Court Date Assigned!

We received our court date this week and it is just 18 days from now - July 6! It is hard to believe that after 3 years of this crazy process that we could be official parents in a little over 2 weeks. Praise God!

Several things must happen after we pass court - the E Country government will issue birth certificates and then passports; the girls will have another round of blood tests; then our embassy appointment will be confirmed. Our agency has 2 days per month for which their cases can be heard at the American Embassy. It looks like we could make the August 5 or August 19 dates if things go ultra-smoothly.

We are not required to be present for court as we have a power of attorney who handles this in country. We will get short notice and be required to travel to pick the girls up and attend the embassy appointment for the purpose of obtaining their IR-4 visas. We'll then travel home with the girls and begin the post-placement process. We'll have several visits by our local social worker over the next year and then we go through a final re-adoption in Virginia at which time the girls will become American citizens. Every year thereafter, we must send a report to E Country until the girls are 18.

Well, this has been a very technical report of the events of the week and doesn't begin to address the emotions that Gigs and I are feeling. I'm not quite so able to put that into words yet, so suffice it to say - AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!