So what now?

So what's next for us now that we have accepted the referral of K? I will try and tell you, although I don't know exactly how things will go and international adoption is, well, unpredictable. We just don't know exactly how long it will be before we can go pick up our son! It's hard not knowing, but we are doing our best to wait patiently.

The next step in the process is to pass court and K will legally be our son in the eyes of Ethiopia. And after we pass court I will be allowed to post pictures and tell his name (I know that's what you all are waiting for - pictures!! Patience, people, patience). The thing is, is that every year the courts close down for about a month and a half for the rainy season. The courts will be closed from the middle of August to about the end of September. Our agency, AAI, said we most likely will not hear of a court date until after the courts re-open. Bummer!

The Ethiopian adoption process recently changed and now parents are required to travel to Ethiopia twice; once to attend the court hearing and then a second time for the embassy appointment where you get your child's visa and then travel home! We had been planning on traveling twice anyway, so it's not a big deal for us. The hard part will be meeting K and then having to leave him again until we come back to pick him up. There could be a month or more in between trips!

While we wait, we get to send K a welcome bag to let him know he has a family waiting for him. Our agency told us we can send a t-shirt, two small toys, a letter and a small photo album. It all has to fit in a gallon-size ziplock bag. So a few days ago I ventured out in the mid-morning 100 degree weather with Colson and Vienna to find the below items.



The toys Colson helped pick out were a dolmuş (a shared taxi in Turkey) and a little fire truck. Then we had to find a t-shirt. I went to the next closest store, because it was hot and my kids only last so long walking around the city. There wasn't much of a selection, but I think we did alright. Now I just hope it fits him! Then we went to another store to print out some pictures of our family and around our neighborhood and put together a little album for K to know who we are. Whenever I go out shopping in Turkey and find what I need I always feel so successful, I feel like I'm finally learning my way around and knowing how to communicate what I need.

We also received another picture of K the other day. The first one we got was a picture of when he had just arrived at the orphanage and the second picture was taken about a month later. He already looks so different, he looks much healthier! His little cheeks are filling out! YAY!