So, the court date was postponed. I don't know if it's okay to post lots of info on the issue, so I won't. Wouldn't want anything to jeopardize future court dates...But, apparently this is not all that uncommon...and somewhat expected after court reopens. Reading the yahoo groups, it seems that (not infrequently) the rules change ever so slightly with the new "season" and agencies are forced to make adjustments. Adjustments that may not be entirely understood *until* they reopen. Courts reopened last week...so maybe there just wasn't enough time for those required (new) adjustments to be made?
And because of the backlog (I would imagine)...our next court date isn't until November 6th.
The thing is, though, Radu gave us travel dates, and our US Embassy appointment in Addis Ababa (for which we have to be present) is Monday December 15th. This information was not shared prior to this 10/7 court date though I *specifically* asked multiple times). Radu is 'confident' that everything will be worked out, and 11/6 will yield a passing court experience for our family. Maybe he wasn't so confident about this 10/7 date and therefore didn't provide the travel dates....hmmmm...
Anyway,
as far as prep goes, we're ready to have her here - with all of the (big) basic stuff. I have yet to purchase bottles, formula, and smaller baby items. I figure that once she's here, we'll see what stage she's in (afterall, she'll be 10 months old). Maybe she won't want a bottle? Maybe she'll be ready to try out her legs with standing-type toys. Maybe she'll be barely crawling, and still only drinking a bottle? Babies change so much in their first year of life...to try and anticipate her stage (considering the circumstances) is not the easiest thing to do.
Additionally, we purchased all of the OTC (over the counter) meds for the trip. And Sister has more stuff (we have to take inventory of our supplies soon so we'll know what we've got, and what we still need).
So, a December trip. That's not such a bad thing. Haley won't miss school. Hubby is on winter vacation. It gives us a couple more paychecks to save (and spend). With travel dates this far in advance we can start making plans 2 months out instead of 4 weeks out.
The only (relatively) difficult thing was/is...my work schedule. The good thing is December requests are due today...so I requested the needed time off. BUT, that only leaves a handful of days left that are available for me to work...and because I want a certain number of shifts, I'm really trying to work closely with the scheduler (and the group) so I can get *exactly* the days I need to maximize my ability to work on the days I'm actually available.
But for November, where I have lots of blocked days off (in anticipation of November travel) I'm now trying to pick up a few days. AND, because I totally compressed my schedule (i.e. working lots of days in a row, which is highly atypical for me), I'm trying to switch dates around to allow me more time in between shifts to recover. All of these schedule changes are like asking for *personal favors* and care has to be taken to ask the right person in the right way. This, is probably the most stressful part of the 'limbo.'
Hopefully our November 6th court date will allow us to travel as planned in December. The fact that Radu is confident, and other families didn't pass, helps me refrain from totally freaking out about the possibly that there's something about *us* or *her* that is causing a problem.
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