Busy day on the Hope board
July 9, 2008
Our adoption agency has a private Yahoo group that is filled with a bunch of amazing people. It’s kind of like a family. We pray for one another, share our struggles and our joys as well.
A couple days ago Grace, our adoption coordinator, arrived home from ET and let us know that the Hope staff filed over 30 families for court dates in the last two weeks. So amazing!
Today the first of those court dates came in. I was at work when I got the first email. I promptly called Mark and said “Make sure you answer the phone, even if it’s a number you don’t recognize.” To which he replied “Does that mean I have to stay home all day.” I was tempted to say “YES!” but I didn’t.
Before you get all excited, we did not get a court date today. Of the 3 families that got dates, one was for August 1st and two were for October 1st, which is after the Ethiopian court reopens. (Sidenote: The courts in ET close for about 8 weeks during the rainy season.)
At first I admit that I was disappointed. This means that even if we get a court date in the next week or so, that it might be for AFTER the closure. I’m sure those two families are partly disappointed.
On the other hand, I was encouraged to know that ET is even assigning post-closure dates. I assumed that either you made it through or you were just stuck in a pile and had to wait til they reopened and then get a court date.
It also means that we know the date the ET courts will reopen and Oct. 1 is a lot earlier than I thought it might be. I thought it was the end of October.
So it could mean 2 additional months. An Oct 1 court date, if passed the 1st time, would mean travel around Nov. 1 – still before the holidays.
So I remain optimistic for a pre-closure court date but am feeling much better about even a post-closure date.
Just trying to leave it all in God’s hands. But I admit to being jumpy every time my cell phone rang 
Thanks for the juicy gossip! Our dossier arrived in ET yesterday so I was wondering where that put us. Now I know!
Oh Julie, I am glad you can remain positive. I always knew we had to deal with the closures but I thought it would be much harder for me to think I stood a chance and end up having to wait through instead. You have your head on straight. Hang in there. We are praying for news so you can stop being jumpy
Praying it will happen this week! Hang in there.
When I heard your paperwork was in I was OVER JOYED!!
I pray that the process go quickly for you from here and boy do I admire your agency. They are great people!
Just for the record, I think my words were, “So do you want me to stay home today”, vs do I have to stay home. Semantics to some, and maybe my dry humor didn’t come through over the phone (since you were in overdrive anticipation mode), but I would have stayed home in a heart beat (we didn’t go anywhere anyway.)