Well, the wonderful news is that a very dear friend of mine--a fellow battle-scarred veteran from the Uganda heartbreak--received news that their court date is scheduled for the middle of May. They are adopting three ADORABLE siblings. We've been on such a long journey together that we are secretly (or not so secretly now) hoping to travel together as a sort of "triumphant" celebration that happy endings do happen.
Our dossier/paperwork HAS been submitted to the court and we hope to hear when our court date will be scheduled by next week. Thursdays seem to be the day, so tune in on Friday and hopefully I'll have some good news...
For those of you in the process of adopting from Ethiopia (or thinking about it), it has now become a requirement that, after May 9th, one parent will be required to be present in Ethiopia for the court date. So, essentially from here on out adopting from Ethiopia will in fact require two trips to Ethiopia. We are lucky in that our paperwork is already submitted to the court so we will not have to travel twice, but we just barely made it!
Another interesting twist has occurred in that one family that is in ET now to pick up their children, ran into an issue at the Embassy where the Embassy doctor claimed their son was 11 (he was supposed to be only eight). The Embassy has now said that the doctors performing the Embassy medical exam will "estimate" the child's age and that if the parent's I-600A doesn't approve them for a child of that age then a homestudy revision will need to occur before they will issue the child a visa to come to the U.S. For parents just starting out this process: BE VERY GENERAL IN YOUR HOME STUDY PREFERENCES and HAVE HIGH AGE RANGES, even if you are not expecting to adopt a child that old. First of all, the child that you think you are looking for might not be the child you are meant to have. Second of all, should the Embassy Doc think your little one is three or four years older than his paperwork says, then you're still approved through the Embassy. We learned this after a number of home study amendments, revisions and an update and wish that someone had suggested this to us in the beginning. Hopefully we will be okay with Miss T--she is aged at six (we know she is probably closer to at least seven) but we are approved through our home study for children up to 10 years old. Still, keep your fingers crossed. I do not agree with totally subjective age assessment, but it is what it is.
So, as I anxiously wait for next week to roll in, I will occupy myself with putting together one more set of care packages (that will travel to ET towards the end of May) and trust that this will truly happen. These girls living half-way across the world from us are truly meant to be our daughters.
This will happen.
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