The past 2 weeks have been incredibly exciting for our family. It has been months and months since we've received positive news about movement in Jude's case.
On August 15, Jason got a phone call from our case manager that Jude's regional approval had been finalized. It is hard to communicate the importance of this event. We had been waiting 10 months, 42 weeks, for this paperwork. It's the same paperwork we were supposed to have on Oct. 25, 2011. And then again on Nov. 4, 2011. And then a number of promised dates after. This victory came on the heels of 2 very hard days of bad news and spirited conversations/debates with our agency and other outside sources (3rd party attorneys, private investigators, etc.). It was overwhelming. As soon as Jason said, "Sue called. We got the paperwork," I fell to my knees and sobbed. It was such a shock and I was blind-sided with a rush of relief and joy.
The last step in finalizing his case is court (again). Our prayer quickly became, "Lord, let the judge hear his case before the courts close for recess." Courts close every year in Ethiopia during August and September, reopening in early October. As of August 15, they were still in session with no indication of a closure date. While we were hopeful that our case might be heard before the closure, we were hesitant to expect it. In fact, to even be given a future date on the calendar would be a stretch, as the courts were tying up loose ends.
On Tuesday, August 21, as we drove home from dropping the kids at their first day of school, Jason saw on his phone that the Prime Minister of Ethiopia had died. This sent us into a whirlwind of questions-about the possible effects this could have on a court date for us, and international adoption in general. We read news briefings and scanned facebook group pages, attempting to get a realistic perspective on the country's stability and plans to change over power to a new leader. It appeared from our reading that the courts would shut down as well as any and all other federal offices. If the courts shut down for this sort of observance, it was likely they would go immediately into their 2 month recess. We had to accept that we probably wouldn't hear about a court date for Jude until early October.
We already knew families who'd been given court dates of October 24 and later. It seemed as if our court date would be late October/early November---at the earliest.
On Wednesday morning, August 22, we received an email with news of a court date. He had been assigned a court date of October 15. Courts will reopen on October 5, which means Jude's case will be one of the first to be heard. We do not travel for court this time.
It is a miracle that our request for a court date was granted quite possibly the same day---maybe one business day prior---- as the Prime Minister's death. He passed away at 11:45PM on Monday night. We are amazed that it came so close to not happening before the court recess.
We are thankful to have a date to look forward to, in great anticipation. We know and accept that anything can happen; however, we believe this is Jude's turn. There will probably be a lot of silence between now and then, and that is fine with us.
48 days until the judge looks at his paperwork again, just 10 days shy of an entire year since our original court appearance. Thank you for praying through this with us and thank you for your unfailing support and interest in Jude's fate.
On August 15, Jason got a phone call from our case manager that Jude's regional approval had been finalized. It is hard to communicate the importance of this event. We had been waiting 10 months, 42 weeks, for this paperwork. It's the same paperwork we were supposed to have on Oct. 25, 2011. And then again on Nov. 4, 2011. And then a number of promised dates after. This victory came on the heels of 2 very hard days of bad news and spirited conversations/debates with our agency and other outside sources (3rd party attorneys, private investigators, etc.). It was overwhelming. As soon as Jason said, "Sue called. We got the paperwork," I fell to my knees and sobbed. It was such a shock and I was blind-sided with a rush of relief and joy.
The last step in finalizing his case is court (again). Our prayer quickly became, "Lord, let the judge hear his case before the courts close for recess." Courts close every year in Ethiopia during August and September, reopening in early October. As of August 15, they were still in session with no indication of a closure date. While we were hopeful that our case might be heard before the closure, we were hesitant to expect it. In fact, to even be given a future date on the calendar would be a stretch, as the courts were tying up loose ends.
On Tuesday, August 21, as we drove home from dropping the kids at their first day of school, Jason saw on his phone that the Prime Minister of Ethiopia had died. This sent us into a whirlwind of questions-about the possible effects this could have on a court date for us, and international adoption in general. We read news briefings and scanned facebook group pages, attempting to get a realistic perspective on the country's stability and plans to change over power to a new leader. It appeared from our reading that the courts would shut down as well as any and all other federal offices. If the courts shut down for this sort of observance, it was likely they would go immediately into their 2 month recess. We had to accept that we probably wouldn't hear about a court date for Jude until early October.
We already knew families who'd been given court dates of October 24 and later. It seemed as if our court date would be late October/early November---at the earliest.
On Wednesday morning, August 22, we received an email with news of a court date. He had been assigned a court date of October 15. Courts will reopen on October 5, which means Jude's case will be one of the first to be heard. We do not travel for court this time.
It is a miracle that our request for a court date was granted quite possibly the same day---maybe one business day prior---- as the Prime Minister's death. He passed away at 11:45PM on Monday night. We are amazed that it came so close to not happening before the court recess.
We are thankful to have a date to look forward to, in great anticipation. We know and accept that anything can happen; however, we believe this is Jude's turn. There will probably be a lot of silence between now and then, and that is fine with us.
48 days until the judge looks at his paperwork again, just 10 days shy of an entire year since our original court appearance. Thank you for praying through this with us and thank you for your unfailing support and interest in Jude's fate.
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