A perk of this friend is that whenever I hear a rumor or feel that surge of 'I'm adopting a child who's a million miles away and I really have zero information about anything' feeling, I can just send off an email and get a quick, fairly unbiased, insider's reply. Instant gratification.
Here is today's news.
A meeting was supposed to be held between agency lawyers and representatives of the Ethiopian court yesterday to discuss the rumor of new regulations requiring adoptive families to travel twice. The court President did not show up and therefore the meeting was indefinitely postponed. It was not immediately rescheduled.
Currently the court is stating that all families will be required to travel to their child's court date beginning on April 9th. Length of the trip will be 5 days. No other details have been made public. Lawyers from several agencies are doing what they can to encourage a delay in this new regulation so that families have time to adjust. But again, no meeting has taken place yet.
No families are traveling for court in March.
The following questions remain:
1. Will both parents be required to travel to court?
2. What will happen if the child's case is rescheduled or does not pass court during that first attempt?
3. Will any families who already have referrals and/or have been submitted to court before the 9th be affected?
That's the best I can do. Probably not new information for most of you but thought I would offer it up.
~A
And for fun...
some baby toes!
Such sweet baby toes!
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing these new regulations will take some time for everyone to figure out. It could continue to be postponed many times. Frustrating, but typical.
Those are some seriously cute baby toes!
ReplyDeleteHope your court date happens before the changes. I know 2 trips are required in many other countries which is what makes other countries more expensive than ET. It makes me crazy that ET seems to have doubled in price since it opened.