We were notified yesterday morning we have a new court date. November 9th.
A little recap, shall we? We learned Tuesday, October 27th, we did not pass our first court date due to lack of paperwork and that our case would not be rescheduled but instead would be heard ASAP once the paperwork problem was fixed. Now we're being told our court date has been rescheduled for November 9th, along with a few other (4 or 5) families with our agency who were given this date a couple weeks ago as their first court date. So it appears they are, after all, fitting us in. This is good news and we are happy, although maybe a little guarded. Okay, I'll speak for myself. I am a lot guarded. I feel we may be getting "best case scenario" information instead of reality. The bottom line is this: Ethiopia is 8,000 miles away. They are oftentimes lucky to have electricity for 24 straight hours let alone a decent Internet connection. The communication sucks. It's like that game, Telephone, where you start with a message with Person No. 1 and by the time it gets to Person No. 5, it is no longer the same message and you're not sure what is accurate and what is not. Hopefully we will be on the receiving end of a good, accurate message next Monday! Until then I will continue to feel like laughing, screaming, and crying all at the same time. That's totally normal; right?
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
No-Go on Court = More Waiting
Well, we did not pass court. And we also just learned today that our case was actually heard on Monday, the 26th, and not Tuesday, the 27th. Minor, immaterial detail, but still thought I'd mention it anyway. There was another case that was heard with ours yesterday that also did not pass for the same reason. At this point we are being told "additional documentation is needed." This means more documentation is required to be produced by the orphanage/agency in Ethiopia, not on our part. Unfortunately, there is nothing Roger nor I can do at this point to help get our case through court. It is out of our hands. We are, of course, saddened by this news, but at the same time it's things like this we've become pretty accustomed to. Nothing is a guarantee in this process. There is no guaranteed time frame. We are hoping it is something very minor that can be fixed or added to to make the paperwork complete. We have been told by our agency that once the issue is taken care of, our case can be reheard ASAP, meaning we don't have to wait to be reassigned a new court date. So for now we will sit tight and wait. Imagine that.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
What we are looking for next Tuesday
People keep asking more and more questions about the next step: Court. While I could go on and on trying to explain it (and I'm not even sure I know) I figured I would just give you a couple of images to pray for/visualize. Any of the following stamped on our paperwork next Tuesday would be perfectly wonderful. Hope this helps.
Friday, October 16, 2009
WE HAVE A COURT DATE!!
We received word this afternoon that we have a court date -- OCTOBER 27th!! It is less than two weeks away! This is very surprising -- AND WONDERFUL -- news!! We were expecting to wait much longer before we were assigned a court date. While this is a huge milestone in our adoption process, it is also a HUGE HURDLE that has yet to be accomplished. There is by no means a guarantee that we will pass court on our first try. Many, many things have to come together just perfectly for us to pass that day, and the only way that will happen is by the grace of God. Please continue to keep us and Ari in your prayers. We are still hoping to have this little boy home for Christmas!!
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Court Update
I just thought I'd let everyone know that the Ethiopian courts reopened this past Monday, October 12th. We have not heard any news specific to us yet, but we are very, very, very happy to know that the court doors are indeed open and cases are being heard, paperwork filed, etc. I read an Internet rumor that the courts delayed opening by a week for training because -- here's the interesting/maybe rumor part -- all of the judges from before court closure resigned. Seriously, what does that mean? I'm trying not to let it bother me, but wow, that's disturbing. The good news is court has been reopen for three days now and I've read/heard about multiple cases passing already and a whole lot of cases being filed. This is good news, for sure, so maybe we needed some new judges? If there's anyone out there who has some concrete information on this, I'd love to hear it.
We also received two new pictures of Ari yesterday. Roger and I are still priding ourselves on the fact that we were able to recognize him from approximately 30 pictures of, well, 30 other babies. He. is. gorgeous. And his hair has grown a lot in the last month! And we were lucky enough to get a picture of him awake and holy cow his eyes are amazing. And he has chubby little fat rolls on his legs. Oh, he just melts me. Please pray for Ari's continued health/well-being and for us to receive a quick court date. I know there's so many of our friends and family out there thinking of us, wishing there was something that could be done that would make this process move faster, and if we could all just direct our thoughts and wishes into prayer, I think it would be so powerful. Thank you again to all of you for your continued support.
