Our Official Day in Court

This week has been a bit over-the-top crazy to say the least. Soccer practice for all three boys geared up this week, we had a field trip, I started the week off sick, and we had two days worth of dr. visits to get through for updating our homestudy/USCIS forms in order to get our kids home. Honestly, we have been home to sleep and eat breakfast. That is about it.

BUT... today, when I got home from my madness, I had a lovely email waiting for me from our agency titled "Court Date". HOORAY!! That is fun to open :) So.... our big day in court IS....

May 20th

Now, for those of you not familiar with adopting from Ethiopia, it is quite likely that we will not pass court the first time. The current statistic is 30% of families do not. However, our Yahoo Support Group is praying this number out of existence, so soon 100% of families will be passing court the first time :).
The great thing about May 20th is that it is only around 2 weeks before Tony is expected to be home from his Big D. Now that we have a date, he can begin to work on finding a way to get home in time to travel with me to Ethiopia. Funny, I sorta was hoping that we would find a way to have some "alone" time soon after he came home from the big D... I guess I wasn't expecting to have it in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia!!!!

So... to my prayer warrior friends-- mark May 20th on your calendar with HUGE red, blue, green and yellow markers (the colors in the ET flag), and start praying for a successful court date the 1st time!!! Let's pray these two newest members of Team Dragovich home!

Grace and Peace,
Shari

Hey... I didn't even have to call-- AWAA Called us!!!!!!!

Well, it happened! "THE CALL" came yesterday morning around 10:45 am. I was in shock, to say the least. In fact, the conversation went something like this:

Phone rings. I see AWAA on the caller id. I think, "hmm. I wonder what they want? I know we paid our last installment. Did they lose the check? No... I saw it was withdrawn... hmmm???

me: "Hello?"
terra: "Hello! Is this Shari?"
me: "Yes. Hi Terra! How are you doing?"
terra: (giggles in a sort of funny way) "I'm doing fine :)"
me: (finally dawning on me that THIS is THE CALL!) "Oh.. wait a minute.. this is the call isn't it!! Oh my goodness, oh my goodness! (now I am sort of pacing the kitchen, starting to shake, totally surprised and looking for something to write on???)
terra: (giggles again) "Yes, it is! I have good news for you today!"
me: "Okay. Oh my. I'm ready. Not really. WOW!!!!"

Conversation proceeds from there :)

So... Team Dragovich is two more strong-- a VERY handsome boy who is 6 and has Dragovich ears-- I could say Monke ears, too. And a PRECIOUS little girl who is 3 and has the deepest, most beautiful eyes that I have ever seen.

I spent the next many hours trying like crazy to reach Tony on his cell phone that he "keeps with him all the time"... but apparently not :). Of course, I knew I couldn't tell anyone until I was able to tell him. Which made the next several hours VERY HARD :) Finally, in one last desparate attempt, late in the afternoon-- knowing it was nearing the middle of the night his time-- I reached him. HALLELUIA!!!!!! He was as surprised as I was and wanted to know all about them, of course :)

So, now we begin another flurry of paperwork to update our homestudy, USCIS paperwork, scrounge money from SOMEWHERE (we were not expecting a referral so soon and so a little thrown off by this last chunk of payments)-- God is SOOOO good and in control and He is the God who Provides... He has provided and He will continue to provide :)

Please pray that the paperwork gets done and I understand the right things to do-- especially with Tony on the other side of the world right now. Pray for our new littles... that God would continue to protect them, keep them healthy and loved while we all wait to be united and for all our hearts to be prepared for the new transition and season we are entering. Also pray that the financial aspect would be worked out-- we know it is and will be... it is more a matter of my trusting and releasing it to God to work out the details.

Grace and Peace to you all,
Shari