It's better than bad, it's Good!

I think that adoptions are to judges what tithing settlement is for LDS Bishops - Happy moments in the midst of often...stressful moments, though chances are good and hopes are high that I'll never be able to ratify either claim.  As it turns out, the happiest events in my family have taken place in temples and courts (and once in our living room, but we were a skyped extension of a courtroom that day!).

If there is anything that can strike more terror into your soul than a court summons, it's a court summons in another country.  I took Carrie to Tijuana with me on a business trip once, and one evening while we were driving around El Centro we got pulled over by the police.  They asked me to get out of the car.  I had terrible visions of them taking me away on unfounded charges while the other officer yelled at my wife in Spanish as though that would help her understand what he was saying, and then leaving her there all alone at night in a place she didn't know with a language she didn't speak and, well...Tijuana (shudder).  Luckily they were just verifying that I had purchased Mexican car insurance for my rental car, but in that moment I was as grateful as I've ever been to have the less than perfect USA law enforcement and judicial system.

Today we found out that we have a court date in Ethiopia!  We don't know what the date is, thanks to some e-mail confusion, but we know that it is towards the end of February, and we know we'll still get to go pick my Dad up like we've been planning for 13 years...  Needless to say, we are super excited to go to Court in Ethiopia, and we aren't the least bit terrified that one of us will be Tijuana'd.

Actually I just checked the dates that Carrie and I guessed the day we went off hold. Carrie guessed 10/21 as our referral date and that was within a week of our actual referral date.  I guessed 2/21 as our court date, and it looks like that will be within a week of our actual court date.  Here's hoping that Carrie's Embassy date guess is right (3/21)!