Change

We received some news today from Gladney - Effective immediately, Ethiopia is requiring adoptive parents to be present for the court hearing.  (Previously, parents were only required to travel to pick up their child once they passed court and the child was legally theirs.)  The new policy is actually more in line with what other countries require, but up until this point, Ethiopia had not required it. 

So what does this mean for us?  We will travel to Ethiopia, meet our child, attend our court hearing, stay for about 5 days, come back home (without my baby!), and then go back 3 to 6 weeks later to get the baby, attend our Embassy appointment, stay for about 7 days, and then come home for good. 

I have such mixed emotions about this.  And not really because of the negatives, but just because there's been a change (I guess).  It takes me so long to process my feelings that I'm a little unsure WHAT I'm feeling right now - and I don't want to make a bigger deal of this than it really is, but processing change is a little difficult for me.  Tomorrow I may be over it, and wondering what I was whining about today, but today I'm kind of bummed.  I mean, its GREAT that we get to meet our baby before we thought we were going to get to meet him/her, but then we have to LEAVE him/her and come back home ALONE!  Yeah, that's the part I'm struggling with.

Anyway, there's the update.  Wish I had something cheerier to report :)