We have a COURT DATE!!!

We are all in shock, my stomach is just settling down from hearing this news about 5 hrs ago!  We will be heading to Ethiopia in 1 MONTH!!!!!

Here's how it all went down:    I am in Kansas City for a continuing education course and our case worker was trying to call me all day, I didn't recognize the number and kept ignoring it since I was in class so she finally called my husband who is with me but was in the hotel room getting Jalen down for a nap.  My husband text me..."are you sitting down?", then the next one..."bad news, you can't go to Dallas now" (as I was planning on going for our agency's ET family reunion in April).  My heart was pounding, for sure it couldn't be a court date, number 1, our case worker always calls me and I didn't even think she had my husband's number, number 2, ummm we had only been submitted for a court date just a couple weeks ago...surely it would take 2 more months to find out!  Did someone die...was someone in the hospital, but how would he know they would be in the hospital until April, was someone flying in to see us, so many thoughts racing through my mind while I am in a room full of people being further educated on proper billing practices in Medicare!  Then the next text said "we will be in Ethiopia...court date set for April 18th..."   Seriously do you know how bad I wanted to scream and then burst out crying in the middle of this course?  I kept looking straight ahead and taking notes, withholding tears (people would have thought I was crazy) but my stomach was anxious so I took a  bathroom break and called our case worker, later realizing it was her calling since this morning, good thing I didn't take the call then, the whole day in class I would have been a mess, thankfully it was just the last hour :)

So now, we pray for next week for the birth parent interview, we pray for our boy's family and pray for everyone involved.  We will wait until next week to start making actual travel plans and now we have some things to get finished up, home study update, USCIS update, fundraising, planning for who will come stay with Jalen while we are gone, planning taking off from work, and just so much to do but it is all SO EXCITING!!!   All glory goes to God here, truly only HE could have planned all this out!!!  He really does show up when you LEAST expect it, this week has been beautiful and we have had no expectations of hearing news about a court date. Instead, my focus has been on thanking God for the beautiful days, my family, friends, allowing us to be on this journey and just everything in my life right now and then BAM, we get this news!!!

our family soon after hearing our court date!