Daniel's Birthday and Court Dates

Friday afternoon we got an e-mail from our adoption agency that our court case had been scheduled with the Ethiopian courts for May18th!! Throughout the whole process they state that it can take 2 or 3 dates to pass through the Ethiopian court system. Many things can happen to delay the process. In Addis, the capital, there are frequent power outages which of course interrupts the work day. Paper work can be missing or done incorrectly. In certain cases, the relinquishing party has to appear in court for the case, and if they are unable that will delay the case. Sometimes there are just too many cases scheduled on one day and they can not all be heard and end up being rescheduled. Our agency has forewarned us that there are many cases scheduled on May18th, so not to be surprised if the case is rescheduled.

We are still going to be hopeful, though, if all goes well, we will pass court on our first date! May 18th is Daniel's birthday, so we think that is a good sign, somehow. When our adoption case is approved in the Ethiopian court, this will mean we are the legal parents to our boy. Some people have wondered if we have to be in Ethiopia for this date. We do not. We, as far as we know, are in the group of adoptive parents that fall under the "old rule", the one trip rule. We have been told if your court case was submitted to the courts prior to May9th, which ours was, we only have to make one trip to Ethiopia. Cases submitted after May9th, will have to plan to make two trips to Ethiopia to adopt.

If we pass court on May 18th, we will then be waiting for an Embassy appointment in Ethiopia. Yes, I did say waiting, waiting again. This typically happens 6-8 weeks after the adoption has been approved in the Ethiopian High Court. If all goes well, we think we may be traveling as soon as July.