We could be submitted Monday... or Tuesday... or Wednesday.

7/7/2012

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Thursday night we emailed the US Embassy ourselves.  We introduced ourselves to Evan, the man who will review our case, and explained the events of the past six months.  We laid out our case and all of our evidence and asked him to please allow us to be submitted as soon as possible.


He wrote us back early Friday morning to say he'd allow us to be submitted on Monday.  But there is a small catch, of course.  We are missing a silly letter from MOWCYA.  It isn't a big deal, it doesn't require a signature or anything special.  They literally just have to copy and paste the names into a template and print it off. 


AWAA's Ethiopia staff spent hours Thursday and Friday in the MOWCYA office waiting on this one letter and they still don't have it.  This is typical of MOWCYA.  We have many friends who are waiting on MOWCYA for one thing or another right now.  


We can't be submitted without this letter, meaningless as it is, or rather it would at least be BEST if we were submitted with this letter.  So even though we have the go-ahead from Evan to be submitted on Monday, we don't have this letter from MOWCYA yet.


I'll break down the three scenarios we're looking at right now.


We could be submitted on Monday.  If AWAA can go into the MOWCYA office on Monday morning (1 am our time is 8 am in Ethiopia) and pick up the letter, they can take our file straight to the US Embassy and submit us.  This is the best possible scenario.  This is what we need prayers for.


We could be submitted on Tuesday.  If the plan doesn't work on Monday, they'll try the same thing on Tuesday.


We could be submitted on Wednesday.  We have told AWAA that if they still don't have the MOWCYA letter by Wednesday, try to submit us without it.  Our case would be stronger with it, but we don't want to wait forever either.  The US Embassy could tell them that they can't submit us without it, but we want them to try.  


So one of these three things will hopefully happen this coming week.  We could use prayers that MOWCYA will have that letter ready first thing Monday morning.


In the past two days we've gotten pictures and video from two families and an update with pictures from AWAA.  She has at least two teeth now, is crawling fast and sitting up well.  It was so good to see her smiling!  Here are some highlights from the new pictures.
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... and we weren't submitted after all.  :(

7/5/2012

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I never dreamed I would use a frowny face in a title, but if ever there was a day, this is the day.  


An almost meaningless piece of paper from MOWCYA was missing and we weren't submitted today.  The truly infuriating part is that it took our agency hours to relay the information.  We're so angry, there just isn't much that we can say about this at all today except that we are really, really angry.


We know so many people are watching us, maybe thinking that they'll want to adopt someday too, and we know that our story is not encouraging.  Ours is like the worst-case scenario that you hear rumors about when you start an adoption.  Like there is a textbook out there somewhere with our picture in it and it says, BEWARE adoption can go like this.  


And we know that when we get bad news, it doesn't just affect us.  It affects River, our families, and lest we forget... the nine month old baby still sitting in the transition home without parents.


It feels like a lot of weight to carry when nothing is going right.  


But I guess what we want everyone to know is that this does suck right now.  We are angry.  We are so incredibly sad.  We are.  We're not going to pretend like we're not.  But it is worth it.  She is worth all of this.  If we have to feel this way, I'm glad we're doing it for her.


Whatever has happened to us, we're going to be ready for her when she comes home.  We'll be ready to handle whatever she throws at us.  Because we'll know what we went through to get to her and we'll know what she's been through to get to us.  
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Finally... we're getting submitted to the Embassy!

7/3/2012

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Our case- all of our evidence, investigations, police reports, court documents,  everything- will be handed over to the US Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Thursday morning.  Hopefully, it will be enough.


AWAA expects for Aberash to be asked back to Addis for another interview.  Initially, we hoped to be in Addis for that interview so that we could meet with Aberash again ourselves.  But we're nervous that if the interview isn't enough to clear us they could still send our case on to Nairobi, Kenya.  Which would add several more weeks of waiting to come home.  AWAA doesn't really know what to tell us to expect, because our case is so unique.  Wouldn't you know it.


So, we're debating now when we should leave.  We'll wait and see if they schedule an interview for Aberash next week.  We will probably hear about the interview next week and it will probably fall sometime during the week of July 16th. Hopefully, we'll be cleared the day of the interview and we can leave immediately to bring her home.  If we aren't cleared that day, then we don't really know what to expect.


We obviously want to be there, to take her home, the very first possible second we can.  We are anxious to get a on a plane right now, but the logistics are complicated.
In hopes that we truly will be leaving in a couple of weeks, there are a few projects to wrap up now.  


We can not believe the dolls, mobiles and crib toys we've gotten.  And we've also been given handmade dresses and quilted play mats.  We have just been blown away by the response.  I don't have counts or pictures of the totals, but I will get those when we start packing.  Right now, every empty corner of our house is stacked with dolls.  


We would be happy to take more of everything, if you could try to get them to us by the weekend of July 14th. 


We still need old iPhones.  We have two, but I'd love to take four or five.  I would be happy to tell you more about where they are going if you send me an email at brandydwade (at) gmail (dot) com.  So if you have one laying in a drawer or know someone who does... please let us know!


We still need to sell all of the bracelets for Habi!  We've sold a few, and I believe a few folks have donated through the Darlings blog directly.  But I'd love to sell the rest of these.  I set the prices high (to raise the most money for them), but if you'd like to donate a little bit less, I'd be glad to send you a bracelet just to get them a donation.  So please look through them again and consider donating.  The Darlings are on their way to Ethiopia right now and they hope to bring Habi home with them.





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