Ladies and Gentlemen, We Have a Court Date

So remember how last week I said it can take anywhere from 1-4 weeks for the judge to issue our court date, which should be 3-8 weeks out from the date we are notified? Well, the judge took 1 week and our court date is in 3 weeks and 3 days. Now subtract at least 5 days, because we have to be in country by the Thursday before. Oh, we may need to take away another day, as Thursday doesn't seem to be an easy day to get a flight in; and yep, we (just David & Amy) leave the country in about 17-18ish days. But it's worth it, because we get to meet A in 20 days!

No, our calendar really isn't this open. Wouldn't that be nice?

You may also remember I mentioned that A does not come home with us, or even get to know us especially, on this trip. Every country process is a little different. Families adopting from Ethiopia must appear first in the Ethiopian national court. Once approved, a few more documents are gathered (official declaration letters, his new birth certificate & passport) and the case is submitted to the US Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital. The Embassy there reviews our file and, once satisfied, issues an interview. We will then return to Ethiopia to complete the process and bring A home. This could be 2 months after our court date, or 4 months, or...

Agencies differ in their approach to the adoptive parents' involvement on the first (court) trip. Our agency prefers that children under 10 not know which couple specifically has been matched with them until the parents are scheduled to return for the final (Embassy) trip. We actually prefer this method because we'd rather A not associate us, as his parents, with leaving him. Certainly, we are excited about meeting him and the other children living in the orphanage. Of course it will be difficult returning home without him, but we've heard from a few other adoptive parents that this orphanage does a wonderful job with the children. We expect this will help some.

One of the projects to be accomplished before we leave (in 17ish days) is a photo album, which will be used to familiarize A with our family, home, etc before we arrive in Ethiopia for the final, Embassy, trip. One of the pages will feature A's room here, however it currently looks like this:

Impressive, isn't it?

So you see, we have a few more projects in addition to prepping, packing, immunizing, mothering, fathering, teaching, doctoring; you get the idea! Where is that blank calendar? We do appreciate your prayers, encouragement, and support. Thankfully, I have some wonderful ladies who will be helping me over the next few weeks. There are more posts we still hope to share before this next leg of the journey, but we may have to throw in a little Amharic because that's another To Do. Jiggeri yellem (Chigger yeh-LEM => No problem!)

So This Paper Walks Into a Courthouse

At this point in the process, we've signed, handled, carried, and shipped so many papers for approval, we've lost count. Today, however, our papers traveled to where no paper of ours has traveled before: an Ethiopian courthouse. Our case was officially submitted to "Court."

What does that mean, you ask? We're still getting a handle on it ourselves; but, basically we wait for the judge to review the application and set a date for a court hearing. We (David & Amy) will travel to Ethiopia for that court appointment with the judge to, ideally, be given permission to legally adopt A. I'll give more details later, but though we will have the privilege of meeting him on that trip, he will not attend the court meeting, know which child we have been matched with, and he will not travel home with us until our second trip for US Embassy clearance. 

It can take anywhere from 1-4 weeks for the judge to issue our court date, which should be 3-8 weeks out from the date we are notified. As with any stage of the international adoption process, this can change. We are excited, but I am slightly hyperventilating because there is still much to do! Thank you for your prayers. We look forward to sharing more with you soon.

Here's a Courthouse, There's a Courthouse

If you are in the process of adoption or like to know the details, read away. If you are not and just want the family update & cliff notes, feel free to simply "read" the pictures :)

Adoption comes with a lot of paperwork. A lot. Paperwork does have important purposes: protection for all involved parties (especially the children), clarity, education, practice, patience, and more patience.
Documents for the Adoption Dossier (DOSS-EE-AY => collection of official papers containing all sorts of information on the prospective adoptive parents (PAPs) sent to the child's country of residence) require notarization prior to state and federal authentication.

Rules vary by state, but in Georgia, an extra authentication step is required for each document if you are adopting from certain countries. Ethiopia is one of those countries. That extra step is Notary Certification or County Authentication of the notary's commission, meaning you have to go the the Clerk of Superior Courts in the county where the notary received their commission. As we quickly learned, this is not necessarily the same county in which the notary works or resides.  

Heck, it was so fun we even took a friend!

Most county authentications cost $2-3/document

We made trips to seven different courthouses to collect these certifications; for the record: Oconee, Jackson, Morgan, Walton, Clarke, Madison and DeKalb. If you'll be doing the same around this area, here's a heads up: quite a few times, the initial staff member did not know what I was seeking. Someone in the office will know. Just make sure you also tell them you need this to get the document state sealed.

Fortunately, most of these courthouse visits don't take long once you are actually at the courthouse.

The kids thought it was pretty cool to walk through the metal detectors and wanted to make guesses about what would make them beep (@ one, J's glasses set it off.)

In the event your friendly staff member @ a Clerk of Superior Courts doesn't know what you need, you can nonchalantly say, "You see kids, here is where they look up the notary from this paper and fill out a statement verifying the notary is commissioned in this county by listing the dates their commission began and expires. Then they will sign the statement and add their county seal."

TIPS for Prospective Adoptive Parents (PAPs):
* There are different requirements for Hague and Non-Hague Countries (find info here).
* Currently, the State of Georgia requires Apostilles for dossier documents going to Hague Countries and State Seals for Non-Hague (find info here).

* According to our agency, states requiring the additional step for county authentication of the notary at this time include: AL, GA, HI, KY, MD, NY, OH, TN 

Our agency has a Dossier Specialist who reviews the documents prior to state seal. 

If you have this service available, I strongly recommend asking them to proof the document before taking it for the county step.