One step closer... Her birth certificate (and complete panic sets in)

We received Mirabelle's birth certificate today!

This is big news because we should find out our travel date soon - maybe in the next two days.

This is incredibly freaky, panic-inducing news because we should find out our travel date soon - maybe in the next two days.

Another adoptive family received their daughter's birth certificate today, too, as well as a tentative travel date of January 15. That's in less than 3 weeks. WE MIGHT BE IN THAT GROUP.Here's where I do not even attempt to describe how NOT ready we are, except to make general reference the following areas:

Legal documents/Prescriptions for exotic but not-fun diseases like malaria/ Every tummy ailment medicine on Walgreens' shelves/Airline tickets/Pack for the three of us/Supplies for diaper blowouts on the 22-hour plane ride/Video camera battery/Childcare arrangements for those left on the home front

There are numerous other "to do's" flying around my head in a jumble right now, too, but I won't go into them. Suffice it to say (again), NOT feeling ready!

It's exciting, but YIKES!

In case I wasn’t already questioning whether we remember anything about babies ...

We decided to register for some baby items since we have NOTHING for a baby anymore. (Despite our lack of even a single burp cloth, I felt a little weird about registering, since Mirabelle isn’t our first baby. I got over it, though).

We went to Babies R Us, where we stood before shelves full of wonderful baby things and quickly realized that we can’t remember what a six-month-old needs. I swear, we analyzed each product in the store for 20 minutes! In my opinion, it’s definitely easier to register for an infant – you zip around the store, scanner in hand, I want this, and this, and this… With an infant, eventually you’ll need everything. Not so with a six-month-old. You actually have to think about what you need. Way too taxing for our brains.

We were able to bypass the Mylicon gas relief drops and baby bottle warmers, as well as everything in the nursing aisle. No Boppies for Mirabelle! A Boppy is a support pillow designed to help with breastfeeding (for anyone who may have been picturing this:)
We agonized over other items like crib bumper pads, bottle sizes, co-sleeping bassinets and baby bath tubs. Eventually I stood in the store on my cell phone with my friend Kelli, who still has kids under 2. How old are they when you take the bumper pads out of the crib? What’s a Bumbo? How long do they use the baby bath tub? Thankfully, Kelli has managed to hang on to her good memory and magnificent organizational skills, despite her four kids. She talked me through the store, but it was funny because I felt like a complete novice!

Big news! She is ours!

We received word that we passed through court in Ethiopia! We have a daughter!
We are excited and relieved! We were both SO nervous all morning, glued to our phones and knowing the call could come at any time (it turned out to be an e-mail). Last night I dreamed that we didn't make it through court and was devastated because it would push our travel date out by weeks. But we made it! (phew)

Now we can move forward and prepare to travel. It still looks like late January-ish. Here is the formal process:

The written court order and a written letter from the Ministry of Women's Affairs needs to be obtained by Children's Home Society in order for our baby's birth certificate to be issued and sent via e-mail attachment. This process has been taking about 2-4 weeks. Once Children's Home Society receives and reviews the birth certificate to confirm that everything is correct, they will forward a copy to us and we will receive a travel date for about 3 weeks from that time. Then we can confirm our tickets to travel.

Now, without further ado, here are pictures of the child causing all of this excitement.

MEET MIRABELLE

The first picture is her referral photo, taken when she was three months old. The other three were taken in early December, when she was five month old.

Chunky Monkey (well, not exactly)

We got an updated copy of Baby's physical growth chart. At 5 months, she weighs 14.26 pounds - almost as much as Ethan when he was born! (just kidding). She is 22.8 inches tall.

We are excited to see her weight gain (she was 9 pounds at 3 months). Of course, we wish there was more information in the report - like pictures!

Two weeks to court

Two weeks until our court date! Here's a step-by-step description of the process in Ethiopia, starting with the court date:

1. At the hearing, the judge reviews the case and either advises his/her decision or requests additional information.

2. A decision is made or new court date is scheduled.

3. When the decision is granted, the written court order is drafted and is usually issued within a week.

4. Once the court order is issued, a letter of support is requested and received from the Ministry of Women's Affairs (MOWA) office.

5. Once the MOWA letter is received, the birth certificate is issued.

6. When the birth certificate is issued, Children's Home Society will receive a scanned copy of it and will verify that the information is correct. At that point, Children's Home Society will advise us of a travel date. We will get approximately 3-4 weeks advance notice before traveling.

7. Children's Home Society advises 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.

8. We travel to Ethiopia.

From our side, this process mostly translates into "waiting to hear news." While we wait, we are working on getting bedrooms set up, plus the usual December activities.