Count down!

I cannot believe we leave in 2 days. I don't think it will really hit us until we are in Ethiopia just hours away from meeting her. We are both excited and overwhelmed with thoughts of our future as a family. Although, we have always felt like a family with our dogs. This is uncharted territory for us. Give us a puppy and we have no fears. Give us a baby and we all may end up crying.
I must go, I have sooooooo much to do!

Our Travel Itinerary

We leave May 3rd. Our journey starts in Austin. We then fly to Chicago where we meet up with my parents, who are travel to Ethiopia with us. At 5:30p we leave for London. We have a 12 hour lay-over in London. We will wash up and explore London for the day. At 9p we depart London for Ethiopia, arriving at 8:25a Monday. We will shuttle to the Hilton check-in and change our cloths into our GOTCHA T-shirts. Then we will go to the Orphanage and meet our little Gabre. This will be quite an emotional day.It will have been such a long journey to get her and to get to her.

New Pictures!

My friend,Sharon, just got home from picking up her baby Gabriella. She went to Hope for the abandoned and saw Gabre. She said Gabre is very happy and healthy. We were so excited to see more pictures of her and she has grown. We think she is the cutest baby we have ever seen. We love you Gabre!

Bark Park Fun!

Today we took a trip to the dog park. Orea played ball, Barney followed us like a scared little pup and Lexi rolled around in the grass.
We all love to go to the dog park, sometimes I think the people have more fun. We took pictures and video, like proud parents. The best part of going to the dog park is when we come home they are pooped. They are quiet and calm. This is what it means to be a dog and be fulfilled.

The List!

Since we passed court a list has been created. We have so much to get done. We have had 2 years to prepare for bringing our daughter home. You would think the list would be short.......but it is much longer than the one above. When I get one thing done 10 need to be added. Will the list ever be at o?
I think the list will keep growing and after she is home we will just throw the list away. We want to enjoy our first months with her and not worry about things we didn't get done and new things we need to do. That is the plan anyway.

She is officially our Daughter!!!!!!!!!!!

We are so happy the stress of court is over. We are hoping to travel late April or early May. Soon we should receive her new birth certificate with the name Banchigeze Scott Reeves. As I wrote in an earlier post we are renaming her Gabre Mira Reeves. Gabre is Amharic and pronounced [Gau bray]. The pictures below are the most recent from mid January and her referral picture.

Introducing.............Gabre Mira Reeves

Today is the Day

Today is the day we should find out if we passed court. Since this is our third court day you would think the wait would be easier. Instead we are more nervous, unsure and just plain scared. I think we will find out late in the day. This has been the case for the past two court days.
This is definitely the hardest part of adoption. You become so attached to pictures and in our case also a video. As adoptive parents with referrals we feel like they are our children, but the truth is they are not. It is a strange feeling being between two worlds.

One More....

Two beautiful adoption Videos.(you need sound for these videos)

I may have a Problem.......

Here is a picture of Gabre's closet. These are just for this summer (6-12 months).

I guess this is what happens when an adoption takes 2 years. I started buying clothes for our baby from China and just kept buying for two years. Our Ethiopian baby will be well dressed.

A few summer shoes..........

I love this stroller. It is by Valco and it is "the Buggster".

Happy Thoughts

I know of two families who have court today. Well had court last night because Ethiopia is 8 hours ahead. The Rodda family(Roddapalooza, IAN family) and Karen and Patrick(our family expansion). I am sending happy thoughts to them.

There is no way to prepare for your court day. You are a bundle of nerves. Most adoptions in Ethiopia go through on the first court date. Although we are not alone with our multiple court dates. I was ready for the first delay and new court date. The second delay hurt........

Our Referral

Our referral came about a little different than most referrals. Last summer I started researching agencies that assist in adoptions from Ethiopia. I must have called 20+ agencies. Quickly I was able to make a "short list". In late October I started to recall the agencies on the "short list". I started with my first choice IAN (International Adoption Net) and they happened to have a baby girl they were fostering. At the time Scott was traveling with his laptop and I told him to pull over to see a picture of the baby girl. He did and said "She is really cute". I called the agency back that day and said we were very interested in adopting the baby girl. I refer to her as the baby girl because IAN just received pictures of her, but did not have her medical with her name as of yet. We soon found out her name, Banchigeze Tamru. Her estimated birth date is 9.23.07. Her birth mother is unable to raise her and she has been at the orphanage The Hope for the Abandoned Children and Orphanage Care Association since October 07. We are going to name her Gabre Mira. Gabre is Amharic and Mira is after her grandmother Myra who has passed away. Our Ethiopia adoption has gone extremely fast. We are thankful for that because our China adoption my never happen.

Our third court date is this Sat. April 5. This is our third court date because there is a known birth mother. The courts requested three witnesses that the birth mother can not raise her baby. The mother was late with the witnesses for the second court date. IAN facilitator, Abebe, says all should be fine on April 5 because the mother has now provided the witnesses. It is difficult knowing her mother cannot raise her. We are soooo attached to her, but we feel sad for her and her birth mother. We hope her birth mother knows we will love her as much as she does.

Saturday cannot come fast enough.................

A little more about us

First of all do not call the embassy in Ethiopia. You will just pay a $1 a minute to hear really bad elevator music. I did however locate an email address that goes to the right person at the embassy and that email is ConsAdoptionAddis@state.gov Our paper work is at the embassy and all is well on that front.

Scott and I have been married for 10 years, but together for almost 17 years. How old are we you may ask? We are 34 and 32 respectively. I was 15 years old when Scott wrote me a very sweet note telling me how he liked this girl with red hair. Well, I was the girl with red hair. We have been together ever since even though we went to colleges thousands of miles apart. We started our married life living in New York City and it was great.... We still believe NYC is the greatest City ever. After NYC we moved to Fort Collins Colorado and ended (for now) in Austin Texas. Through all these moves have been our kids with fur. We are crazy crazy crazy about our dogs and everyone else's dogs. Mostly we have and have had (some of our kids have passed) Cocker Spaniels. There is just something about the Cocker Spaniel we love.

Our adoption journey started about two years ago. We started down the road of adoption hoping to end in China. After realizing this could take 4 years we started looking into other options. We had a hard time exploring an adoption from another country because of our strong bond to our China adoption. I didn't start researching other countries until the summer of 2007. Scott was extremely apprehensive and felt very uneasy about international adoption in general (after being told our baby from China would be in our arms in 10 months NOT four years). We found the Bottomly's blog (Ethiopia or bust) and read their entire blog. We felt an adoption through Ethiopia could be right for us.
After a lot of research into agencies we found the one right for us, International Adoption Net(IAN). We wanted a smaller agency this time around. One morning I called IAN to inquire some more about the Ethiopia program and they said there was a baby girl IAN was fostering. We saw her picture and knew she was our daughter. We have our 3rd court date April5. We are sure three times is a charm.

~Leah and Scott Reeves~

First Post

This is my first post. I guess I have been to busy reading everyone else's blogs to create my own.
Well we are waiting for our third court appointment on April 5. The delays are do to paper work. The delays are hard, but I know we will be holding our baby girl very soon. I am calling The Embassy in Ethiopia tonight to make sure they have received our I-171h. We had problems with our I-171h for China getting to China.
I have been reading Ethiopia adoption blogs since last June. I first found the Bottomly's blog and it just snowballed from there. Scott(my hubby) thinks I have a problem........not a problem maybe an addiction.