A Big Day – February 16th Update – An Epic Adoption Story

So, here is where we stand today. We have an Embassy appointment at 2:00 pm, which would be 6:00am Eastern. Which means we’ll likely be done by the time you read this. I also hope to get the signed ruling from the judge today.

What has transpired over the last two days is a testimony to how things typically work in Uganda. I spent two whole days either in my lawyer’s office or at the Embassy. On Moday, the Thompsons had their Embassy interview. Their judge was rather quick in getting them the signed ruling, while ours has been less than accommodating.

I’ll need to wait and reveal details of the Embassy interview for the Thompsons, but I can say that it resulted in us having to arrange for every family member to return to Kampala in order to sign another irrevocable release yesterday. Most travelled through the night to arrive using public transportation. The experience of public transportation is beyond my ability to describe, but my sole experience ranks as one of the most uncomfortable four hours of my life, and many of the family came from further than I did. I also waited until 4:30 pm for our ruling to be released only to have our lawyer return being told to “come back tomorrow.”

I’ll tell more of that story later, but for now I will leave in 15 minutes to go back to my lawyer’s office to await the release of the signed ruling. I then will attempt to get that ruling to the Embassy before 10am. If I fail to do so it could jeopardize our receiving visas by tomorrow. We’ll then return to the Embassy for our 2:00pm interview where we hope to hear that our visas will be ready on Thursday. We have initially booked a return flight, but I won’t reveal details until I have visas in hand.

The next real time update…