We have a court date!

We received unexpected good news late this evening: We have a court date! We hadn’t expected that news until tomorrow or Monday, so we were thrilled to learn that our court date will be 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, June 12. That helps to resolve a great deal of the ambiguity around our schedule; it doesn’t give us an exact return date, but it does narrow the scope considerably.

Now we’re praying to pass court. Remember that this particular town has not seen an adoption, much less an international adoption, in more than ten years, if not longer. International adoption can be a controversial, emotional topic in some quarters here; some people with strong nationalistic feelings believe these children are better off remaining in this country, even if that means institutionalization.

On the plus side, we believe that we have strong support from the orphanage staff, including the director, and that will count a lot in terms of the judge’s decision.

The other big issue is whether the judge will impose a ten-day waiting period. The ten-day waiting period is mandatory in every other region of this country. It is typically waived in this region, for a fee, but again, this judge has never handled an adoption case before. Our facilitator feels we have a fifty-fifty chance of getting the waiting period waived. Personally, I am less optimistic than that; however, we will pray and take it as it comes.

If the ten-day waiting period is waived, then it is very likely that we would return to Winona (with Alex!) the following week (the week of the 18th). If it is not waived, then we have tentative plans to return to Winona immediately (at the end of next week), with one of us returning alone (or possibly with a friend to help) to pick up Alex later in the month. Obviously we prefer Plan A, which would be quicker and less expensive by several thousand dollars, but we will just have to wait and see!