We also received two new pictures of Ari yesterday. Roger and I are still priding ourselves on the fact that we were able to recognize him from approximately 30 pictures of, well, 30 other babies. He. is. gorgeous. And his hair has grown a lot in the last month! And we were lucky enough to get a picture of him awake and holy cow his eyes are amazing. And he has chubby little fat rolls on his legs. Oh, he just melts me. Please pray for Ari's continued health/well-being and for us to receive a quick court date. I know there's so many of our friends and family out there thinking of us, wishing there was something that could be done that would make this process move faster, and if we could all just direct our thoughts and wishes into prayer, I think it would be so powerful. Thank you again to all of you for your continued support.
Friday, October 9, 2009
IF...
I have a strange feeling that IF Mr. Ari was home right now he would be with Abby and one (or both) Grandma's. Headed to JCPenney for a 3-month-old, $4.99, portrait setting. Today marks the 3-month anniversary of the day he was born. We are still patiently waiting for any news about court. Until then we just keep looking at pictures we have and praying for his health and comfort. Hopefully we will get lots of news in the coming weeks. Courts are "scheduled" to open next week and we are expecting more pictures from a traveling family. This is exactly what we signed up for, but still hard life.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Waiting, Waiting, Waiting....for ARI
Yes, we finally told the grandparents and family our little guy's name! We got sick of waiting. Imagine that! Us, sick of waiting! In case you've never heard it, it's pronounced like this -- "R.E." Not like Ariel on the Little Mermaid. Roger suggested the name Ari many, many moons ago, before we even decided to adopt, and it's always stuck with us. We love it. And we think he looks like an Ari. So there you have it! Now if I could just post his face with his name!
On a crappy note, we found out yesterday that the Ethiopian courts have delayed their re-opening. All summer we were told courts would be reopening on October 5th. Now there is talk they won't open until October 12th due to training. Or maybe even later depending on where you get your information. It really sucks. We are trying to remain optimistic. And patient. Really trying. We are sooooo over waiting. We have been waiting for so long, I can't remember what it feels like to not be waiting. You'd think we would have made Waiting our friend by now since he's been a part of our lives for so long. But, no. We despise him. We are ready for the next phase of our life to begin, thank you very much.
To be clear, we are not expecting to be assigned a court date the minute court opens because, seriously, that is just completely unrealistic. We were just hoping to hear sometime in October that we have been assigned a court date and then to actually go to court and pass by the end of the year. That's not too much to ask for; right? And that could technically still happen, but with all the unexpected, never-ending delays, I think the chances of that coming to fruition are getting slimmer and slimmer. Maybe he'll be home by Valentine's Day. I should probably set my sights on that now instead of Christmas.
To all of you Ethiopian adoptive families out there (or anyone else who just wants to stay in the know), I've found a blog that has proven to be a great resource for getting reliable Ethiopian adoption-related information. It was started this past spring during the abandonment issues, but it has continued on it because it is such a great resource. It is http://www.ethioadoptionnews.blogspot.com/. Basically it works like this: Adoptive (waiting) families can email what their agency has told them about court, embassy, MOWA, change in procedures, wait times, etc., and then the blog administrator posts anonymously all the different emails she's received. The source of the information is not revealed (i.e., what specific agency is saying what), but you basically get to look at the whole picture and get an overall sense of what multiple agencies are telling their families and then decide for yourself what is most likely to be true depending on how many agencies are saying the same thing. To rely on one agency (even your own!) for timely updates and info we've come to learn is pretty ineffective and scarce.
