What does the rest of the process look like?

After a satisfactory court ruling D is legally our daughter but still a citizen of Ethiopia. We need to get her a visa issued by the U.S. Embassy in ET that will allow her into the U.S. This is how I understand it works:

-After we pass court, the Ethiopian government has to issue a birth certificate for D. Children in Ethiopia don't automatically get birth certificates when they're born (birth dates aren't kept track of there like in the U.S. Indeed, D's birth date is estimated). By the way, D's name on her Ethiopian birth certificate will be "D J L" Kinda cute. It follows the ET'ian custom of giving a child a first name but her last name is her father's first name.

-Once D J L gets her birth certificate then she can get her Ethiopian passport.

-Next, the court decree, birth certificate and passport are submitted to the U.S. embassy (keep in mind that all this stuff has to be translated from Amharic to English first).

-D must have a physical exam performed by a US approved embassy doctor. She'll be screened for HIV, tuberculosis, etc. (she was tested for all these things at the orphanage before we got her referral, too). I imagine they would deny her a visa if she had certain diseases (I'm not sure what though. But I do know that being positive for TB gets her a 6mo quarantine).

-Finally, a U.S. embassy appointment is scheduled (this is when we get to travel). We accompany Dunya to the US embassy, answer some questions, and a visa is issued allowing her to enter the US!

-Once in the US we will need to get her a US birth certificate, US passport and go through a "re-adoption". This is a formality as she is already legally our daughter.

Right now we are tentatively scheduled for an Embassy date of 3/29. But things don't always go through court perfectly the first time so we'll see. Also, we may want to go two weeks later so A can travel with us.

Lauren