A Date!

Things are finally starting to move, and rather quickly - it’s always hurry up and wait with this game!

Edward emailed on Friday and said that we have our first court date scheduled August 11, next Tuesday. He would like us to arrive on Monday, so that means we have to leave a week from tomorrow. This is fast, but good news that things are moving and hopefully the end (of the beginning) is in sight.

However, we have some questions and concerns. There are actually two court dates, and the judge only scheduled the first hearing, which bothers us. The first hearing is to make sure all of the documents are in order, (and they’ve had all this time to review them) and the second hearing is the actual adoption trial, or hearing, or whatever they call it. They are normally scheduled very close together, within days, if I understand things correctly. We know that our judge is getting ready to go on vacation for a month, and we are concerned because he hasn’t scheduled the second court date. We are concerned that he is planning on doing the first date on the 11th, and then the second one after he returns from his vacation – in a month!! This is obviously not going to work for us! Also, assuming we do both court dates very close together, what about the 10 day waiting period? If he is gone, does that mean we have to wait until he returns to get our final court documents?

To complicate matters further, we have been told that many people go on vacation in August, and many companies simply shut down for the entire month. Assuming all goes well with the court and the paperwork, we wonder if the government agencies we need to get the documents for the girls to come home (i.e. birth certificates, passports, etc.) will be closed for vacation. We already experienced this problem to some degree in June, and if more people go away in August, that could cause major delays. Our “package” with the adoption agency only includes 30 weekdays in country, and we spend 16 of them the first time around, so we really can’t afford for too many more delays.

Sooo, we are trying to reach Edward by phone this weekend and get his opinion and advice. As much as we want to go get the girls soon, preferably before school starts, we don’t want to go now if we will run into all of these problems. Better to wait the extra month here and not there! I really hope Edward can provide some clarification on the subject. We tried to call him this morning, but couldn’t get through. We will try again tomorrow and maybe that will work.

On other news, we have worked out the plane tickets – for whenever we need them. Greg has a wonderful customer who flies a lot and needed quite a bit of work done on his new house. So we have worked out a deal where he will pay for Greg’s painting and handyman work in the form of plane tickets. It works out great for both of us!

Greg is planning to return home as soon as the court is finished, and I will stay to finish up and return with the girls. Assuming we leave next weekend, and right now that’s what we’re planning to do until we hear differently, I will miss the first week of school. I’m not really excited about staying over there alone, (I will have Edward and Sasha with me) but we need for Greg to get back to work and to be here for the kids. So he will get to do all the “mom” things I normally do, like go to Meet the Teacher, and run the carpool, etc. It should be quite an experience for both of us!! We’ve never been separated for more than a couple of days since we got married 25 years ago, so I’m not looking forward to it, but all this will all be worth it once we can bring the girls home!!

I’ll keep you posted on what we find out from Edward, hopefully tomorrow!

Sheri