One Step Closer

Although we received our adoption referral on November 21,2007 the Ethiopian courts had to officially approve our adoption. The case was heard on January 17, 2008 and we received a call on January 18 that the Ethiopian government has officially approved us to be the parents of Geremu Assefa.
Since we are offically through court I can now post his picture.
Introducing....Geremu
The first picture was the one we received at referral on November 21, 2007. The next one was received in December and the last one was received this month.
It saddens us that he has grown so much and we were unable to see him develop but we are very thankful that he has remained healthy.
When the agency let us know that we were approved by the courts they outlined the next steps in the process.
1. When the decision is granted, the written court order is drafted and is usually issued within a week.
2. Once the court order is issued, a letter of support is requested and received from the Ministry of Women's Affairs office (approximately 1-2 weeks after decision).
3. Once the MOWA letter is received, the birth certificate is issued-this usually takes 3-5 business days.
4. When the birth certificate is issued, the agency will receive a scanned copy of it and will verify that the information is correct. At that point, the agency will advise us of a travel date-approximately 3 weeks advance notice. The agency will advise Ethiopia staff that the birth certificate information is correct and they will proceed to obtain the child’s Ethiopian passport, Embassy medical exam and will prepare the final paperwork to submit to the Embassy for interview appointment.

So if everything goes as planned we should be traveling to Ethiopia in about 6 weeks. Oh boy! So much to do!