Still no Court Date in Sight

It's been more than four weeks since our referral, and we still have no court date.  Things seem to have slowed (again) in Ethiopia.  I'm still fairly relaxed about it, but what makes me more anxious is the knowledge that our court date won't happen before March (and hopefully no later than that).

It's strange how the situation has kind of become the new normal for me.  Four weeks ago was such a high, and we're still absolutely thrilled with our referral.  But emotionally, it feels like the same-old-same-old now.  The kids (well, their pictures) have been incorporated into our every day lives, but it doesn't feel like we're that much closer to them than we were a month ago.  Does that make sense?  Maybe what I'm trying (very ineptly) to say is that, without a court date, our referral doesn't really seem real.  I feel flat.

Obviously, some things have changed.  We're talking about furniture purchases, various plans that will hopefully incorporate three children into our lives, etc etc.  But we talk about these things less than we did a month ago, or even two weeks ago.  It feels like we need something (ie. a court date) to plan around, something concrete to reach for.  Our agency closes for Christmas holidays in less than two days...it would be really, really, really nice if we received our court date before then.