No Birth Certificate Yet.

Well, nuts. I really thought we would at least have Asher's birth certificate by now. That is step one to bringing him home. They were taking about 2 weeks and we are at 3 weeks 1 day. I am stalking my e-mail just waiting to see a message from our case manager. I am sure the Dec. 30th date is gone, but now I am getting concerned that we won't even be able to snag the Jan. 12th date.

I e-mailed our case manager yesterday and she said that because the traffic is so bad in Addis (the capital, where Asher/the foster home is) they were clumping kids together for various parts of the process. I have a feeling that we might lose that extra almost two weeks we gained by passing court early. But then again, I am not sure it matters. Our agency has 10 slots at the Embassy ever other week. Those slots are only for kids adopted through CWA. Even if they are "clumping" the kids, I would think they would still maintain some sort of order. So, even if Asher goes with 5 other kids to be "processed" I would think they would still give him an Embassy slot first if he passed court first. Who knows though. It is all such a guessing game.

I did get some really cool feedback from my friend Leslie this past week. She just arrived home with her sweet Solomon a couple weeks ago. Solomon and Asher were at the same foster home. You are not allowed to take pictures of other kids there, but this is what she said:

"I did see Asher. I asked to see him but he was asleep. He was beautiful. He is getting great care in the foster care center. He is in a room with maybe 6 or so other babies, maybe not that many."

How cool is that? She saw him and he is being well taken care of. It made me cry, but happy for my

boy.

Julie