Submitted to embassy

Last Monday, our file was submitted to U.S. embassy to be reviewed, approved, & obtain a VISA appointment. The U.S. also does their own investigation of adoption cases, proving that each child is an orphan. The embassy takes 1-2 weeks per review & then comes back with 1 of 2 scenarios:

1) the case is cleared & dates are given to travel to get Little Man's VISA so that he can enter the United States

2) the embassy calls for additional information. then, will review the case a second time once that information has been given.

Now, along with all the changes with adoption on the Ethiopian side of things, so the U.S. has vamped up their scruitany of cases on their end as well. Most all cases, if not all in general, have gone the #2 route. The main thing they have called for are additional birth family interviews. {Just fyi, birth families are also called to testify in the ET courts before you are ever given custody of your child, & documents such as this will be in your file that the embassy has.}

CALLING ON ALL PRAYERS :) - on Monday, we were submitted with 2 other families. those families have already received 2 different emails from the embassy. One, that their file was "opened." Two, that a birth family interview was requested. We have not gotten anything from the embassy directly yet. My case manager assured me that this does not mean that they are not working on our case & that they are not consistent in their direct correspondence with adoptive families. However, I am getting nervous about it. Part of me is just so relieved that my baby boy is actually coming home, that I don't care...but, another part of me is begging the Lord that this lack of correspondence means we are being cleared! ;-) {for lots of reasons we would love for them not to request a birth family interview} So, will you join me in praying the following:

1) that the embassy will clear our case the first time

2) that we will hear word from them either through them or our agency SOON

3) that the other 3 of the Southern 6 will get submitted tomorrow - really tonight according to ET time :)

We all just want to get our sweet babies home ASAP!!! :)

It's OFFICAL!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, this news is super late in coming, but as of Monday, the Baxter family is officially a family of 3!!! Monday morning we found out the court had received our MOWA letter & issued our "final, final" court decree! I have pretty much been running at full steam ever since trying to get caught up on all the things I have been putting off...it's a little hard to register, have showers, buy diapers/clothes/etc. when you have NO IDEA how old your baby is going to be when he comes home. SOOOOOoooo glad that's over with!!!:)

I wish I could show you all a picture of his sweet little face & announce his name to really make things come alive! However, our agency is extra precautions & doesn't like us to show pictures of our littles until they are safely in our custody....& there is a little debate over what exactly his name will be. It's pretty much set for the most part except we can't decide whether to sneak in a second middle name. I'm for & against it for several different reasons, & Matt is mostly against. So, we'll see how all this plays out! ;-)

Next steps are AGCI will translate our paperwork & make an appointment for our lil guy to have an extra medical exam at the embassy's clinic. Once all that is complete, they can submit us to the U.S. embassy who will then complete their own investigation of our case. The embassy is very strict & only allots certain days that each agency can open files. Ours is Monday. We are praying that our staff is able to get everything done in time to submit our file to the embassy this coming Monday! We know Almaz & everyone will make it happen if they can! :)

Yay!!!!!!!!! Matt & I have been on cloud 9 since last Wednesday {when our case was taken off hold!} I can hardly tell that my head is spinning in 5 different directions- ha!

Pictures

Because all I can do is keep going back over the pictures that we took, I thought I might as well share the ones I can here. :) {we are not allowed to share his face publicly yet.} I hope you enjoy!!

The view outside our hotel window. Our hotel, the Riviera, was located on the outside of Addis Ababa {ET's capital} very close to our transition home. You can see some bigger buildings in the background.

Matt & I at the gates of Hannah's Hope, our agency's transition home.

The baby building. They run a VERY clean ship! You can see the mattresses, boppies, toys, etc. that are have been washed & laying out to dry.

Our little man was asleep when we got there on Wednesday to meet him. Ethiopians like to make sure their babies are warm- all the babies are completely covered {faces & all} when they are napping. :)

The babies play downstairs in a large room during the day while the upstairs rooms are being cleaned. They sleep in moses baskets...it's hard to tell, but there's a little one asleep in the first basket!

