We're Traveling!

As I sit here, we are 4 days away from traveling to Ethiopia to bring Kaiyin home! It's so exciting and just totally surreal. We have spent the past few weeks making lists, packing, nesting, and frequenting Target. I think we're ready! As ready as anyone can be anyway. The items in the picture are just part of the things we packed in the 4 suitcases we're taking with us! It's crazy! Several people have asked about our travel itinerary so I'm going to post it. Please keep us in your prayers as we travel. We would just love to have a safe and healthy trip so that we can really enjoy our first few days with our little girl. This will probably be my last post before I have a baby in the house! I can't wait to tell you all about her!

• Friday, April 28th- Depart Nashville at 2:17pm, arrive at JFK Airport in New York at 6:15pm.


• Depart JFK at 11:00pm for Dubai. Arrive in Dubai at 7:45pm on Saturday, April 29th. Spend the night in Dubai.


• Depart Dubai at 8:25am on Sunday, April 30th. Arrive into Addis Ababa, Ethiopia at 11:30am on Sunday, the 30th.


• Depart Addis Ababa, Ethiopia at 7:35pm on Friday, September 4th. Arrive in Dubai at 12:45am.


• Depart Dubai at 2:00am. Arrive into JFK Airport at 7:45am on Saturday, September 5th.


• Depart JFK on Delta flight #6489 at 3:25pm. Arrive in Nashville at 5:10pm on September 5th. :)

Introducing Kaiyin Mariam Meseret Burke!!! It's official!

We got the call today! We passed court and this precious baby is officially our little girl! We are still in shock but just so overjoyed. It looks like we will be traveling to Ethiopia around the 27th of August to go pick her up! That's only 16 days away! We're so excited we can hardly stand it! Isn't she just beautiful?! After all these years, all the ups and downs, it all worked out exactly the way it was supposed to in the end. I wouldn't change a minute of it because it led us to Kaiyin. Thanks to everyone who has been praying and sending us love and good thoughts. It's been so awesome to share this journey with you and it's really just beginning. I'll update the blog when we have firm travel dates. Love you all!

Update on Kaiyin

Last week we received our monthly update on Kaiyin. Every month they give us a few more pictures of her, answer some questions that we have asked, and give us updated measurements and developmental information. I soooo wish I could post the pictures we just received of her! She is so precious! I could just suck her little cheeks off! I promise to post them as soon as we pass court so that you guys can put a face to the name. She is doing great! We're told she was healthy all month. She has gained 3 pounds and now weighs 11 pounds. She's also grown in length by over an inch. She's officially going to be taller than me when she's 5. :) She's eating well, trying to hold her head up when she's on her belly, and smiles when the nannies make funny noises for her. There's nothing better than knowing that she is healthy and happy and based on the pictures and information we received, it sounds like both of those things are true.

Who Has Three Baby Showers?!

Apparently when you've been waiting to bring a baby home for as long as we have, that means that your friends and family have also been waiting that long and can't wait to celebrate with you when it actually begins to happen! Can you imagine how it feels to have the kind of support that involves three separate celebrations in honor of your little girl?! It's just been amazing. My work threw us a beautiful baby shower on July 14th. There was a huge cake, tons of presents, a Titan's diaper cake( how cool is that?!), and some of the greatest people anyone could ask to work with. Steve and I were so moved that they had gone through so much trouble for us. We had so much fun!

Next. on July 18th, came a fabulous tea party baby shower thrown for me by my mother-in-law, Gigi, and my sister-in-law. Friday. My mom, sister-in-law, Cindi, and niece, Chris, came in from out of town to celebrate with us. A room full of my best friends, family, tea, dessert, and presents! It was awesome!

Last but not least, Steve and I flew to California where my sister, Mariam, my mom, my Aunt, Mahvash, and my cousin, Nazly, threw us a couple's shower on August 2nd in a beautiful park in Laguna Niguel. Butterflies seem to be popping up everywhere around us lately; on the wall in Kaiyin's room, the logo for our adoption agency, on the dress I chose for the shower, etc... This theme continued with our California shower. My sister decorated lanterns with butterflies that she cut out and there was the most beautiful cake I've ever seen decorated with butterflies. It was so nice to get together with family and friends, eat, share baby stories and celebrate bringing Kaiyin into our lives. It turned out to be a perfect day.

Court Date!!

Well, I'm officially not a good blogger. I promise to try to be better about posting information as it happens. In the meantime, let me get everyone up to speed. First things first, we got our court date!!! Like everything else in this process, there's a story behind how that came to happen. Since we got our referral in June, based on recent patterns, we expected to get a July court date and we probably would have except one of the government offices in Ethiopia closed unexpectedly for two weeks in July. Since the courts in Ethiopia typically close for the rainy season for the months of August and September, we were prepared that this could mean that we wouldn't have a court date until October. We were told by our adoption agency that court closure dates hadn't yet been announced and that there was still a chance that we would get a court date in July or August but to prepare for the difficult news that it could in fact be October before our case is heard by a judge in Ethiopia. We didn't take the news well and prepared ourselves mentally for an October date. In the meantime, Steve and I were being spoiled with multiple baby showers. On July 14th we celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary, had a beautiful baby shower thrown for us at my work, and went to an infant CPR class (yeah I know, such a nurse) so it was a full day. The next day when I checked my email, there it was! The email from our adoption agency telling us that we have a court date! It's August 11th! What a great surprise! Just when we had given up hope that we would have a court date before October, there was the email telling us we have an August court date! Apparently the courts are staying open a few weeks into August this year! We were so excited. This is it! The process to finalize our adoption and make Kaiyin officially our daughter. For those of you who aren't familiar with the process, here's what happens now. On August 11th our case will go before a judge in Ethiopia. We won't be there for the court date. Our adoption agency represents us. About 60% of the cases that go to court pass court the first time. The other 40% don't and will have to have another court date scheduled. Reasons for not passing court will vary and mostly have to do with paperwork and the judge needing to ensure that the baby in question really is an orphan. Obviously we are praying daily that we pass court on the 11th. We also have tentative travel dates! If we pass court on the 11th, we will fly to Ethiopia on August 29th and come home with Kaiyin on September 5th. The bad news is that we've also been given word that the courts will in fact be closing from August 22nd through the end of September so if we don't pass court the first time, our next court date would likely be in October. Please pray for us that we pass on the 11th and can go bring our daughter home. :)