Group Assignment!

WOW!! This has been an active week on my blog -- lots to report! PRAISE THE LORD!

We received notification today by email that we have our group assignment! We are in Group F!

Adoption court cases go in groups of 3-8 in Ethiopia -- usually based on orphanage. Once you are assigned a group, then your court date is usually within about 4 weeks of that. The court date is where the Ethiopian judge issues the adoption verdict and your child becomes LEGALLY yours. There are a number of reasons why a child's case may not pass court the first time, one of which is that a new requirement in 2006 requires the child's guardian (parent, aunt, uncle, sibling, or adult responsible for the child) to be present on the day of court and sometimes that person is hard to contact. Another reason is because a particular letter from the Ethiopian Government office MUST be signed and present, and sometimes that doesn't arrive before the court date (government is government EVERYWHERE!) Just to clarify: we do not appear in court -- AAI's legal representative has power of attorney for us and he will represent us in court. We travel AFTER the court process, but again, once we pass court, then Tinsaye will be LEGALLY our son!

So ... the next thing will be to receive our court date. THEN ... the prayers are to pass court on the first try. After we pass court, it will only be about 3-4 weeks until we travel to bring him home. WHICH MEANS ... Tinsaye COULD be here as soon as EARLY JUNE, which is MUCH earlier than I said was my "best case scenario!!!" We will see!!!