147 Million...Minus One!

This morning, at six o'clock, we received an extremely unexpected phone call. Our case manager, who arrived in Ethiopia for a three-week long visit just yesterday, was calling to let us know that our adoption had been finalized in court. What?!?!!!

We were completely stunned!!! We had not expected this situation to be resolved so quickly and so suddenly! We have no idea what happened. Last week we were told that a staff member on our agency's Ethiopia team was going to visit the orphanage to try to take pictures for us, but she did not think that she would even be allowed on the premises. The case manager we spoke with today said that she worked really hard to get our case through. Whatever happened between then and now, we are sure is a miracle. Thanks to everyone who has been so faithful in praying for our family, and praise be to God for answering our prayers in such an amazing way!

And so, without further ado, we are thrilled and proud to introduce our beautiful daughter, Ana Luisa Bikiltu Pennings.
This picture is a couple months old, because the internet was down in the Ethiopia offices today, so they were not able to send the new ones. I will post those as soon as we receive them. We gave our daughter the first name Ana Luisa, which is my name, my mom's name and my grandmother's name. We are keeping her Ethiopian name, Bikiltu, as her middle name. It means "she is surviving" in Oromo, her native language.

The next step in the process is for the US Embassy to clear Ana Luisa for a visa. It will take 2-4 weeks for the Ethiopian courts to issue her birth certificate. After that, our agency will submit her application for a visa to the US Embassy in Addis. The Embassy will conduct their own investigation to make sure everything was handled ethically and legally, which will take 2-8 weeks, and then they will set our appointment to pick up her visa. Families who have traveled recently have had less than a week's notice of their Embassy appointments, so we need to start packing now!

Current estimates say that there are 147 million orphans worldwide. We are so relieved, thankful, amazed, and thrilled that today, there is one less. Please keep praying for our sweet baby girl, and that the next few steps of the process go by FAST so that she can be in our arms SOON!