In the adoption world your DTE date is a momentous occasion. This is the official date that our dossier is sent to Ethiopia. Dossier To Ethiopia. It is being Fed Ex'ed to Ethiopia. Once ET receives our paperwork they will begin translating it. Our family coordinator (who is probably very glad I have stopped emailing her so many questions) said that it takes around 8-16 to get a court date after that.
We are STILL waiting for our 1600 A application to be assigned to an officer with USCIS.
(I know because I call them once a week to see where we are :))
We can't even be submitted for a court date until we receive the I- 171 form (that comes from USCIS after they approve our application) which states we are approved to bring orphans into the US.
USCIS says our application is still in the queue.. the waiting place to be assigned an officer...since March 31st.
Please help PRAY our application out of the QUEUE!
AND the I 171 H form here soon!
Why this is important is that we would LOVE to have our court date in Ethiopia before rainy season which is August and September. Court shuts down during these months and reopen in October. Embassy dates still happen during rainy season (which is the second trip we make to pick up our children's visas and bring them home!)
4 Sweet Children In Ethiopia
have received our care packages and photo albums...
These are some of the words the sweet family who took them our gifts said about them:
Happy
Always Smiling
Loving
Shares
Takes cares of sisters
More interested in pictures of us than gifts...
Beautiful
We have gotten updates from our agency on the kids plus updated pictures.
They know they have a family and so it's hard to imagine having to wait months more for a court date to go meet them and finally bring them home and be a family.
Another set of care packages was sent to Texas (again :)) and will be on a plane next Thursday to ET. We are praying that as these kids see our pictures, letters to them, gifts that they will know they are loved by us!
One thing I am especially learning is how unpredictable this process is... :)
It's better to not have any expectations of how things will go!
THANK YOU for praying for us, supporting and encouraging us...
Please keep 2 little boys and 2 little girls way across the world in ET in your prayers as well.
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| Tulips from our yard :) |
