First, I got a phone call from a very nice Ethiopian lady on one of the Yahoo boards who helped me with the girls' names. Selam is easy to say, pretty much just the way it looks. Fikir is hard for us English speaking Americans. It's almost like one syllable and a little guttaral. We are going to keep the Ethiopian names for their middle names, so the twins will be Candace Selam and Sarah Fikir. Candace is a biblical name for the queen of Ethiopia and Selam means "peace". Sarah is a Hebrew name that is also sometimes used in Ethiopia and means "princess", while Fikir means "love".
Secondly, we found out today that the twins are currently living in an orphanage compound in the city of Nazret in Ethiopia. This city is also known as Adama. It is a large city with a university and is located at a major crossroads of Ethiopia about 62 miles southeast of Addis Ababa. It is the capital of the Oromia region of Ethiopia.
Grace from Hope Adoptions said that the girls will be moved to Addis soon, and then we will be able to send them photos. She also said that they need to pass through a lower court in Nazret and then the case can be filed in Addis. She expected this to all happen fairly soon. After the case is filed in Addis, we should find out when our court date to approve the adoption will be. As far as the twins' family, she said she thought they had a living grandmother, but she isn't positive and will have to double check. I expect we will find out more about that later.
I just get so excited over every little new detail!
