Our New Favorite Letter!!!

So, can you guess our new favorite letter? Yep, you guessed it! M!!! We got word today that our case was officially filed in court on May 29th and that we are in Group M! M is a good letter for us!

• M for Mekonen!
• M for court group!
  

The adoption cases are filed in court by letters of the alphabet. The court cases are heard by the judge in order of the alphabet letters. Groups K & L are next in line to be heard and their court date is on June 8th! Their court date (specifically Group L) is MUCH sooner than we anticipated. The good news with that is the fact that Group M is next to receive a court date! Maybe we can even get a June court date! Our agency said today that it has been about 2-3 weeks until we hear when our court date is. Once we pass court, we will travel about 3 weeks later to pick up Mekonen! Whoa!

HOWEVER the trick is: Passing court the 1st time! Not all cases will pass court on the first try. We know families who had a very long and difficult court process and many families who passed with flying colors the first time. If we don't pass court it doesn't mean that Mekonen is not ours. It just means that they have to correct whatever paperwork problem there is and try again. We have already been approved by the Ethiopian Government to adopt, so if there is a problem and we don't pass court, it is not because of us or our paperwork. Common reasons people don't pass court are things like, missing paperwork, power outages, birth family not showing up if applicable, a file being misplaced, etc.

So, our current, very pressing prayer needs:
1) A SPEEDY court date- June specifically
2) That we pass court the 1st time!

In the meantime, we are anxiously awaiting videos and pictures of Mekonen! Some friends of ours are in Ethiopia right now picking up their babies!!! How exciting! We got to hang out with our friend Corrie and her family a few days before they left and it was so exciting to see all their luggage packed and the nursery set up! She sent two different emails so far and here's what she said about our darling baby!

Mekonen is beautiful and HAPPY! He rolls over and smiles and giggles when you play with him. An absolute doll. He was sitting in the bumbo today. He really is precious Rachael. I can't wait for you guys to come here. The nannies LOVE the babies and they are always kissing and holding them.

Mekonen is rolling all over the place. Andy got video of a lot of our babies yesterday and I'm gonna get more tomorrow. We got Mekonen smiling and playing and giggling!!!! He is a happy baby, Rachael.

I cannot WAIT to see those videos and pictures. I can't believe he is rolling over! First big milestone. As long as we get to him before he starts walking! :)