Reliving a Nightmare

I have not posted in awhile as the last four weeks have been a nightmare.  We are unfortunately, reliving another delay due to a document issue.  It has been six weeks since our original court date and the agency still has not collected the disappearance letter.  It has appeared as though those responsible for writing it are in no hurry and don't want to be bothered to do it.  After our court date on May 3 the judge never set another date as she just left the case open waiting for the letter to be submitted.  Well, on May 20th the judge set another court date for June 9th as well as issued a court order to the Kebele to request the disappearance letter.  When the social worker from Emmanuels' original orphanage delivered the court order, the Kebele requested an additional 3-4 days to complete their investigation.  Complete their investigation after SIX WEEKS!!  You are kidding me!  The social worker went back to the judge who did extend the court order for four more days and this was delivered to the Kebele on May 25th.

The woman in charge of the Ethiopian program at AAI, Susan, has been a big advocate for our case and was just in Ethiopia last week.  She gathered the above information for us and said that the social worker advised her the judge will not extend the court order again and that the letter is in process.  Susan has been a dear to us and has spoken both to Troy and I on many occasions and pushed to find out information when possible on our case.  I don't know what we would have done without her.

We are hoping and praying that the letter will be collected and submitted to the judge for our court date on June 9th.  If we do not pass this time I think I will lose all hope.  We have now lost nearly 3 1/2 months with our child due to preventable paperwork delays and it is completely heartbreaking.  I thought we had our share after the first delay, but now with this delay all I can ask is "why?"  "Why us again?"