Upstairs are 3 bedrooms, each with their own bath. Around 3, all the babies are moved upstairs for bath time, bottles, & naps. {meanwhile, the downstairs is cleaned. :)} This is T's crib. You can see our photo album we left for him on the side.

Matt is giving T a bottle here. He's got some LONG legs!! He kept wrapping them around Matt's arm...so sweet!

A close up...LOVE!! T's mostly long & lean, but it cracked me up that he's got fat rolls on his knees! Plus, his little hands have formula in the cracks of his fingers. I could literally stare at this one picture all. day. long.

Another sweet picture I thought. ;)

Little Man rolling over...for the most part on his own ;)

Matt & I had dear friends that are adopting through another agency in town the same week for their court date. Here, we had gone out to dinner with them at Top View on our last full night there. Mollie, I am kicking myself that we didn't get a picture together! :(

Update

We had an awesome time in Ethiopia with our son! I will post some pictures that I can soon, but wanted to write an update on where we are at.

On Friday morning, we were called back in front of the judge & after a few questions {we were with a group of 2 other families,} she told us that we approved pending our MOWA letter. We were thrilled! That afternoon, however, we found out some hard news. There have been several orphanages closed within the Southern region of ET, where our little guy is from. This is a large area, & without getting too technical & detailed, no one is really sure why the particular places are being shut down by the regional government. However, MOWA has decided to hold off on issuing any decisions on cases coming from the Southern region until all matters are resolved within the regional government & orphanages. We have no idea what this exactly entails or how long it might take.

There is a meeting tonight {Tuesday there} with several organizations lobbying for MOWA to go ahead & review cases like ours that have already passed court. These cases already have all their i's dotted & t's crossed, only lacking their approval letter from MOWA before moving on to getting VISAs for children to go home. Please join me in praying that this meeting is successful!!

{Just to be clear, the orphanage our lil man came from before he was brought to Addis Ababa was not one of the places closed. This is a region wide hold that is going on despite individual case circumstances. It is very sad for all kids involved! While my baby is in a transition home with lots of love & private resources, other kids are now stuck in government run orphanages with minimal resources. I'm praying it all is resolved soon for the best of everyone!}

The Lord is Mighty, & I rest in the Promises that He as already shown me! :)

We Got a COURT DATE!!!!

I woke up this morning thinking, "today could be the day...Lord, please let today be the day." & that's what I prayed all morning long, "Lord, please let us get a court date today." I have been wrecked these last few days longing more than ever to meet & be with my son. After I ate lunch, I started to read for my class...got up & decided to get on my knees to pray. I prayed that God would make my heart in line with His will so that I would want what would most glorify Him. I told Him how much I longed for my son & told Him that I was still so sorry for not stepping out in faith before now. I got back up, sat down in my seat to start reading, & the phone rang...literally just like that boom, boom, boom! I couldn't even talk when Brandi told us we had our court date! {I had just sent Brandi an email yesterday having to deal with a conference call we were supposed to schedule & told her I was still holding out hope to get a court date before the closures, so she knew God was answering my prayer...so, so, so cool!}

Our court date is Aug 5th where we will go before the judge. The birth family will go on Aug 1...please hold both of these dates in your hearts & pray that things will go smoothly. We most likely will not have our MOWA approval letter & not sure how that will work out with the rainy season {whether or not MOWA will be reviewing cases during this time,} but our judge should clear us pending our approval letter. Then, once we get the approval letter, they'll send our case to the U.S. Embassy to get in line for a VISA.

Thanks everyone for praying!!! We are elated to say the least! I just want to hold my son! I'll deal with the rest later :)

Life Lessons & Prayers

well, i'm being brave & sharing an email on here that i just sent out to my lovely community group girlfriends. i'm sharing here because (1) i seem to remember being in a similar place on here before with y'all :) (2) we need all the prayers we can get! (3) - most importantly- To God Be The Glory!

Hi friends!
I wanted to email you all to in part confess & share one of my main life lessons I am relearning, & then to ask for your prayers. Last night we found out that a family that got their referral a week before us got assigned a court date for Aug. 1. {let me back track & also tell you that we have learned this week that the court closing isn’t systemized – like all things in ET - & usually occurs within the 1st & 2nd weeks of August but varies from year to year on exactly when.} With that news, we have a renewed sense of hope that we could actually get to court before the rainy season!

