What's Next?

So now that we have our referral, some of you are wondering what's next and when will we get to bring our children home.

-The next step is for us to get a court date.

-At this court date, a judge will review the case and all of the documentation, and if everything is in order, they will legally declare the children as ours.

-Our agency will notify us that we have "passed" court.

-At that point, we can post pictures. :)

-We will travel about three weeks after we pass court.

-Our trip will be about 8 days long.

-The 8 days involve 30 hours travel each way, meeting our children, visiting their orphanage, and getting visas to bring them home. They will be legally ours before we travel.

As far as timing, our agency is hoping that by early next week they will have a court date secured for us. This date will likely be some time in mid to late November. Our agency will not notify us of the specific date. They will just call to let us know when we have "passed". (Some families have been to court 5+ times due to various paperwork that is missing or needs adjusted. Others pass the first time.)

Our agency has indicated that it is possible we could travel the week before Christmas. If not, there will be several weeks of no travel groups due to the holidays and then Ethiopian Christmas which is on January 7th. So it could be mid-January before we travel. Again, those estimates are assuming we pass court the first time.

We are trusting God's perfect timing for our travel. There are reasons why traveling before Christmas would be better and reasons why traveling in January would be better. So join us in praying for God's perfect timing and for us to have perfect peace in the waiting. We don't want our children in the orphanage one day longer than He has planned.