adoption twist. oh my.

We were informed today of an interesting twist in our adoption .

Effective today, the Ethiopian Government is requiring that adoptive parents be present for the court date (or at least the initial court date). This means we will have to travel twice to Ethiopia to finalize our adoption. The first time (probably in a few weeks) we will go for 5 days. Then we'll come home (without Lucy) and then once things are all finalized, we'll return for our embassy appointment for a 7 day trip and at that point we'll bring her home (3-6 weeks after the final court date).

Please pray for us! It was a shocking piece of news. Obviously, this adds quite a difference financially. Last time we checked airline tickets are around $1300 per ticket. That could go up if we have to buy tickets on short notice...plus the expense of hotel, driver, food, visas, etc (we expect costs to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $4-5000 per trip). We were not prepared for that twice, needless to say. We are excited that we'll get to meet our girl sooner, but not at all excited about meeting her, spending a week with her and then coming home without her.

We are confident in God's provision. He has provided with everything we've needed thus far.

Here's our list of prayer requests:

A quick court date. (we've been waiting almost 11 weeks already!)
Inexpensive airfare when the time comes to travel
That we'd pass court at the first attempt (in can often not happen on the first try)
That God would prepare our hearts to meet, love, and bond with our girl, and then say good bye temporarily.
That everything will fall into place for Matt to be gone from work twice in a short amount of time
That God will provide our needed finances, one way or another.

Thanks Friends! Eryn and Matt