Thursday, September 20, 2012

And…we FINALLY have a Court Date!

October 12th we will be in court in Volgograd! It is such a relief to finally have this date, you have no idea. It will be 5 months after meeting Elijah for the first time, much longer than we anticipated, but it’s a court date none the less!! Yesterday was a nerve-racking day because we never heard anything about how the preliminary hearing went or if we had a court date…nothing. Thankfully we heard early this morning though, so it was only 24 hours of being on the edge of our seat watching and waiting for that phone to ring. :) (During that 24 hour period we may have engaged in some retail therapy…)

We are now in the midst of booking our flights, then hotels, then working on the next round of paperwork to complete and bring with us. The judge isn’t requiring that we update our medicals in the US, so yay to that! We do have to complete the new requirement of 80 hours of training before court. (I am honestly glad that Russia is now requiring adoptive families to go through that much training. We see so many families at work that have no clue what they may face in the future while parenting a child who has experienced neglect and trauma. I think the training is a great requirement.) Sad that I can’t train myself since I train on adoptive issues for a living :), but Beacon House has schedule a “boot camp” next week in Pensacola, Florida to cover most of this training requirement, so we might as well have a little retreat at the beach and pass the time between now and court. :)

Back to travel mania! Thanks for the prayers, please keep them coming, court should be interesting… :)

16 comments:

  1. 80 hours! That's two work weeks! But I am glad you got an answer and don't have to redo all those medicals. Have a wonderful weekend!

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  2. It definitely is a lot of hours...they are very specific about what needs to be covered as well. Oh well, I don't even care at this point. :)

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  3. Awesome! Do you get to bring him home this trip?

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    1. Negative :(. We'll have a 30 day waiting period before we can bring him home. Unless the judge waives that which apparently never happens...but it could! God can do huge things! :)

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    2. He absolutely can and I will be praying he comes home super quick!!!

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  4. Yay yay YAY!!! this is so exciting!

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  5. Just found out about you through Emily T. Will be praying for you and your family through this time. God was faithful with our family through two Russian adoptions (the last being our son who we brought home last Wednesday from Krasnoyarsk region). His heart is with orphans. Just keep worshiping while you wait! :)

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    1. Thanks for the prayers and congratulations on your new addition!!!

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  6. Congratulations Lisa!!! This is a HUGE step closer!!!

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  7. Hello! This is my first comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout
    out and tell you I truly enjoy reading your posts. Can you recommend any other blogs/websites/forums that go over the same subjects?
    Thank you!
    My blog I am told by sources

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    1. There are sooooo many adoption blogs out there. :) In addition there are many Facebook pages where you can connect with other adoptive parents in the same process. Some of the ladies who commented above this have blogs as well.

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  8. 10 more days!!! So excited for y'all!!!!!!

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