Court Date – Again!

Tuesday is our third attempt at adoption court in Ethiopia.  Actually. with the eight hour time difference, our hearing will probably take place sometime while we sleep tomorrow night.

Our adoption process has had it’s ups and downs.  During the home study and paperwork phase everything went smoothly until it came to getting a background check on my time in the Republic of Panama.

Those types of records are difficult to come by when a country has gone through a couple of government overhauls.  We were continually pointed to different agencies and different government departments, both U.S. and Panamanian.

Finally, we got the letter we needed, right when we also figured out that Panama was one of the countries listed where a background check was not needed (because they don’t keep those types of records).

After the paperwork was submitted, the process picked up quickly.  On March 30, we received the referral for a 9-day old baby boy that had been abandoned.  Our first court date was then set for June 4.  Wow! There was a good chance we would be going to Ethiopia at the end of June to pick up our new baby.

Unfortunately, our first court date was derailed.  In May, Ethiopia put a ban on all abandonment adoption cases.  It seems there was some questions about unusual number of abandoned children.  The government started an investigation and no cases would be seen until the investigation was completed.

We spent the next six weeks cruising web sites to see if we could get any information on the progress of the investigation.  Most of the information we found usually turned out to be just rumors.  There was nothing to do but wait.

Finally, news broke that the investigation was over and cases would again be processed.  We got a new court date for July 10 – yeah!  But wait – the government agency responsible for writing the paperwork needed for the court case decided to close on July 8 for two weeks of training.  Without the MOWA paperwork, our case was once again not heard.

The outlook was beginning to look grim for getting our baby before later in the fall.  The Ethiopian courts close in August and September because of the rainy season.  With our July 8 court date falling through there was a good chance we’d get bumped back all the way until October.

Fortunately, we got the call a few days later and we received our newest court date for July 28.  So here we are again.

We’ve grown a lot through this process.  We know that many people have had to endure many more struggles than us.  We know we are blessed, whenever God finally decides to officially give our little boy over to our care.  In the mean time, God is taking care of him through the wonderful “special mothers” at Hanna’s Hope.

If you’ve bothered to read this post, please pray for the courts to pass our paperwork and pray for our patience over the next 48 hours.