Where do we go from here...

Just a quick update regarding the process from here. I wish that I could say that now that we know who our new baby is and that Tarike needs parents right now, we are on our way to bring her home! Unfortunately, there is a process that follows the referral. At this point our paperwork goes to the Ministry of Women's Afairs and we wait 2-3 weeks from the date of the referral (which was May 22) to be assigned a court date in Ethiopia. Once our case is heard, about 1-2 weeks after we are assigned the date, assuming it goes through on that date and is approved, we are considered the legal parents of Tarike in Ethiopia. At that point I can post a picture of our beautiful daughter on this blog! We then wait for her birth certificate to be updated with Matt and I as her legal parents. This generally takes another 2-3 weeks. Once we recieve a copy of the birth certificate by e-mail, we will receive our long awaited travel date. This will give us about 2-4 weeks to get our final preparations complete before traveling to Ethiopia and bringing home our daughter!! Truly unbelievable. When it is broken up, and keeping in mind that it has already been almost 2 weeks since we received the amazing referral, it actually feels as though it is going very fast! It also seems to be going fast when I think of all that needs to be done. We still have not designed her bedroom and we are completely unprepared to have a baby in our home - especially a baby girl! Then, I look at her beautiful picture and her lovely smile and I want to head to the airport right now!! Thanks for going through this incredible adventure with us - it is truly amazing