Adoption Update

Things are finally settling down again at the Ailor household. It's been 16 days since we first laid eyes on Simon and I feel as though we have memorized every detail of his smiling face. We talk about him all the time and dream about what life will be like with him in our home as our son. We can't wait to become a family of three!

Over the last two weeks we have done more paperwork -- the official paperwork to accept his referral. This paperwork is sent to a variety of places and will start the process of getting a court date in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa. So we are back to waiting again! We will wait to hear from our agency about our court date. On that day, our agency's staff in Ethiopia will represent us in court and if all goes smoothly, we will legally become Simon's parents on that day. Most families pass through court on their first assigned court date. However, sometimes, it takes a few tries to pass through court -- not because anything is necessarily wrong. We'll let you know as soon as we receive word about our assigned court date.

Once we pass through court, we will wait again for our travel call. This usually happens four to six weeks after passing court. Most people get about two weeks notice before they need to be in Ethiopia. We hope that we'll be traveling in April or May. We'll let you know our plans!

In the meantime, we have been busy preparing other things for Simon's arrival here at home. We had fun registering for all kinds of fun things to help welcome Simon home! It's kind of overwhelming but in the end we had a good time with it all. We've also been organizing and cleaning out closets. I love the end results! We also spent some time in Simon's room, taking stock of what we have and what we need.

It's also been fun to celebrate the news of Simon with our friends! On the Friday after we received our referral, a number of families from town who are part of our Ethiopian adoption group came over to our house to celebrate Ethiopia's Christmas. It's just a great group of people and we simply enjoy their company! We always look forward to these gatherings, especially because we get to see their kids having fun and playing together -- always leaves us with a sense of hope!

Later that weekend, we drove to North Manchester to go to church and to share the good news with our friends there. We are so grateful for the support and friendship we continue to receive from the Manchester CoB! Fills up my cup. Wish we could have visited longer that day but next we were off to visit Mark's family in Peru. It was so fun to share in their excitement for us! Simon will be the first boy in Mark's immediate family in 40 years ... since Mark was born. His Mom is over the moon excited to have a grandson!

Then on the following Tuesday, we enjoyed getting together with two families from the Ethiopia adoption group, the Mroczeks and Modesitts. We shared an Ethiopian dinner together, pot-luck style. Let me tell you -- our friends are wonderful cooks! And you know how much Mark enjoys cooking. It was a delicious meal. And then just this past Saturday, our adoption support group hosted a gathering complete with a cake that said, "Hurry Home, Simon!" Too cute! Thank you, Brigitte and Todd, for planning this celebration! (And they just brought home their newborn son about 12 days ago -- they were so brave to have us all over to their house!)

And if that wasn't enough partying, we met our friends Kent and Denise in Indy for lunch at Major Restaurant, one of the three Ethiopian restaurants in Indy. This was Denise's first experience with Ethiopian food and we are so glad that she liked it! It's always fun to catch-up with them.

So after all of this celebrating, we had to get back to the business of preparing for Simon. Today, we had an appointment with the Travel Clinic to start our immunizations. It wasn't as bad as I had feared! The nurse was very kind and gave us some great information. Our arms are a little sore but not too bad.

And that's the update! I've still got a ton of e-mails to catch-up on but I think that my feet are finally back on the ground. It feels so wonderful to know Simon's face and that it's him we are preparing for. Thank you again for your continued support and encouragement! It is both felt and appreciated greatly!