So our journey to bring M. and S. home has been much, much longer than we ever imagined. It has been 15 weeks since our court date. Since our last post, we found out that MOWA (the Ethiopian agency that overseas all adoptions) didn't like the wording of our criminal background letters and wanted new ones. Unfortunately, it isn't as easy as just sending off the letters to Ethiopia. Once they were obtained, we needed to have them notarized, certificated (with the state) then authenticated (at the Ethiopian Embassy in D.C.), all of which takes time. Once MOWA accepted our background letters, we waited to have the kids' birth certificates and passports issued-that finally happened last week. So finally, this past Wednesday all of the proper paperwork was submitted to the U.S. Embassy in Ethiopia!
The Embassy has been investigating 90% of adoption cases so the likelihood of our case being investigated is very good. We are a bit anxious because our I-171-H (a critical document issued by the U.S. Immigration Office) expires April 15th. We are hopeful that we can bring M. and S. home before that time as applying for a new I-171-H will add more time to this already lengthy process.
Good friends of ours left on Thursday to meet their little boy who is in the same orphanage as our kids. We have some comfort knowing that M. and S. will get some love and attention from them. In the meantime we are rockin' out some major house projects...the kids' bathroom is getting demo'd this weekend....and enjoying some new pictures we were sent of our kids.