What's next?

Well, if you missed it- we have a daughter! See the post below.  I know many of you are wondering what is next and where do we go from here. Don't worry- I'm going to tell you :)

So- bringing our girl home is going to look a little different than we anticipated.  Because we found her as a waiting child- she is not with our original agency, which means we have had to switch.  But it's not really a switch, more like pressing pause with the other agency.  We will continue to stay on their waiting list, frozen at the same numbers we are now: 30 girl and 22 boy.  We will be frozen for one year and after that time we will be reactivated at those numbers and be back in the same position we were before we found our girl- just waiting.  Now, there are some things that have to take place in order for us to be reactivated, and there is always risk involved in doing simultaneous adoptions, because the things that need to happen may not happen in the time they need to- it's just the risk you take in international adoption.  But we firmly believe God led us to our girl- and that wouldn't have happened had we not been with our original agency, so we don't consider anything loss if the things don't fall into place the way they need to.  But we do believe we will have 2 Ethiopian babes when all is said and done :)
Now, since we had to start with a new agency- we are basically starting from scratch with them paperwork and money wise.  Good news is, this is not my first rodeo and after all the updates we had to  do I was able to get all the paperwork done in a week and it is already on its way to Ethiopia to be translated!!  So right now, we are, surprise! waiting some more! Haha! We should be used to this by now right?! So we are waiting for all of our paperwork to be translated and submitted to court.  Once we are submitted to the court we will wait a little longer and receive a court date!! This is something you can really pray for.  Our new agency's court time line is a little slower than our original agency(with them you wait longer on the front end but court goes faster, it's the opposite here).  We are praying that we receive a court date before the rainy season starts in ET, sometime around mid-August to September.  It could be a long shot- depending on how long everything takes- but this is what we are praying for! Now, I know this sounds like a long time, and it is, but every agency is different and we have done everything we can do on our end to get it done as fast as possible. After court we will come home, wait some more, and then take our second trip to the Embassy and this is when we will bring our girl home!! It will probably be about 2 months after court.  And all of this is a general time line because things can change in a moment's notice with international adoption as we have experienced many times!
 You can also be praying for the rest of the funds to come in that we need.  We have been able to use some of our grants and money we had in our adoption account to pay the first fees, and now we need to finish paying her fees for care and for travel.  We are trusting God to provide- and have no doubt that he will, as we have seen him do over and over again through this process.  We are filling out more grants and may do another fundraiser or two, so please be in prayer for that! And also, pray for our sweet girl.  Her world is about to be rocked- as is ours, and we are already praying for that transition.  Seriously, she is so precious! Can't wait to be able to share her picture! Thank you all for sharing in our joy and for your constant prayer and encouragement, it means so much!