Court Dates!

Finally!  Just before I sat down for an early morning water agency meeting today my phone vibrated to let me know I had a new email message.  I almost ignored it because I needed to talk to a colleague before the meeting, but she was distracted by someone else just long enough for me to skim through my new messages to see the subject line "Court Dates."

Yep, we actually have two court dates: November 12th and December 14th.  There have always been two court dates in the Ethiopian adoption system, but the way the dates work has been changing rapidly.  When Brent and I first applied to adopt from Ethiopia, court dates were something that you waited for with anticipation, but they did not mean travel to Ethiopia.  The first date was for the Ministry of Woman's Affairs to make their recommendation on your case and for the child's birth family members, if they had any, to appear in court.  Often times, the first court date did not go smoothly - a piece of paperwork was missing, the birth family was not able to make it in, etc. - and it would have to be rescheduled, pushing back the second court date.  Some families have actually had 4+ first court dates.  The second court date was when you became the legal guardian of your child(ren) and was handled by proxy by your agency's lawyer.  Shortly after we began the adoption process, however, the system changed and parents could no longer let their agency's lawyer stand in for them by proxy.  Adoptive parents are now required to travel to Ethiopia and meet their child(ren) before appearing in court to become their legal guardians.  This is a good thing, even though it means a greater overall adoption expense.

Just last week, the process changed again.  Now, adoptive parents are allowed to travel for the first court date, if they choose.  Basically, by doing this, the two court dates are combined, and the length of time it takes to bring your children home is shortened because there is no wait time in between the two dates.  I thought though that it meant that if anything went wrong at that first court date you might have to travel again for the second court date.  With the cost of airfare, this seemed like a BIG risk.

However, after receiving our court dates today I called our agency to get clarification about the new system.  Our agency director confirmed that we can travel for the first court date and if anything goes wrong it will be resolved in Ethiopia after the fact.  There is no need for us to return because we will have fulfilled our court requirements as the adoptive parents.

Which means - WE'RE GOING TO ETHIOPIA IN NOVEMBER!  I have already called the travel agent to start looking into travel options.  It looks like we will probably leave sometime around November 6th-8th and return either around the 19th or the 27th.  Yes, our departure is only weeks away!  Brent, my mom, and I need to sit down and figure out what trip length makes the most sense for everybody and if we are interested in spending Thanksgiving in Ethiopia.  I am thinking the more time over there the better, but they may have a more logical approach to consider.  Of course, we'll keep you posted.