What happens when we get the referral?

I was reviewing what we need to expect after the referral and thought you might like to know, too. Hopefully we will be experiencing the craziness of post-referral very soon!

-Receive phone call from case manager to check our email to review our referral. This will include some medical information and a few pictures, all of which vary depending on what orphanage J comes from. We will have ten days to review the medicals and accept the referral.

- Orphanage completes a second, more detailed medical exam. The full work-up and results will take about two weeks.

- Preparation for court: The staff in Ethiopia begin collecting the necessary local paperwork. This paperwork and our dossier are given to the court. We will receive a court date within two weeks of submission, and we will be notified by our case manager of our court date. We do not travel to attend the court hearing.

- After court, birth certificates have to be prepared before an Embassy appointment can be scheduled. We can expect the Embassy appointment to be scheduled around 8-10 weeks after the court date. Once J has his birth certificate and we have been scheduled for the Embassy appointment, we will make our flight arrangements. We travel to Ethiopia to meet J and attend our Embassy appointment and BRING HIM HOME!!!

This is definitely the short, uncomplicated version of what we can expect. As we have learned, we can also expect the unexpected with various delays in the process, but these are the definitive things that need to happen for us to get to Ethiopia. We are still thinking it will be around the end of this year or the beginning of next year before we travel. I will be praying that it will be before Christmas...I can't think of any better gift than that!