And the Ruling is.....

Email received from Lawyer this morning:

"Dear Trent,
We are pleased to inform you that the order for legal guatdianship was made today in your favour for both children. I spoke to the Judge and he regrets the delay. Its his first posting, about one month so far.

Blessings

Dorothy"

We also received a phone call about 2am from the agency representative in Uganda. It was a bad connection but we were able to hear the ruling.

We don't know what is next other than getting the passports and then meeting with the Embassy. The Embassy could be as quick as 2 days or as long as 2 months. We have an e-mail out to them to get an idea of what we are looking at. We are still likely looking at January for travel.

It is still wonderful to hear that we are done with the courts and now are officially guardians of 3. The actual adoption takes place in the states.

Thank you all for your comforting words over the last month. We are blessed with amazing friends and family.

No Children for Christmas - Judge delays again

If you ever think the United States Judicial system is messed up, think again and look at Uganda. The judge has delayed the ruling another week. This basically wipes out any chance of getting the children home for Christmas. No reasoning or excuse was given why - just another delay. We will now have to cancel our Embassy appointment because we cannot apply for passports for the children (which are required for the Embassy) before we have a Guardianship ruling. These take about 2 weeks if you "know the right people." Because of the holidays the Embassy will likely reschedule in January which means we miss the tax credit for 2010 - another huge set back. I have lost all patience with this process. We started this journey over two years ago. I just want to sit back and scream, cry, vent, yell, hit something etc...

This was probably the worst news we could have received today. I wish that these judges would just put the children first for once.

Ruling Day - Another Delay.....

Another Court date and another Delay. The judge has requested that a Probation Officer confirm the status of Andrew of Faith, that they are actually living in the orphanage and that they came to the orphanage in the ways described in our application. The Lawyer seems to think this can be done quickly. We are still awaiting more info back from her. Hopefully another ruling date for next week.

It just gets so frustrating. The judge has had this information for 2 1/2 weeks. Why wait to drag everybody in for a ruling if he knew he wanted this. Why not just call the lawyer and say "I need an affidavit from a probation officer confirming the living conditions."

Thank you all for your prayers and fasting. It means so much to know we have such wonderful friends and family. We will keep you all up to date.