One Year Ago Tonight...

...we officially became parents. After waiting through multiple disappointing court delays and finding out that our next court date wouldn't be until November 13, we got a surprise email telling us that our adoption case had been approved by the Ethiopian courts. Mihret was officially our daughter forever and ever! After that, everything went incredibly fast. Three weeks later - on November 13 to be exact - we had flown half way around the world and were holding our daughter in our arms for the first time...but that is a reflection for another time.

Clearly thrilled by the court news
(Taken last year (October 29, 2007) by another family who was in Ethiopia to pick up their son)

There is one more step that we need to go through to complete Mihret's adoption. Since we didn't see her before her adoption was completed in Ethiopia, we need to go through the US courts to do an "adoption finalization." We submitted our paperwork to the courts this fall but were still waiting for a court date. Today - on the one year anniversary of Mihret's official adoption - we got a notice in the mail telling us that our assigned US court date is November 12th - almost exactly a year from the day we picked up Mihret from the orphanage in Ethiopia. Pretty amazing!

Piles and piles of pumpkins...now there's something to get excited about!
(Taken a week ago at an LA-style pumpkin patch [i.e. abandoned lot covered with hay, stacked with pumpkins, and featuring a Spider-man bouncy house...ah, autumn in LA...])