Travel Dates!!!

Yep, you read that right. We're working on our travel plans!! We got THE CALL yesterday evening with the news that we should plan to be in Ethiopia from January 9-15. Our embassy date is January 14. WOW! We are thrilled. We're working with a travel agent to book the flights and will hear back this morning. We are still a little shocked. I've been up since 3:30 am...when does Target open?

Gabe Video

We just received this video from a family that traveled to pick up their daughter in late November. What a great Christmas present!

Merry Christmas from the Schlafer Family

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Next Steps

Now that our court date is behind us (I still can't say that without smiling!), the obvious question is, "What now?". Now we are in a waiting phase (do you see a trend here?). We are waiting for an embassy appointment. The typical time frame from court date to embassy date is 6-7 weeks. Throw a few holidays in there, and it may be a little longer, but we'll see. Either way, my calculations show that to be either late January or early February. It would be awesome if we were there on Gabe's birthday, which is January 27. Until then, the staff in Ethiopia is busy completing paperwork, while we are doing some paperwork ourselves for our travel documents. When we get our embassy appointment date, we can go ahead and book our tickets. We will only be in Ethiopia for about a week. WOW! Then, its back home to start life as a family of 4! We can't wait!

We still have plenty to keep us busy from now until we travel. Jason got a jump on it by putting up the crib last weekend. Wyatt put in his own personal touch. When asked why he put helicopters on the crib, his response was "To protect him". I think he'll be a great big brother!

Wyatt Quotes

Wyatt saw Gabe's picture for the first time last night. It was priceless. Here are some quotes from yesterday and today.

"Is he coming home now?!" (with his face lit up)

"Can he sleep in my room?"

"Did his teeth fall out?"

"Is he going to eat my shoes?" (don't ask...I have no idea)

"Wanna see my brover" (His announcement as he walks into school holding Gabe's picture)

"Who's belly was he in? I which he and me was in the same belly so we could be twins"

Best of all is this picture he made for him and the envelope it was in.

WE PASSED!!!

Introducing Gabe Schlafer!!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Nothing

We know nothing about what happened in court. Frustrating is an understatement.

Praying for a Good Week

We are so thankful for the amount of encouragement people have shown us over the past year and a half with Gabe's adoption. I cannot count how many people have told us directly or through others that they are praying for us and Gabe. Now that we're finally approaching our court date, the reality of the magnitude of Tuesday is really setting in. We know that by the end of this week, we'll either be on cloud nine or devastated. Regardless, we know that it is all part of a master plan that we cannot control.

We have had a lot of questions concerning what happens with our court date. Here are the details as we understand them.

On Tuesday, a representative from the agency we are going through will take our paperwork and Gabe's paperwork to court. If the judges determine all paperwork is complete, we pass. If we pass, we can expect to travel in 4-8 weeks (we have to wait for an Embassy appointment and more paperwork to be completed in Ethiopia). We will not find out our embassy dates immediately, but at least we know it would be in the next couple of months.

If all of the paperwork is not complete or to the judge's standard, we fail. If we fail, we either wait for another court date or they leave our case open and we wait without any end date set (we DO NOT want this).

There are some twists and turns thrown in the court date as well. There is a chance we don't even get heard on Tuesday. Due to my extensive blog stalking skills, I've seen plenty of cases that did not get heard on their court date due to missing paperwork, power outages or people not working that day. Also, we've learned that though our court date is scheduled for Tuesday, we may not hear anything until Wednesday. If that's the case, I apologize in advance to anybody that has to deal with me Tuesday or until we hear anything.

Well, that's it. That's all we know as of yet. Next post is the court outcome. I've got the video montage ready in the event we pass! If we fail...well, we'll just keep on trucking.

Getting Closer

We're getting closer! I thought this week would drag, but have been pleasantly surprised that it is flying by. Both Jason and I have noticed our optimism for the upcoming court date is shrinking...a coping mechanism I guess. It's hard to not think of all of the things that have to be right on that day for us to pass and the inability to do anything about it. Our work was done when we turned our dossier in (in October of 2008)! Since then, its been out of our hands. I keep telling myself it will happen when its right, but man, I want it to be right on Tuesday!!!