two calls away...

We're two calls away from a travel date now gang.
The courts are closed till Oct 1.

The next call we'll get will be for a Court Date that will put through Ashebir's paperwork.
Often, because it's the government... those dates change sometimes.

My guess is that the Ethiopian Courts will be backlogged when they reopen the first of October so I think we should get some kind of info by the second week of October. No one from our agency has made any commitments either way - they don't make guesses which is good I guess - so we might get a call earlier, or later depending on "the system."

The second call we'll get will be "Ok, he's through court, come get him." or something like that.

We THINK we'll be traveling Dec or Jan, but it could be before or after that.

So... we wait...

I must admit, I'm more anxious to go get Ashebir to get him home than I was with TK. The last trip, we were all going together, and I guess I didn't know exactly what to expect so I wasn't as anxious... This time, man... I'm ready to go get our little boy today!

Not because he's NOT being loved and extremely well cared for. He is. The nannies and nurses at the care center are TREMENDOUS! We couldn't be more thankful for their care, but I know now what an incredible joy it will be to bring our little boy home.

I'm also psyched because of what this trip could mean long term...
Not just for our family - that's a given - but for other families too.
This time, Amy and the girls aren't going with me.

I've specifically asked a few other close friends to join me on this trip.
The goal is to go for about two weeks total. The second week will be dedicated to the final paperwork, embassy visit to bring home Ashebir. However, the first week will be dedicated to traveling around Addis, and other parts of Ethiopia investigating opportunities where we could invest long term. I don't know exactly what that will look like yet, but I'm in the process now of looking into different non-profits and NGO's to visit and to meet with to see how we as Hope Church, or just individual families could begin to invest in for years to come.

If there is any reader here that has a connection to an organization in Ethiopia that we could talk about. Post your info here, or email me.

Anticipating "The Call" ;)

pete