It's a Boy!!

It's almost over! We are filling out the official paperwork right now for a little boy! Woohoo! Praise the Lord!! We got an email about his last Thursday and asked for more info. We waited (sorta patiently. . .not really) for the whole weekend. They faxed us his paperwork Monday morning (yesterday)and by 3:30 in the afternoon they told us it was a go and that we could pursue him. He is so stinkin' cute and we're thrilled! Lord willing we'll get a court date in December (we don't have to be there for it). This is when a the judge will approve us for this adoption. Once we get that approval they will set an embassy date which is when we have to travel. They are telling us this will most likely be February 2010. That could be less then 4 months!! AHH! We're excited! Please email me if you would like any more info: davenkam@aol.com. Thanks for your love and support.

Life Book & Video Documentary

This is a note from our agency. It's very exciting and I am thrilled they're doing it. It raises our country fees by $1000 but it's worth it.

We reached an agreement with a local partner-agency in Ethiopia that will do life books and video documentaries for the children that we place in our families. The agency does a professional job. They have a large crew of more than 14 professionals including lawyers, social workers and journalist who travel to distant places to investigate the life story and background information for each child. The investigators travel to different regions from where the children come, to find out the circumstances that led to the death of parent/s or relinquishment of the child; hear from the persons who decided to relinquish the child for residential care with orphan centers and other circumstances surrounding the child’s orphan status and origins. When they are satisfied that all the pieces are together, they will then produce a life book and video documentary for the child. The life book and documentary video will be given to the family when the travel to Ethiopia to finalize their adoption process.

End of 2010?

We emailed Bethany to see if there was any sort update. This is the response we got:

Two families who submitted dossiers to Ethiopia last August and September, received referrals the end of September, so it is taking about a year for a young child in good health. We are telling people the wait for the referral of a young child in good health - or a young sibling group in good health could be 18 months. I am hoping it won't be quite that long and that you will bring a child(ren) home by the end of 2010.

A little disheartening. . . but God knows. It's been 4 months since our dossier was sent. I suppose we need to prepare ourselves for 14 more months of waiting. I just pray we can celebrate Christmas of 2010 with our new little baby. That's our year to spend Christmas in Seattle and so far both our boys have spent their first Christmas there. I know this may not be our baby's "first" Christmas but it would be their first on with our family.

Please pray for us as this is long and we have moments of sadness thinking they may be born already and we don't know where they are and if they're safe and healthy.

News about the Ethiopian Courts

This is info we got from our agency's blog.

On August 28, 2009, the courts in Ethiopia closed for recess. They were initially scheduled to re-open on September 28, 2009. However, after a two-week delay, the courts are finally set to re-open on October 12, 2009.

Sigh . . Yeah, so we still wait. Once the courts open up again Dossiers will start to move. We have no idea what the status of ours is right now. We like hearing about all the families we've traveled to pick up their children and just assume that means we are getting closer. Please continue to pray for us that we will be faithfully patient and trust in the Lord's timing. Thanks!