Thank you all for the kind words and well wishes. I can’t stop myself from staring at his pictures way too much. His Ethiopian name is Matewos which is Amharic for Mathew. We will be keeping this as his middle name and are adding a new first name. His blog nickname for now will be Smiley; until we can meet him and get to know him I won’t know what his permanent nickname will be; I try and match my nicknames with the personality of its recipient. I’m so smitten with that beautiful little smile that “Smiley” just feels right for now.

It’s strange to not be sure how old he is. I never realized how much stock we put into birthdays and monthly milestones for babies until now. His birthday is listed as Feb. 1st 2007 on all his paperwork but the doctor at the orphanage thinks he may be a couple of months older and has put his adjusted birthday at 12/6/06 (yet another December birthday!). We have decided to go by whichever birthday is listed on his birth certificate when we get it; a few months either way won’t make much difference in the long run.

He is completely healthy and has passed all of his medical tests with flying colors! Our pediatrician says that he is in the 65th percentile for weight and the 80th percentile for height on the American charts. That is simply amazing! I haven’t checked the Ethiopian growth charts yet but I know he’ll be even higher on those as they have a lower average. It’s been nice to be able to share our referral picture and health information with family members, a couple in particular, without having to calm their worries about his wellbeing or development. (I know this has been a problem for some families who have receieved referrals for children who are malnourished or ill at the time the referral photos are taken.)

Several people have asked what happens next. Well, the staff in Ethiopia will be compiling all the paperwork necessary for our case to go to court. We hope to get a court date some time in the end of July. The courts in Ethiopia close for the rainy season from the first week of August until sometime in October, so if our case isn’t heard by the end of July we won’t be able to get a court date until after they re-open.

If our July court date is successful then a court judgment will be issued and a new birth certificate requested listing us as Smiley’s parents. All this documentation will have to be translated and an Ethiopian passport issued. Once all that is done, our agency will apply for a Visa appointment at the US embassy in Addis Ababa and we will travel to Ethiopia to attend that appointment. Then we will be able to bring our son home hopefully sometime in September.

If miss the court closure then that will push everything out a couple of months and we won’t be traveling until November at the earliest. Please keep you fingers crossed for us that we will be able to travel sooner rather than later! As you can imagine I hate to think of waiting up to 5 months to see my son for the first time. (MY SON! OMG!! OMG!!)

posted at 9:53 AM  
Labels: Adoption