Meskerem 26, 2003

While we may think of today as October 6, 2010, on the Ethiopian calendar today is Meskerem 26, 2003. This difference in calendars led to a translation error for our court date so this past Monday we were informed that our court date is actually one day earlier than we originally thought. Technically our original travel arrangements could have still worked but they left us with no wiggle room and when we are travelling half way around the world to meet our daughter for the first time and to go to court to become her legal parents, well that just wasn't working for us. We contacted our WONDERFUL travel agent who was able to change our flights so that we now arrive a day and a half earlier than planned. The grandparents are able to come up two days earlier and we were able to extend our guest house stay while in Ethiopia so everything worked out great. Of course in the moment, I was a total basketcase and Pete was wonderful at calming me down and helping me to see the big picture.

To make the day even more stressful, I decided to call immigration and find out the status of our immigration form that we will need for the second trip. Basically the answer was, you'll get it in 1-2 months and there is nothing you can do to expedite it. I figured we would face that issue after our first trip so I was thrilled when I checked the mail that night and found our approval notice!

So now that my near panic attack has passed, I am making lists and planning for our trip. There are so many emotions, I can't even begin to describe them all.