Court Closures

Well, it's official.  Exactly what I hoped wouldn't happen, will.  Seeing as we're "on deck," meaning we'll likely receive our referral in the next 1-3 months, the following message from our agency directly affects us:

We have received confirmation that the Ethiopian Court will be closed August 6th-September 27th.  


These closures may or may not affect your family depending on your prospective waiting stage.  Referrals will continue to be issued to families during the court closure. Families who receive a referral within the next one to three months will experience additional delays in their process due to the court closure.  The wait time during referral and court date will be extended during this time frame.  We expect that families who receive referrals between now and the end of September will not receive notification of a court date until sometime in October.  

Court date notification in October will likely mean court in late October/early November (when we finally get to meet our baby!).  If we pass court the 1st time (there's a 50% pass/fail rate that has no reflection on the family, simply a reflection on whether all of the paperwork has been processed correctly and in a timely manner), then it's typically a 4-6 week wait to gain Embassy approval/visa.  All told, there's a slight chance we'll be home by Christmas.  Slight.  



Even though it will be so hard to wait even longer to hold Karis, we still are longing to just to see her face...and we pray that day will come quickly!