I then began to research to see how many families were between the family that got assigned & us {not that it even really matters bc again, no systems in ET} & was lead to a blog of one of those families. After reading their referral story, the Lord really convicted me of how I am putting him in a box. This is a lesson that I am learning over & over in this adoption. You see, in adoption {at least for me} I think you try to manage your expectations to keep from getting heart broken over & over. Brokenness came for me in March when I figured out that we weren’t going to get our referral when I expected, & I had even been preparing myself for the possibility of brokenness to come again if we don’t get him home by the end of the year. However, in that “managing expectation” mode, I had began to loose faith in what the Lord will do...not what He can do, but what He would do for Matt & me & our family. It brings tears to my eyes because I know the Lord loves me & I know He knows the desires of my heart, but I decided to only ask Him for what is a “reasonable” miracle. I think I even told a few people that it would be a miracle beyond miracles if we made it to court before rainy season & that we would be doing great if we made it to court in Oct. So that’s what I denounced my God to, getting me to court in Oct & never even considering asking to get in before the closure.

I looked up some verses last night & came upon Job 17:11-15 with v. 15 being “where then is my hope- who can see any hope for me.” This one cut me deep...what kind of witness am I being if I, “the believer,” don’t even have enough hope to ask for the hard stuff?? What an amazing testimony would that be if the Lord did get us in before the closure?!

So, here is what I’m asking of you all, my beloved friends. Will you please join us in praying for us to get a court date before the August closure? The Lord is good regardless of when we go, but He has called us to ask {Matt 7:11- "If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!"} {side note - the last time Matt & I asked our CG to pray with us back in March when we were broken, it turned out to be the evening before our little man was born!}

Much love & much gratitude,
Amelia

Happy 5th!!

Five years ago today, I married this guy, & my life has not been the same since. :)

Have I mentioned that I grew up in a house full of girls? Needless to say, the most adjustment to marriage was figuring out how to live with a boy...oh, the stories I could tell ; )

I love this man. The Lord knew what He was doing when He created him for me; he compliments me so. Matt's patient & laid back...I am a perfectionist. Matt is fun loving & can easily relax...I am a planner & have a constant "to-do" list running in my head. Matt likes to be funny...I laugh at anything. Matt is a starter...I am a finisher. Matt loves the Lord & recognizes his constant need for saving...I do too. We are not a perfect couple, but we realize God ordained our marriage so that He can have glory & He uses us to refine each other.

It has been amazing to see how instrumental our complimentary personalities have been/still are in our adoption process. When we started the process in January {2010,} the paperwork was overwhelming. We were using 2 different agencies, 1 for our homestudy & 1 for everything else, so we had things to go through for our homestudy to make sure it complied with both agencies, paperwork to put together for our dossier, plus a ton of education materials to complete. I became paralyzed every time I even thought about where to start. As Matt noticed this, he began to quietly work on things- he sent off for all the official paperwork we needed from the state, drafted his biography, etc. It gave me time to sort through all the details in my head & get a grip on all of it. By the time tax season came into swing mid-February, I was ready to take charge {& have been point person ever since.} While details get me bogged down & at a loss to start sometimes, Matt is enough removed where he can just jump on in. On the other hand, it is sometimes the details, especially in this process, that make you successful upon completion...& this is where my personality comes into play.

There is no other person I would rather have by my side as I wait to bring home my little one. He reminds me to be patient as he listens to me on the days the unkowns are too much for this planner, & he's good to keep me grounded when I start going down the "what-ifs." There are times that I would rather not have to remind him that I'm trying to be serious, but the fact that Matt can always make me laugh is a true gift from God. In fact, there is a list that I made in a high school Bible study of characteristics I would want in a husband & "sense of humor" is one of the tops. :)

May the God who gives endurance & encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart & mouth you may glorify the God & Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. Romans 15:5-7

Thank you, Father, for this happy day!