No, we do NOT have our referral yet! However, there is other awesome news. Until recently, there have only been two judges to hear adoption cases in Ethiopia-which means things have been moving VERY SLOWLY. Example-once a family receives their referral (i.e. find out who their baby is), it has been taking about four months for them to get a court date in Ethiopia (i.e. the date the child is legally theirs). This is a process that used to take about two months. With the addition of this third judge, this means that those families who have known who their precious children are and have been assigned court dates four months later, will most likely have their court dates moved up! This means they will be getting their precious babies home much sooner! YIPPEE! 
What does this mean for Matt and I? Well, if this process really does speed up, then once we receive our referral, we should have a shorter wait for a court date too. However, since we are having our baby/ies escorted from Ethiopia (which adds some time to the homecoming) and the state we live in has a notoriously S-L-O-W Immigration system, we will be lucky if our sweet one/s will be home by the end of the year. I hate to say, "oh well" but it is not in our hands. I am just so happy for those families who have been waiting for or who have a court date that is many months away-they should be seeing their new ones sooner than they expected! On the home front, we are *supposed* to have a nice little snow storm this weekend. I am praying that this really does happen! I do not have to work this weekend, and Alina Jayne and I have a snowman to build. The last significant snowfall was the fluffy, powdery kind-no snowballs or snowmen from that!
More later!
