Let me catch everyone up to speed. On 09/05/07 (Andy's birthday) all of our paperwork was accepted and we were "officially waiting." I know that doesn't sound exciting to most people, but anyone that has adopted understands. When you are "officially waiting" you have spent A LOT of time on paperwork and someone seemed to think your work was okay. And so you begin the wait. Honestly, the wait wasn't horrible for us. I hated all the time before the wait, getting the stacks of paperwork done, that I actually enjoyed the time just waiting. The wait times began to increase considerably, so I was preparing myself for a very long wait. But then on March 5, 2008 as I was walking away from my desk at 5:03 p.m. my phone rang. Andy was picking me up that day and just happened to come up. He told me to ignore it and lets go. I don't know if it was me always wanting to do the opposite of what Andy says or if it was a mother's intuition, but I felt like I should answer. And I did. It was Kristina with our referral. After several "shut-up"s, I finally settled down enough to hear what she had to say. She informed us that there was a four month old boy named Teketel Barnabas that was matched with us. She then emailed us his picture. He was beautiful. Kristina also sent us health & family history and we then sent that to our doctor. After speaking with our doctor we felt that Teketel was a match for us and that we would like nothing more than to be his parents.
A few days later we accepted the referral. And then the most difficult wait began. Our court date was set for April 16th, meaning that was the day the Ethiopian courts would decide if we were fit parents and if so they would then have the birth certificates issues with Andy and my name on it. April 16th took forever to come. But when it did Kristina called early to tell us we made it! Another step down. Now we just had to wait for the birth certificate. Easy right? Not so much! Ethiopia is currently in a drought and since they primarily use hydro-electric power, there have been many power outages. So, usually the birth certificate comes in 1-3 weeks, we had to wait 3 1/2 weeks. I think the wait is the most difficult when you already know he is your son, but you just can't have him yet!
On May 13th, Kristina called to email our birth certificate and to give us our travel date. She said we are scheduled to be in Ethiopia on May 29th. Finally, its actually happening!
Fast forward to today, 4 days before we leave (May 24th we fly to Dubai to visit my cousin Erick for 4 days) and I am stressed. I was shopping on Sat. at Wal-Mart for baby items and suddenly began to feel very overwhelmed. I don't know anything about formula or diapers or bottles. Luckily, my cousin Melissa was on call and she walked me through it. And today Andy and I were packing Tek's suitcase (well I was packing, he was pretending to while he watched House on TV. But I will give him credit he was diligent with the weighing of suitcases) and I have no idea what clothes to back. Tek is underweight, a mere 12.43 lbs but he is long, 26.5 inches. So, 3-6 months fit his weight, but 6-9 months fit his length! So which do I take? Grr.... I am frustrated. I guess I will just take whatever might get me through the week in Ethiopia and we will sort it out when we get back.
So, this all should catch you up. The main goal of this blog is to keep all our Ohio family and our Savannah family in the know when we travel. I am going to try to post as much as I can from Ethiopia. But while you are waiting for those exciting entries, enjoy the pictures of Tek! : )
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