If you are new to our story and our blog, there's a lot of catching up to do, so I've decided to post a summary of where we are at and where we are going. Hopefully it will be helpful to both my new and faithful followers.
Summer 2009
After making a permanent decision years ago that we were done having kids, we both started to get a stirring in our hearts that we are called add one more to our family. Part of that thinking came because Emily was a year away from full day kindergarten and I (Sara) love being a stay at home mom, and am not ready to leave this stage yet of full time mom.
That led us to pray, and meet with friends who had adopted. One of those meetings over coffee was with our friends, Scott and Amber Thomas. We didn't know anything about Ethiopia at that point, but the more we researched, learned, and of course prayed, it because clear that baby girl Weber #3 was going to come to us from Ethiopia.
August 2009
In August we had our first of two homestudy meetings with our social worker, Lisa, with Building Arizona families. That got our homestudy rolling, and meant the start of a lot of paperwork for us.
October 2009
Our homestudy was approved, which meant that we were qualified to adopt in the state of Arizona. Then we moved on to the task of compiling our dossier, the packet of documents that would travel to Ethiopia.
January 2010
Our dossier was sent to Ethiopia. We say that at this point we finished our first trimester and moved into our second trimester. Waiting to be matched with our daughter....
March 2010
We hear that the laws are changing in Ethiopia, and that we will need to travel for court. That adds a lot of stress and expense and questions without answers.
May 6, 2010
Our referral for Allison came!
July 9, 2010
Found out that we have a court date on August 5th. That's only one day before the courts close for the rainy season.
July 30th
We will leave for Ethiopia for spending time with Alli, court on August 5th, and sightseeing and shopping.
What's next?
Assuming that we pass court, Allison will legally our daughter!
So why can't we bring her home? We will have to leave Ethiopia while Alli's paperwork goes to the US Embassy so that she can immigrate to the United States as a US citizen. We were told that our appointment should be 6-8 weeks after court. That's too long for us to stay in Ethiopia (though my heart pounds at the thought of meeting and holding her and then leaving her), so we will come home and then go back when they tell us that we have an appointment. Just like every other step, everything is an estimation, but we are hoping that we will go back in late September or October to bring her home.
How you can pray:
Pray for Sara's anxiety about the trip.
Pray that God will especially bless our visits with Allison.
Pray that our court interview will be smooth and successful and that we pass court.
Pray that the US Embassy will be quick in issuing us a date for our second trip.
Pray that God will supply the finances for our second trip.
Pray for us as we will have to deal with meeting her and then leaving her in Ethiopia. It's going to be especially hard on me (Sara) emotionally.
Pray that Allison is healthy and happy and that God is preparing her heart to bond with us.
As always, thank you for following, loving, supporting, and praying for our family.
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