UPDATES & MEET OUR DAUGHTER!!!!

Okay....so, I am officially the worst blogger on the face of the earth....I promise to catch you up on everything that has happened with the adoption....but first, the most important thing....we are officially the parents of the most beautiful baby girl in the world....meet Mia Rahel Flowers.....

Okay....#1....I know that the pictures are in a funny spot....I am lucky that I got them to upload at all...if it weren't for one of my dearest friends, Leslie, they still wouldn't be here =) And if it weren't for prompting from my best friend from high school, I would probably still be avoiding trying to figure it out (thanks, Hannah!). So, with that said.....let me try to catch you up! We heard about our court date on November 10...I got a phone call from our coordinator telling us that we had a court date of December 9th! Not only did we hear about our court date sooner than we had anticipated....but it was also only 5 weeks away. Now, 5 weeks has never felt like such an eternity...but in the adoption world, it is definitely something to be grateful for! So....fast forward thru 5 weeks of me trying to stay busy and come up with other things to think about....and on December 9th....well, at 9:30am we got a phone call from our coordinator saying that they were pretty sure none of our cases were heard and that we were waiting to hear about being rescheduled.....enter 2 of the worst hours we have been thru....it felt like we had been punched in the stomach and had the rug pulled out from under us.....I am so grateful that that feeling only lasted for 2 hours for us and have the utmost empathy for those who have to overcome that feeling on their own and get thru weeks waiting for their next courtdate.....really, my heart goes out to those families in a way that it never could if I hadn't had the tiniest taste of it myself. So...after 2 hours curled in a ball on the couch....we got a call and Allison's exact words were..."I have good news....I have no idea how it happened....but YOU PASSED". And that was it....enter total shock and elation (and some heartsick at the same time for the families that went to court with us and got rescheduled....luckily, we have all passed at this point....which is great!). We spent the rest of the day in a bit of a fog and the next couple of days celebrating. After that I buckled down and got serious about trying to get all of our paperwork, etc. together and start packing. We have been confirmed for the January 27th embassy date (which is 7 weeks from passing court) and we leave from Denver on Friday, January 22nd. We arrive late on the 23rd in Ethiopia and go get our baby on Sunday morning! At this point we are feeling very excited and very blessed.....and to be perfectly honest, alot overwhelmed. We have been trying to sort clothes and clean closets and paint the baby's room and get her added to insurance and all of the stuff you always do with the arrival of a baby......and on top of it, I am doing immigration paperwork, tracking down more paperwork, trying to buy and pack everything we might need and make sure that Nate's parents (who we are so thankful for) have everything they need to watch our magoos while we are gone. AHHHHHH!!!! Like all journeys that are a little overwhelming, this one will be so worth it....but it is still a little overwhelming =)