What Does This Mean?

A number of people have asked what it means that we didn’t pass court and what happens next.

Court is the process in Ethiopia where a judge legally finalizes our adoption. All of the required paperwork for us, our adoption agency, the children, and the orphanage must be complete and accurate at the court hearing. It is our understanding that all of the paperwork for us, the kids and our agency was good. Unfortunately, the orphanage where the kids came from did not have all of the paperwork they needed to prove that are a true and legitimate orphanage.

The partnership between our agency and this particular orphanage is new, and our children and one other baby are the first ones to come to court from this orphanage. At this point we do not have a feel for whether it’s just a matter of papers that orphanage has but didn’t bring to court, because they are new to the process and weren’t well versed in what to bring. Or it could be that the orphanage needs to go through some steps and procedures to get the required papers. And if it is the later, we have no idea if we are looking at days, weeks, or months for them to get the necessary paperwork together.

A HUGE blessing in all this is that Duni, the Director of our agency’s Africa program, is Ethiopian and her last day working in the US was the day we failed court. She has moved back to Ethiopia to continue working with our agency, but from Ethiopia. Duni knows the language, the court system, the process, and she is the one who set up the relationship with our agency and this new orphanage. She has promised that her first priority will be to petition the orphanage as to what paperwork is needed and to help them in every way she can to get these papers. She is a tiger and we know she will be fighting to get our kids home as soon as possible. We are praying that this week or next, we will get some type of communication as to what realistic time frames are.

We KNOW our God is the God of the impossible. We are praying for a miracle to get our kids home and into our arms! He is faithful and He WILL complete this good work He has started.

Genesis 28:15 “I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land (Ethiopia). I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”