Sunday, February 10, 2013

First Court Date

So, here's where we are at right now....

  We knew it would take some time for our paperwork to be translated and then submitted to the Ethiopian court. On January 15 we were told that our paperwork would be submitted to court. Unfortunately, the person in Ethiopia was not able to submit our case until January 25.
  The courts changed the court process a bit back in December. It used to be that after the paperwork was submitted, we would hear two court dates. First, we would hear the court date for the birth parents or the police officer who found our child and then we would receive our court date. Now we receive only the first court date (birth parents/police officer). After this court date takes place the judge will say that our child is an orphan. A few days later they will assign us our court date. Our court date will be around 2 weeks after the first court date. I know..it's confusing!
 I read a bunch of blogs and it seemed like the first court dates were being assigned for about 2 weeks after the submission of paperwork. We thought that the birth parent/police officer's court date would be in the middle of February and our court date would be at the end or first week of March.

On February 1, we received this e-mail from our caseworker:
   "You have your first court date! However it is not until March 19th.  B believes that the court may be taking some time off between now and then and will be closed."

  Needless to say, we were shocked with this news. I know it doesn't seem like that big of deal, but it is to us. Our little boy turns 1 on March 13 and we wanted to meet him before this date. We definitely won't meet him before he turns one and it may not be until he is 13 months. Ugh. I'm so sad. It's hard to explain to people why we are so upset. We saw his precious little face when he was 9 months old and a child develops so much between 9 and 13 months. My mommy heart is just breaking here. I just can't put into words how I feel right now. I need to make sure he is okay and that he is healthy. We get updates every few weeks and they say he is healthy. I need to see him, hold him, and love on him. I NEED to be with my son!
 There is nothing that we can do now. So now we wait until March 19. We wait to hear the news of our court date. We expect our court date to be at the end of March or the beginning of April.
 Please pray for us. Honestly, the anticipation is just exhausting. We appreciate your support and prayers. We KNOW that God is in control and that he has a fabulous plan for our family. We also know that we are SO VERY blessed in SO many ways!
 Thanks for praying for us! I hope to update with positive news soon!:)

1 comment:

  1. Oh Kortny, the wait must be unbearable. I'm so sorry to hear about delays and that you won't see him before he turns one. I read the other post too about the lovey and the album of your family. I know he's feeling your love from miles away. I just know it! Praying that some processes are sped up so he can be with you guys soon.

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