Administrative Update, 1 Nov.

I just looked and realized my last update was in September.  A lot of nothing has happened since then.  We got some very important news just before leaving on our safari trip that I didn't manage to update on here, and then while my parents were here we figured out some more.  (PS. The best part of this post is the end.  Make sure to keep reading!)

I wrote this on 2nd October:

"The next update in the Legal volume of You Can't Make This Stuff Up:

I was wrong, our case is apparently not being held up by looking for the mother's 79th signature. They filed the case in court anyways, planning on getting the signatures. The case is held up.... 

.....because there are no judges hearing cases. How many? None. The judge left over from the previous session is not hearing these cases any more. A new judge is stepping up but is not set up yet. And the judge who has been hearing cases, and asked for all this additional paperwork, is not accepting new cases because she is GOING ON LEAVE. Because she's been on the job a month already. All of the other new Family Court judges have not yet actually started working in Family Court.

So, we wait."

And we waited and waited and waited.  Everything was ready but we pretty much waited all of September and October for the Ugandan court system to do anything at all.  For families who apply for a court date in more auspicious times, they can be assigned a judge within days and might get a date only a few days after that.  I know someone in this program who got her court date within two days of filing!  But we have waited.

The good news: we have been assigned a judge and a court date!  The bad news... it was still a month out.  But days pass, and it is getting closer.  I begged and begged my lawyer to expidite our case for all kinds of reasons, and she says she begged the judge, who still refused to hear our case before she left on leave, but assigned us a hearing the day after she got back.  As far as I know, no one else (in our program) who has been waiting for a court date has gotten one, so it is a lot waiting but it is better progress than we would get sitting home with our fingers crossed.

The date is November 19th.  The judge is fair and interested in the best welfare of the children and knowing that the prospective parents are dedicated to caring for them, which means that our fostering them should count highly in our favor.  Which one might think would be automatic, but apparently not with some judges.  She also apparently is prompt, and holds court on the day she assigns instead of deciding to go to a conference or something else instead, and writes her reports promptly.  One doesn't actually get a guardianship order on the court date; one has to wait for the judge to write out her decision and the order.  And apparently "promptly" means only a week or so of waiting!  Waiting, waiting, waiting!

We had a moment of hopefulness amongst all our waiting, when we found out we could apply for the girls' passports as foster parents.  They need Ugandan passports, and then US visas.  Apparently people high-up in the Ugandan passport office don't like foreigners being able to take Ugandan children out of the country, and sometimes passive-agressively just don't bother to process the legally ordered passports.  Our lawyer has apparently found ways to get around this and get her clients' passports produced, but it will take a week of waiting at best and potentially could cause more delays.  So being able to wait for the passports while we wait for the court date would be a really good thing.

But we took Hibiscus out of school to go in for our passport interview on Monday morning, and when we met at the lawyer's office she sadly informed us that we couldn't apply for passports after all.  They had given us an appointment as FOSTER parents, but then found out that we were WHITE foster parents and changed their minds.  We have to have the guardianship order in order to apply for passports.

After we have the Ugandan passports, we can apply for the US visas, which can also be a difficult step.  Again, they can delay in assigning an appointment, or they can just be difficult about details of the case.  If they don't find it "clearly approvable" then they send it to Nairobi for an investigation, which would take months.

At least now there is something to do to get ready for the upcoming appointments.  We should bring in anyone who can testify to our relationship and support of the girls, so I have been asking Hibiscus's teacher and our family friends to accompany us.  I can collect letters from some other people, like our doctor and the administrator at the school where I have supported the orphanage children.  We should also bring the local council officials and hopefully the Probation Officer, so we went back to cultivating our friendship with him, hoping that he will see we have good reasons to not stay for another three years (um, 2.75) and apply directly for adoption.

We are trying to get our senators to write to the Embassy so we get our US visa appointment directly instead of waiting forever.  We have personal connections to a senator or two in our home state, and my father has more connections to senators in his home state.  He worried about how many letters we need and "overdoing" it, but I am coming to the conclusion that there is no overdoing it when it comes to this country!  They like official letters.  Especially in triplicate, with nice shiny stamps.

We had letters of recommendation written for us for the Probation Officer this summer, which would work, but I figure we might as well get them re-written with a new date and to the proper person.  In communication with our priest (which also sounds nice and shiny and authoritative in this country), she asked whether to include the girls' legal names, and for that matter, what they were, since she assumed they weren't Buttercup and Hibiscus.  My flower family, and our flower-child-style hometown inspired the following glowing letter of recommendation:

"Dear Madam Registrar of the High Court of XYZ:

This is, like, totally the perfect OurTown recommendation letter to whatever mamby pamby in charge is going to finalize things and make it legal and stuff.  The Flowers totally rock the house.  Buttercup and Hibiscus are going to be the coolest kids in the whole town.  They’ll fit right in with Momma Flower and Papa Appleseed.  My name from the government is the Rev. Mrs. Abagail Doni, but you can call me by my inner spirit name which is Petunia.  At St. Catherine's, I follow the spirit path with the children so their souls remain open to the essence of the Great Above.  

Mrs. Flower has been an excellent caregiver here at St. Catherine's and in her community of OurTown.  They are regular attenders at Saturday Market and own their own chickens.  They walk dogs in all sorts of weather and go into the forest multiple times a week.  They can identify mushrooms and eight different types of snail and probably own walking sticks.  She is an excellent mother to her son Emerson Chysthansemum and is way into the babywearing movement which means she pretty much rules the mom roost.  

Both Mrs. Flower and her husband, Mark Flower, are well respected members of our community.    They own multiple items in fleece and always dress their child in the requisite number of appropriate layers.  They even wear rainboots on rainy days.  I’m pretty sure they don’t smoke pot.  

In short, The Flower Family is going to be awesome, so stop hassling them, Man, and just sign your I’s and t’s where you need them, and we’ll all say Adios.  Ya good?  I’m good.   

Sincerely,

The Rev. and Most Elegant Mrs. Abigail Dandelion Cumulonimbus Cloud Doni"

Actually, I'm not sure the Ugandans would be so impressed by priests if they knew they could act like that!  Although a nice shiny seal would probably solve all their doubts... if rendered in triplicate....