Now what?

We've had lots of questions, so I'll try to answer them here.

How did we get the call? Well, it was really a series of calls. See, we first learned about these girls LAST Friday, Dec 28th. We were interested right away, but with the weekend and then the holiday, we couldn't get the ball rolling until Wed. Then our SW was out sick. So really Thursday, Jan 3, and then Friday were the big days. We didn't know for sure if we would be matched with them until Friday. We thought we should have been referred them right away, but the agency feels that the older girl is older than 6, probably, 7 and so didn't know if we'd be interested as we had originally limited our upper age limit at 6. So we were pretty anxious and nervous and crazy all week, really. Especially because we didn't tell anyone about our interest. If things didn't work out we didn't want to have to tell friends and family about how disappointed we were, so we just kept it to ourselves until we knew for sure. It was a tense week. I kept telling myself not to get too excited, but it was really hard. I was so afraid of a terrible disappointment. Anyway, Thursday we found out that they would have the match meeting on Friday, but we didn't know at what time. Friday was a killer! I had to work, and I think I checked my cell phone every 5 minutes, hoping for a message. I think God wanted Matt and I to be together when the call came, though, because we didn't hear anything until after I was home with Matt and E.

Now what....
Our dossier and stuff goes to Ethiopia where it passes through 13 different government offices. The case then goes to court where things are finalized and we are named as their parents. Then we travel to go to the Embassy appointment and bring the girls home! I'm not sure if we'll know in advance when our court date is, or if we'll just be notified when we're out.... I'm not sure. I also don't have an estimate yet on when that date will be. I also don't know how long after that we travel.... see how well-informed I am? I really just haven't had a chance to get all these details down, yet. I'll look into that tonight.

In the meantime....
Wow do we have a lot to do! Since we didn't know if we were having girls or boys or what ages, we haven't been able to prepare anything! And our house is a wreck. And we haven't put away our Christmas stuff, yet. So, our list of things to do is LONG. Topmost on the list: prepare a small care package for the girls. There is a family going over next week that will take it to them for us (thank you!). Next on the list: Get the house in order (general) and put the Christmas stuff away. After that we'll move on to moving bedrooms, painting, decorating, acquiring clothes and stuff, packing for the trip, etc. Sounds like I'd better quit typing and get to work!

This week we are kind of short on time for household projects. I haven't mentioned it recently, but Eliana is having the procedure on Wednesday to repair the small hole between her pulmonary artery and aorta . It is a catheter-based procedure
that will require her to stay 1 night in the hospital. We're going down the night before (tomorrow) so we'll be right there bright and early wed morning. Say an extra prayer for my baby girl!

Do I really have to say what I'm grateful for today? I think you might have a guess...