Court

One week from today we should be finding out if we passed court or if we are delayed. Nothing has quite consumed me like this has! Every day I look into her eyes, of the few pictures I have, and wonder when I'm going to get to meet her. Hopefully soon! With court approaching I thought I'd give you the details so you know what exactly is going on and how specifically to pray.

Our court date is June 2nd, next Tuesday. However, Ethiopia is 8 hours ahead of us so when we go to bed next Monday night, court will be opening for the day. Our case should be heard Monday night (or actually early Tuesday morning). We have a lawyer from our adoption agency who will represent our case before a judge in a court room in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.

Two very important things have to happen for us to pass.

1) Our little girl's birthmother has to show up to court with proper identification and say again that she wants to give up her rights and that this little girl is hers. This is a little nerve racking because she lives out in the country 8 hours south of the capital. Someone from our orphanage will go and find her and bring her to court that day. I've heard of cases where the birhtmother can't be found, she comes on the wrong day, or brings the wrong or no ID.

2) The second thing is that the Ministry of Women's Affairs (MOWA) has to be satisfied with our paperwork. They are the ones who ultimately decide if the adoption will go through. I haven't heard of any cases where the judge overrules their decision. We have all of our paperwork that they initially asked for in order. It's been reviewed already by MOWA and they said it was fine. However, it's not uncommon to get to court and they want additional paperwork.

These are the major reasons for not passing court. However, there are several other reasons...the judge gets sick (there's only one judge who hears cases), there's a power outage and they can't hold court, the MOWA doesn't show up, etc. I keep telling people, there's about 10 things that have to go absolutely perfect for us to pass. Right now about 50% of the cases pass and 50% fail. If we don't pass, they will give us time to "fix whatever is wrong" and give us another court date. Thanks for praying!!

All this being said, I still believe God is really in control. My hope is in HIM!

Psalm 33:18-22
But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love. We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD, even as we put our hope in you.