FINALLY---Some Progress!

Well, I know it has been forever since my last post but the past two months have been excruciating and depressing, to say the least.  We were just resubmitted to court on February 3, after waiting SEVEN weeks due to a paperwork holdup.

This is the long and short of it.  As I said in my last post our file was returned due to his birth certificate being needed upon submission.  After making contact with his Aunt who supposedly had it, the agency began having difficulty finding her to get the birth certificate.  To make matters worse this occurred around the holidays when I think many people were off or just not in any hurry to get anything done.  After about 4 weeks went by I finally had had enough and wrote a letter to the agency director as well as spoke with her on the phone.  She stated she would contact their in country lawyer and have him go to the orphanage where our child was first relinquished and see if they knew how to find the Aunt.  Of course they did, and when they found her a day later they found the birth certificate was not complete.  She needed a picture of him to complete it.  The orphanage got her a picture that day and within FIVE days of them locating her they had the completed birth certificate!  Our agency spent five weeks spinning their wheels for something that in actuality took FIVE DAYS!  What makes this all the harder is that in that same time frame Troy and I completed our second dossier---which consists of 20+ documents---all which had to be notarized and one even sent to the Secretary of State!  With his file finally complete, we were supposed to be submitted to court that week but due to the agency reviewing something in his file we were not submitted until the following week.

Between calling the agency at least twice a week to "remind them" we were waiting and at the same time getting new pictures of him from traveling families, reminding us he was growing like a weed, it has been very heartbreaking.  Because of the agency holding us up for nearly two months beyond when we should have been submitted to court, we now lose those two months having him home with us.  We will probably miss his first steps and first birthday.  I continue to remind myself that this is all in God's timing but it is hard not to be bitter.  I'm sure that will fade, however, once he comes home.

"What now?" you ask.  Now we wait some more.  We should learn of our court date in about four to five weeks.  I am terrified now to make predictions on timing seeing as what we just went through.  Lately, court dates have been scheduled about three months from submission.  Could be more . . . could be less.  Only God knows.