Case Filed with Embassy

Yesterday morning we received an email from the US Embassy in Ethiopia infroming us that our case had been filed! According to the email it can take a few weeks to a few months for the Embassy to go over our paperwork, complete their investigation, and set up an appointment for us to go to Ethiopia and pick up Liam and meet with the Embassy to get his visa and his citizenship paperwork. 

Our adoption agent also emailed me to say that Liam is doing great and that he is always smiling. :) He is such a happy baby! We are so blessed! He also attached a new picture of him, he is getting so big. We cannot wait to go pick him up!!! It’s finally happening after 7 long months of waiting we are so close! Jimbo said that it normally takes 4-6 weeks to get an appointment with the Embassy which is awesome I am praying for 4 weeks but planning for 8 weeks from past experience.....

As of right now Liam's name is actually Tamirat Joshua, we will have to change it once we get back into the US. We decided to change his name since Tamirat probably isn't a very good name to go through school with in America, especially since his nickname is Tami. Kids can be very mean. Tamirat is a very popular name in Ethiopia and in most Muslim countries; it means amazing or miracle, which suits him very well. His original name is Tamirat Abreham but had to be changed to complete the adoption. We are going to keep Abreham as his middle name. I have read a lot about changing names so it might be challenging at first but he should adapt very quickly, especially since everything will be changing for him. But in case you hear us calling him Tami Liam or Liam Tami this is why, you say both names together and then eventually you just keep the one name when he is used to hearing himself being called by his new name.

I'm very nervous about traveling back to Ethiopia since I will be 4-5 months pregnant, I was very very sick the whole time we were there in December and I am afraid it will happen again. I am also nervous about the two 8 hour plane rides there and back. Please pray for me that I will not be sick or have any issues traveling. 

We are so thankful and so relieved that Liam is healthy and happy! It is so nice to know we are in the home stretch and that we will be bringing our baby home very soon! Also very glad that now we are working with America! God is so Good!!!