what is a referral?

oh adoption terminology.  I still get confused by it all. 
my friend keight asked me to explain what exactly a referral is...and what happens next in the process.
gladly.
a referral happens when our agency calls us and tells us that they have matched us with a child.  we receive a picture of the child along with their history and medical information.  then, we accept the child's referral.  unfortunately we won't be able to share pictures on our blog or facebook.  so you'll have to take our word for it that he is beautiful...because I know he will be :).  once the acceptance papers are received by holt they are sent to ethiopia for the MOWYCA (ministry of women, youth, and children affairs) for approval. 
THEN after that approval a court date is scheduled.  the time frame from a referral acceptance to court date is up to 4 months (at this point).  when pete and I fly to ethiopia for our court date we get to meet our child.  then we'll travel back home and wait for our visa interview date to be assigned by the US embassy in ethiopia.  this can take 3 months or so.
after ALL of that is approved and final we are granted guardianship and are DONE with the adoption process in ethiopia.  and we bring our son to his new home.
after he is home we will have to finalize his adoption according to US law in texas.

so there's a sort of brief summary.
looking forward to adding another set of feet to my dishwashing helper chair.