This and That

Belated Happy Easter

We are definitely in a new chapter at our house. Nesting officially began last week when I found myself washing the layer of dirt off the siding of our house. Also on the nesting docket this week was clearing out the basement to make space for garage sale sorting, cleaning the washer/dryer area, painting cedar shakes, mowing the lawn, raking loads of camelia flowers off the patio, clearing out B's room to prepare for painting, almost finishing her quilt and gazing at her pictures all over the house all day long. I expect this week to be nearly as productive--I may even paint her room if I find time to do it when the boys aren't trying to paint along with me. We have lots of unfinished projects we want to get done before she comes home. Mark spent the afternoon with his dad building a small deck off our french doors--a project we've been wanting to finish for almost a year, and it feels SO good to both of us to have completed it. The french door project has been quite emotional for us because of his dad's accident with the saw that occurred in the very early stages of door installation. It feels very good to close that chapter.

It's been 3 weeks since our referral. We are waiting for news of our court date. After Holt Ethiopia was notified of the acceptance of our referral, they pass our dossier to the Ministry of Women's Affairs (MOWA) who reviews it and submits it to the Ethiopian High Court who then assigns us a court date. Once Holt is advised of our court date, we will be notified. We don't expect to receive it soon, but there have been people who have received court dates within about 6 weeks of referral. It is unlikely (but I'm really hoping) we'll pass court on the first try. Cases are often postponed due to missing paperwork, power outages (there are severe power outages in Addis Ababa right now due to construction of a major dam), overbooked court dockets, and lack of witnesses (living birth family, or the person that relinquished the child is required to attend the hearing). We just hope and pray (along with everyone else waiting) that our case will be heard soon and that it will be successful on the first time. We really want to bring Baby B home soon!!

We received some new pictures of Baby B this week and she's grown so much in the two months since her last photos were taken. She is filling out and has hair now--beautiful curls. She has the most smoochable lips (they're really perfect) and the biggest eyes. She is just lovely. I cannot stop staring at her and dreaming of what it will be like to hold her, rock her, carry her all day, sleep next to her, play with her, etc. I can't say I didn't buy her a few outfits this week too. Or a swim suit. Nope. I can't.