The question we are hearing almost every day is, "When are the kids coming home?" (Slight diversion) First of all we call them the fource. The reason why is because some friends of our referred to them as the fource and it stuck. You see there are four of them and they will be coming in mass and will exert a certain amount of force on all of us. So we are now waiting on the Fource.
As I write this we are returning from St. Louis after being fingerprinted for the 3rd time by the United States Immigration Service. (This doesn't include our fingerprints that were taken by the Missouri State Highway Patrol or the Greene County Jail. It appears we may be the most fingerprinted couple in Greene County!)
Our paperwork is now in Ethiopia and waiting to be turned into a judge. When the government has all of the paperwork we will be issued a courtdate. We have been told the judge will set this date as soon as 1-2 weeks after receiving the paperwork. We have also been told that it might take 4 months before we travel. So... we wait.
Does this mean the fource will come home at that time? No, no, no, that would be way too simple. Our first trip will consist of meeting the children, going to court, saying we want to adopt them in front of a judge, and coming home without them.
After that guess what comes next? You got it... we wait. (Have you gotten the general trend of this process? Every step involves waiting.) The second trip will occur sometime between 1-4 months after the first trip. It will be taking the kids to the US Embassy and obtaining Visa's for them for the US. Then we will enjoy a nice leisurely 20 or so hours on a flight with the fource who by the way has never been on a plane. I apologize if this post sounds a little cynical but waiting does that to me.
All in all we are very excited and a little anxious. How will the fource change us and our little crew? How will communicate? What will they like to eat? And on and on the questions come into our minds.
But... God is bigger than our questions. So we wait... for the fource.
