I took a break from posting for a while.....decided to set the blog aside through the busy holiday season, but I'm back and I have good news!
Tihun passed court way back in November but then we had to wait for all of her documents to be processed and issued to AAI. After that, AAI takes about 3 weeks to do what they need to do with the file and we finally found out at the beginning of January that her file was submitted to the embassy on the 5th! After a slight delay, because of one needed document, we were informed that we would be able to travel back to Ethiopia to attend the February 2nd court date. We were originally supposed to go to the January 26th embassy date but because of that document that Tihun's Mom needed to sign, we had to wait until the next embassy appointment. We were so thankful that just around this time, we found out that due to the embassy having such a backlog of cases, they would allow agencies to have one embassy date every week instead of every other week. If this change wouldn't have occured, we would have had to wait until February 9th to go and get Tihun.
We also found out that "Z" has a court date! It is farther away than we originally thought/hoped it would be, we had really hoped that he would have passed court by the time we went back to get Tihun so that he could stay with us at the guest house. Because he hasn't passed court yet and isn't legally our child, he will have to stay at Layla. We also learned that he wasn't submitted to court until the first week of December, instead of November 17th like we thought. It's now taking around 3-4 months to get a court date AFTER being submitted to court.....so that's how we ended up with a March court date. We are probably looking at a late April or March embassy appointment for him, if everything goes well and he passes court the first time.
We have been very busy since getting the word that we can come get our little sweetie. We've been making flight arrangements and travel plans and packing everything up into the 9 suitcases that we are allowed to bring. Because our daughter Haylie is coming with us this time, we have a little more room to bring supplies for our agency's care center. We will be bringing 6 bags to check in and 3 carry ons.
We have a wonderful trip planned with a pretty full schedule! We are leaving this Wednesday and returning on February 5th. We will spend time with our kids at Layla and also go shopping the first two days, visit Korah and our sponsored child and his family on the 3rd day and also spend time with our kids at Layla. If Tihun seems comfortable enough with us by this time, we will bring her back with us to the guest house and keep her with us for the rest of the time that we are in Addis. We will take Tihun's and "Z"s groups on a couple of field trips on Monday and Tuesday and also meet with Hana's birth family.....they are from Addis and can easily make time to come to see us. On Wednesday we will go to our embassy appointment and then start our 3-4 hour journey to Tihun's Mother's home. I'm not sure if we will come back that same day or if we will be coming back on Thursday? We will all probably need a rest by this time so we will lay low on Thursday and probably go and spend some time at Layla with "Z". Friday we will spend most of the day at Layla with "Z" and attend the going away party for all of the kids that will be leaving with their new families. By 4:00 we will have to say our good-byes to "Z" and leave for the guest house to pack up and get ready to head to the airport. We will arrive home on Saturday afternoon.....exhausted and very happy to see all of our family waiting for us as we get off the plane!
Have a great week......I know I will =)
Ethiopia....here we come!
Tihun passed court way back in November but then we had to wait for all of her documents to be processed and issued to AAI. After that, AAI takes about 3 weeks to do what they need to do with the file and we finally found out at the beginning of January that her file was submitted to the embassy on the 5th! After a slight delay, because of one needed document, we were informed that we would be able to travel back to Ethiopia to attend the February 2nd court date. We were originally supposed to go to the January 26th embassy date but because of that document that Tihun's Mom needed to sign, we had to wait until the next embassy appointment. We were so thankful that just around this time, we found out that due to the embassy having such a backlog of cases, they would allow agencies to have one embassy date every week instead of every other week. If this change wouldn't have occured, we would have had to wait until February 9th to go and get Tihun.
We also found out that "Z" has a court date! It is farther away than we originally thought/hoped it would be, we had really hoped that he would have passed court by the time we went back to get Tihun so that he could stay with us at the guest house. Because he hasn't passed court yet and isn't legally our child, he will have to stay at Layla. We also learned that he wasn't submitted to court until the first week of December, instead of November 17th like we thought. It's now taking around 3-4 months to get a court date AFTER being submitted to court.....so that's how we ended up with a March court date. We are probably looking at a late April or March embassy appointment for him, if everything goes well and he passes court the first time.
We have been very busy since getting the word that we can come get our little sweetie. We've been making flight arrangements and travel plans and packing everything up into the 9 suitcases that we are allowed to bring. Because our daughter Haylie is coming with us this time, we have a little more room to bring supplies for our agency's care center. We will be bringing 6 bags to check in and 3 carry ons.
We have a wonderful trip planned with a pretty full schedule! We are leaving this Wednesday and returning on February 5th. We will spend time with our kids at Layla and also go shopping the first two days, visit Korah and our sponsored child and his family on the 3rd day and also spend time with our kids at Layla. If Tihun seems comfortable enough with us by this time, we will bring her back with us to the guest house and keep her with us for the rest of the time that we are in Addis. We will take Tihun's and "Z"s groups on a couple of field trips on Monday and Tuesday and also meet with Hana's birth family.....they are from Addis and can easily make time to come to see us. On Wednesday we will go to our embassy appointment and then start our 3-4 hour journey to Tihun's Mother's home. I'm not sure if we will come back that same day or if we will be coming back on Thursday? We will all probably need a rest by this time so we will lay low on Thursday and probably go and spend some time at Layla with "Z". Friday we will spend most of the day at Layla with "Z" and attend the going away party for all of the kids that will be leaving with their new families. By 4:00 we will have to say our good-byes to "Z" and leave for the guest house to pack up and get ready to head to the airport. We will arrive home on Saturday afternoon.....exhausted and very happy to see all of our family waiting for us as we get off the plane!
Here is one of our latest pictures of Tihun, she's wearing her Ethiopian Christmas outfit.
Ethiopia....here we come!
3 comments:
Oh my goodness Wendy! So good to see your posts again. I am so excited for you and your expanding family! I can't even comment without exclamation points on every sentence. Have a wonderful, wonderful trip and can't wait to see your future posts on your trip to Ethiopia, Tihun coming home, and your visit with Z.
You are all in my thoughts,
Susan
Hi there,
Not sure how I stumbled across you blog, but we are an AAI family too and I just wanted to say Congrats on getting to go soon! Your daughter is beautiful! I look forward to following along as you travel to bring your children home!
Good luck to your next trip. Keep safe always.
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