Waiting Out The Rainy Season

We are having a drought here in Texas the likes of which haven't been seen in over a century. Our state is literally burning up it is so dry. I walked my children in to school last week through a smoke filled haze (from wildfires about 30 miles away) so thick we could hardly breathe.

The irony in the fact that the Ethiopian rainy season is what is currently holding up our adoption process, is not at all lost on me.

I think in the last update I gave on this blog weeks ago regarding the status of our adoption, I said we were really hoping to pass court before the courts closed for the rainy season. But we did not; we got that news on August 17th.

Our MOWYCA letter was submitted to the court (the letter missing was the reason we didn't pass court when we appeared in person in Ethiopia on August 2nd), but the judge did not get to review it before she left. So we will not hear if the MOWYCA opinion was positive or negative until the courts reopen in October.

We took the news pretty hard. We were really clinging to the hope that the extra week the courts stayed open was going to be our miracle and we'd be able to get back on a plane and go get her soon. Our whole travel group spent that extra week (plus the 3 days of the next week when there was still hope we'd passed and the court clerk was just writing up the court decree) on pins and needles, emailing constantly, "You heard anything?" "Nope. You?" Until we each got the call from our caseworkers that we didn't pass before the closure. Not passing court until October is what we expected before we traveled to Ethiopia, but honestly that was easier to accept before we met our little girl, bonded with her, and just want her home!

So now we are wildly praying to pass court quickly after they reopen on October 3rd and for a speedy embassy process (currently averaging 9 weeks) so we can bring her home.

In the mean time we are trying to focus on productive mode. Without a doubt there are a lot of things we can be doing now that will make life easier, better when we do finally get to bring her home (November? December? Oh WHY is the embassy process taking so long now?!!). I'm taking another bonding and attachment class at a local church (spans 6 different weeks) -- just feel like I cannot be prepared enough in that area. Also, I have been kinda scared to do much around the house to prepare for our new child, because I thought it would be too hard to face her bed and her things every day if we ended up not being able to bring her home. But, I'm prayerfully pushing through that fear and think it will be a great distraction for me to do some of the fun things like buying girly bunk beds and redecorating my daughter's room to be a space for two little girls. And, oh, don't even get me started on being able to dig out all my daughter's old toddler dresses and wash them and hang them up in the closet -- oh, the joy!

"What if our blessings come through rain drops? What if our healing comes through tears? What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near? What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise?"
song Blessings by Laura Story