I Knew It!

We got the certified letter tonight from our accountant after six o'clock. We had called his office all evening wanting to know where it was, and they swore it was overnighted Monday! Well, the letter arrived practically ripped in half, wrinkled, smeared and just generally mangled. When we called our accountant, he said he was sorry but there was nothing he could do about it because UPS was the one who messed it up, and it was too late for him to overnight us another letter in time for us to get it before we fly out on Friday. Ben told him he would drive into Nashville to pick up another letter tomorrow morning, but I told the accountant he needed to have a courier bring it out to us because we needed our last free morning to pack, not to pick up a letter! He said he'd be sure to have it delivered. I think he knew I wasn't too happy with him!

I Feel Like a Chicken Running Around With Her Head Cut Off!

Yikes!

We got our certified letter from Merrill Lynch today to take to our Embassy appointment. We have to prove that our assets are liquid, and can be easily converted within a year's time. Their letter stated instead, "their assets are liquid and can be assessed in a year". Yikes! Fortunately our advisor was still in the office at 6 o'clock tonight. He said he would fix it and overnight us another letter tomorrow. That's kind of scary though because we now won't receive it until Thursday night, and we have to be at the airport Friday morning! If something is wrong this time, we'll have to do some serious scrambling to get it corrected before we leave. We still haven't gotten our certified letter from our accountant. He's such a procrastinator, I'm really afraid we won't get it until Thursday night and something *will* be wrong with it. 

Clothes Chosen And Piled On The Bed!

It's Almost Here!

Bombard Them?

We dug up four years' worth of tax returns today including all the supporting schedules, the tax assessments for our farm, lake house, office and rental house, and our bank statements. Tomorrow we are going to get a certified letter from our accountant verifying our income, number of years in private practice, and his opinion of the health of our business. We are also going to get a certified letter from our Merrill Lynch financial advisor listing our investments in retirement accounts, stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. If we get a hard-nosed Embassy official who doesn't like self-employed adoptive parents with bottom lines that don't look so hot because of good accountants who finds lots of deductions, we'll bombard him with what the government calls "supporting documentation".

Yikes! It's Getting Closer!

Major Panic!

We got our Embassy Packet from Fedex late last night. Since our caseworker already left that day to spend a couple of weeks in Ethiopia to help out the first group of families who are required to go to court, we didn't rush to read things over since we couldn't call her and ask questions anyway.

So this morning we get up early and start looking over our paperwork. Right off we see a little statement that says, "if you are self employed or have reported income less than 125% over the poverty line you are required to have a sponsor." What?!? We are self employed, and because of some major deductions in 2008, that year looks like we aren't even close to the poverty level! We read over the instructions more carefully, and it says that all sponsors are required to provide their current tax return and a W2 or 1099. We don't have either a W2 or a 1099!

MAJOR panic! We are leaving in five days, and now we are supposed to find a sponsor?

I get on the internet and start emailing chat groups, the other caseworkers, and freaking out. I'm tempted to call the cell phone number for one of the caseworkers that is only supposed to be used for emergencies. Is this an emergency? It is for me!

One of the other caseworkers sympathizes with us and writes back this evening telling us we are fine. I'm still not quite sure about the year we had so many deductions and our taxable income was so low, but I think as long as we take along a letter from our accountant and bring some additional paperwork showing our assets, we are going to be OK.

WHEW!!

Closer, Closer

One Week!

Closer, Closer ...

So Much to Do, So Little Time

Countdown To Ethiopia!

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

After studying lists of baby names for a solid year, bugging my poor, patient husband, my older children, and all my friends, we have narrowed down our choices to four names: Holden, Crosby, Sullivan and Ingram. We plan to use Tamirat for his middle name since that name was given to him by his birth mother. Some of the kids think we should drop his Ethiopian name and use two of our favorites, but I think it's important to keep that little part of his heritage.

Baby Clothes

I bought all of Tamirat's clothes for the trip today. I bought 0-3 month clothes. I was really hesitant to buy such tiny clothes, but he falls squarely in the range for that size. The height range is 21.5 to 23 inches, and the weight is 8 to 12 pounds. I bought two pairs of footie pajamas, ten pairs of socks, three sets of long-sleeved onesies, five knit caps, six pairs of stretchy pants, two hoodies, and twelve short-sleeved onesies. All of that fit easily in one small Target bag! I'm going to try to find some additional long-sleeved onesies, which are pretty hard to find in June in Tennessee, and leave some of the short sleeves behind for when we return home to face our 99 degree weather. 

Updated Measurements

We got updated measurements today so we can buy him clothes when we bring him home in *one* month! He now weighs 4.9 kilos (10.8 pounds) and is 56 centimeters (22 inches) long. So since his last measurement on April 22nd, he's gained two pounds and grew a third of an inch. He's still a tiny guy!

Updated Pictures - Sent May 7th

Details, Details

Tamirat was born mid-February of this year, so he's now a little over four months old. He was born in a tiny kebele in the Sidama Zone near Awasa and is currently living in Ajuuja Orphanage. On his birth mother's side, he has both grandparents (younger than us!) and six aunts and uncles, ranging from fourteen years old to six years old. We don't have any information about his birth father. At the time of his referral, he was two months old, weighed 4 kilos (8.8 pounds) and was 55 centimeters (21.65 inches). He's a tiny guy!

Presenting Tamirat Benjamin Shoemaker!

WE PASSED!!!!!

I had given up hearing the results of our court case today, and I was getting nervous because several other families had already posted their news on the chat group. Finally, after suppertime, Megan called to let us know we had passed!! I choked up and started sobbing. Megan told me to go be with my family, and we'd talk about the details at a later date. I couldn't believe the news hit me so hard! I'm not usually a very emotional person - especially showing my feelings to people outside my immediate family. I was calm and almost clinical when Megan called us about our referral, but this news hit me like a ton of bricks! I think I was more nervous about passing court than I let myself believe. Prior to working with WACAP, we'd been turned down by several agencies, including the agency that worked with us on our prior three adoptions, because of our age. I think that, plus the size of our family really had me scared that we would be turned down flat. Today has been way too long, and I am exhausted, but tomorrow I will post the details about Little Peanut and pictures! It's finally allowed now that he is officially our son. OUR SON!!

Court Date

Today is court; actually it was last night Ethiopian time. I don't think I've slept a wink during the past 48 hours. Megan said we shouldn't expect to hear anything for several days. I just hope we hear something by Friday. If we don't, it's going to be a long, long weekend.