So there's our update. I apologize for the lack of blogging. It's mostly because we haven't had anything exciting to talk about . We're just anxiously awaiting court to re-open and to get assigned a court date. Mostly we're just trying to not get sucked into the suckiness of this waiting, and that sometimes includes taking a break from the blog. We have done so well since receiving his referral; we're just trying to stay distracted and busy so we don't go back to the not-so-great emotional place we were about two months ago. We have received some beautiful pictures of Ari, though, and for that we are so grateful. He is a beautiful baby, and I'm not just saying that. And he looks really healthy and peaceful. He's sleeping in all but three pictures we've received so far. Hopefully that habit will continue on when he gets home?!? In some ways his pictures make the waiting easier and in some ways it makes it harder. I look at his pictures and just want to reach my hands into the photograph and pick him up. I have a conversation with myself on a daily basis how it would be totally reasonable and financially feasible for me to fly to Ethiopia and visit him, meet him, love on him, let him know that he has two parents who are just beside themselves with anticipation to love him and make him the center of their world. And then that thought process leads to how it would be more than fine if I just stayed over there and visited him every day at the orphanage until we pass court.....and then Roger gets there ....and we go to our embassy appointment...and get on an airplane and fly home. Someday.
On a crappy note, we found out yesterday that the Ethiopian courts have delayed their re-opening. All summer we were told courts would be reopening on October 5th. Now there is talk they won't open until October 12th due to training. Or maybe even later depending on where you get your information. It really sucks. We are trying to remain optimistic. And patient. Really trying. We are sooooo over waiting. We have been waiting for so long, I can't remember what it feels like to not be waiting. You'd think we would have made Waiting our friend by now since he's been a part of our lives for so long. But, no. We despise him. We are ready for the next phase of our life to begin, thank you very much.
To be clear, we are not expecting to be assigned a court date the minute court opens because, seriously, that is just completely unrealistic. We were just hoping to hear sometime in October that we have been assigned a court date and then to actually go to court and pass by the end of the year. That's not too much to ask for; right? And that could technically still happen, but with all the unexpected, never-ending delays, I think the chances of that coming to fruition are getting slimmer and slimmer. Maybe he'll be home by Valentine's Day. I should probably set my sights on that now instead of Christmas.
To all of you Ethiopian adoptive families out there (or anyone else who just wants to stay in the know), I've found a blog that has proven to be a great resource for getting reliable Ethiopian adoption-related information. It was started this past spring during the abandonment issues, but it has continued on it because it is such a great resource. It is http://www.ethioadoptionnews.blogspot.com/. Basically it works like this: Adoptive (waiting) families can email what their agency has told them about court, embassy, MOWA, change in procedures, wait times, etc., and then the blog administrator posts anonymously all the different emails she's received. The source of the information is not revealed (i.e., what specific agency is saying what), but you basically get to look at the whole picture and get an overall sense of what multiple agencies are telling their families and then decide for yourself what is most likely to be true depending on how many agencies are saying the same thing. To rely on one agency (even your own!) for timely updates and info we've come to learn is pretty ineffective and scarce.
So there's our update. I apologize for the lack of blogging. It's mostly because we haven't had anything exciting to talk about . We're just anxiously awaiting court to re-open and to get assigned a court date. Mostly we're just trying to not get sucked into the suckiness of this waiting, and that sometimes includes taking a break from the blog. We have done so well since receiving his referral; we're just trying to stay distracted and busy so we don't go back to the not-so-great emotional place we were about two months ago. We have received some beautiful pictures of Ari, though, and for that we are so grateful. He is a beautiful baby, and I'm not just saying that. And he looks really healthy and peaceful. He's sleeping in all but three pictures we've received so far. Hopefully that habit will continue on when he gets home?!? In some ways his pictures make the waiting easier and in some ways it makes it harder. I look at his pictures and just want to reach my hands into the photograph and pick him up. I have a conversation with myself on a daily basis how it would be totally reasonable and financially feasible for me to fly to Ethiopia and visit him, meet him, love on him, let him know that he has two parents who are just beside themselves with anticipation to love him and make him the center of their world. And then that thought process leads to how it would be more than fine if I just stayed over there and visited him every day at the orphanage until we pass court.....and then Roger gets there ....and we go to our embassy appointment...and get on an airplane and fly home. Someday.
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