences and our emotions, it will help give some of you out there an idea of what the adoption process can be like.

I know adoptive parents love time lines, so here is our time line so far:

Aug. 10, 2007 - Decided to adopt Tsega at AHOPE, and called AAI to verbally commit to him.

Aug. 13, 2007... more

This week we were finally, officially matched with our Solomon Tsega. I say "finally", but it was less than two months from the day we decided to adopt him and started the process, and in that time we were able to apply to the adoption agency and get all of that paperwork done, apply to a new homestudy agency and get all of that paperwork done, get our new homestudy completed, file and be fingerprinted for our I600A, and complete our dossier for a(nother) Ethiopian adoption.

Our adoption agency, Adoption Advocates International, has been... more

While much of what determines how fast (or not) your homestudy will be completed lies in the hand of your social worker, the tips that I offered definitely do help speed the process along. I am thrilled to say that our homestudy is DONE. It has been written, typed, proof-read, corrected and sent from our homestudy agency to our placement agency, and our awesome placement agency, AAI,... more

I am a nut when it comes to naming our kids. I have to choose a name right away. For me, it is just an important part of bonding with my child to be, whether that child is coming through birth to me or adoption.

Within weeks of getting a positive pregnancy test I would be handing Josh lists of baby names and asking his advice. Within weeks of accepting a referral or choosing a waiting child I would present him again with "what do you think about this name?" types of questions. Josh is a pain in the butt when it comes to choosing names. He doesn't like anything "fancy" or "weird". He doesn't like anything that sounds "made up" and he doesn't like anything that is spelled unusual (unless... more

Within minutes of deciding that Josh and I did indeed both want to adopt Solomon, I had emailed Adoption Advocates International (who we used to adopt our Belane and highly recommend), and let them know that we wanted him! They were already aware that we were considering adopting him because we had requested his file and an updated medical report. I got an email back almost right away saying that if we could get our paperwork updated quickly, that they would put him on "unofficial hold" for us.

Well, "quickly" is my middle name when it comes to doing adoption paperwork. I got right on the phone with our homestudy agency and... more

After coming to the realization that Solomon was indeed meant to be with us, I had a lot of conflicting emotions. When I saw new pictures of him from people who traveled to AHOPE or heard little udpates on how he was doing, my heart soared.

And yet at the same time, I was really nervous. For one, I was worried that Josh would not agree that we should adopt him. Deciding to adopt Belane was very emotionally difficult on both of us, and I did not want to go through that, or put Josh through that again. However I did know that there was at least a possibility that he would be open to the idea, because a few months earlier he had knocked my proverbial socks off when he told me that HE... more