Court Day:
We were called to court this morning so we left between 8:30 and 9:00 a.m. They took us into a very crowded room with nowhere to sit by the time we arrived. The room was full of birth parents, orphanage representatives, adoption agency representatives, and prospective adoptive parents. The court clerk would open the door and speak in Amharic or broken English so we really relied on our guides to help us know when it was our turn to go into the court room. The trend seem to be the orphanage representatives went first, then the birth families went into (to give their consent for the adoption), and last the prospective adoptive parents. We got the privilege to go last in our group so we waited about 2 ½ hours in that room. No one in our group passed because the government letter was not there so we had fairly low expectations for ourselves (although I was still hopeful). We went into the court room and gave our passports as identification. The judge (a very young looking woman) addressed us. She asked us about eight questions related to our adoption which were all yes answers. She then told us that she needed to review a document so our case would need another appointment. We are not sure what that document was or when that appointment will be (chances are it was the government letter but we have no idea since the judge did not specify). We asked the agency representative once we left the room what that document was that was missing but he did not speak very good English so he could not tell us. Our guide said it was the government letter but he also told someone earlier in the day that we had a government letter (us specifically) so it is anyone’s best guess. Please keep praying for us and little Crew.
We were called to court this morning so we left between 8:30 and 9:00 a.m. They took us into a very crowded room with nowhere to sit by the time we arrived. The room was full of birth parents, orphanage representatives, adoption agency representatives, and prospective adoptive parents. The court clerk would open the door and speak in Amharic or broken English so we really relied on our guides to help us know when it was our turn to go into the court room. The trend seem to be the orphanage representatives went first, then the birth families went into (to give their consent for the adoption), and last the prospective adoptive parents. We got the privilege to go last in our group so we waited about 2 ½ hours in that room. No one in our group passed because the government letter was not there so we had fairly low expectations for ourselves (although I was still hopeful). We went into the court room and gave our passports as identification. The judge (a very young looking woman) addressed us. She asked us about eight questions related to our adoption which were all yes answers. She then told us that she needed to review a document so our case would need another appointment. We are not sure what that document was or when that appointment will be (chances are it was the government letter but we have no idea since the judge did not specify). We asked the agency representative once we left the room what that document was that was missing but he did not speak very good English so he could not tell us. Our guide said it was the government letter but he also told someone earlier in the day that we had a government letter (us specifically) so it is anyone’s best guess. Please keep praying for us and little Crew.
We left court to go to lunch and then to visit Crew for the last time. It was harder to say goodbye to him today but he looks so happy when we drop him off in his room it made it easier to leave him. We know he is happy there and is being well taken care of. Of course we would rather have him at our house but God is giving us peace while we wait.
Tomorrow we are off on our trip to Tanzania for our Safari. We are excited but a little nervous of the unknown of a new country. The “hotels/tents” we are staying in supposedly have internet access so hopefully we will continue to blog and post pictures (on facebook) each day.
So sorry to read this :( We will be praying for it to turn around soon and for little Crew to come home. Have a wonderful time on your Safari!
ReplyDeletePraying for you all. Very thankful to hear Crew is doing well. That's a praise.
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