Monday, October 25, 2010

flights - check / excitement - check


i just got off the phone with our travel agent and have locked in our plane tickets for ethiopia! phew. very exciting and a relief. i was worried because we are traveling so close to christmas that flights would be unbearably expensive, but we are only paying about $150 more per ticket than what we had originally budgeted. also, if all goes well, ethiopian @ir is supposed to be running a sale on flights in february {$999 for a round trip from washington d.c.} so hopefully if our embassy appointment is in february, we can make up the ticket difference then by getting cheap flights. we are officially leaving louisville on december 16th in the evening, and will be arriving back on christmas eve around 6:30 p.m. we're a little sad to be missing ryan's company christmas party and our favorite family christmas eve party, but our little guy is TOTALLY worth it :)


also, just as a testimony to God's continued provision for us throughout this adoption, we are part of a new trend with ethiopian adoptions. i previously mentioned that when we would be assigned 2 different court dates - 1 for the birth family that we wouldn't attend and 1 for our family where we'd travel to ethiopia for our first trip. however, much to our surprise, when we got our call regarding our court date last week, we were told that instead of 2 separate court dates that we'd been assigned only one {december 21}. what does that mean exactly?? well, instead of having to wait to book plane tickets until after we were sure that we'd passed our first court date, we'll have them both at the same time! with the way flights are already booked up now, i doubt there would have been a way for us to get flights to ethiopia and back so close to christmas with only 2 weeks notice. this change is not only very convenient for booking our flights, but hopefully also reflects that ethiopia is continuing to streamline their adoption process while maintaining the integrity of their program.

so, when we go to ethiopia in december, our case will be heard twice on the 21st. the first time in the morning and the second time in the afternoon, looking something like this:

*1st court date/MOWA court date in the a.m.: the birth family or ethiopian official appears at court to finalize the relinquishment of their rights. MOWA {ministry of women's affairs} makes a favorable or unfavorable recommendation for the adoption to be finalized.

*2nd court date/adoptive family's court date in the p.m.: we will appear at court later that afternoon to verify that we have met nathanel and are ready to proceed with the adoption. if all goes well, this is when he will officially become legally adopted and a sweeney!!

i can't believe we'll be leaving on a jet plane in just 52 days!!! thanks for all your excitement, sweet words and encouragement. it's been so awesome to walk out this journey with friends {in
"real life" and blog land}.

*also, if there are any blog lurkers out there that are going to be in ethiopia around the same time as us, stop by and say hello!! who knows, maybe we can meet on the other side of the world :)

2 comments:

Meliski said...

I am SUPER excited for you. And WAAAYY Jealous because we've had our referral since July and haven't heard anything about a court date. Ah well, that's the way it goes sometime.

Great job on the tickets!

my life: said...

I'm so excited!!! Who would have thought you could be SO excited for...um...total strangers? I mean like butterflies in my tummy excited for you!!!! :0)
YAY