Video

It's been a wild couple of weeks, trying to wrap my brain around the idea of being a mom. It's all very exciting. The latest round of paperwork should be on its way to Ethiopia within a few days. Once it's there, the in-country representative of my adoption agency will work to get me a court date. My understanding from the timeline shared by other families is that the court date should be between 2 and 3 months from now. The purpose of the court date is to declare me her legal guardian. After that happens, she'll legally be my daughter and I can post her photo.

I got a video of Semira in the mail yesterday. It's only 2 minutes and 10 seconds long, but it's wonderful! So much more satisfying than the single photo I had of her. I got to hear her little voice, see her smile and yawn, and grab someone's finger. She looks so healthy, and her smile is so cute. I think I've watched it about 50 times since this time yesterday.

Semira has received her first baby gifts. The very first came from my friends Tim and Lisa-- a stuffed Winnie the Pooh. Semira's grandma found an adorable quilt in the shape of a teddy bear at a craft fair. She also has a soft blanket from her Uncle Jeremy and a pair of pink sparkly shoes from her Aunt CP. If CP has anything to do with her wardrobe she'll have fabulous shoes for the rest of her life. It's good that she'll have someone to help guide her fashion sense since I have so little of it myself.

What a great Christmas it's been, knowing what my daughter's name is, what she looks like, and approximately when I'll have her home with me. I think 2009 is going to be a great year.

SEMIRA!

I received the news I'd been waiting to hear yesterday... I have a daughter! Well, I almost have a daughter. I received information about a beautiful little girl named Semira. She's 4 months old and all of her medical tests indicate that she's very healthy. I wish I could post her picture, but I'm not allowed to do that because she's not legally my child yet.

The next step for me is to complete paperwork, then our files are forwarded together to the Ministry of Women's Affairs in Addis Abeba. After that, we're assigned a court date where she'll legally become my daughter. Presuming all goes well with court, the last difficult wait is for an embassy date in Ethiopia. The embassy date is what determines when I travel to get her. I expect these next steps to take between 3 and 5 months.

Exciting!