Well, THIS is interesting

So, an interesting development has occurred.. Ethiopia just passed a new law stating that adopting parents must be at the court date in Ethiopian court in addition to traveling for the Embassy date (when we originally will travel to pick up our son). This means adopting from Ethiopia has just changed to two mandatory trips. This changes a lot. Pros and cons here. On one hand, it increases the expenses and it's difficult enough to budget out the entire adoption process with one trip as it is. Plus, it states both parents have to travel for the court date if there are two parents adopting, but only one has to be at the Embassy date, so for families that were not planning on having both spouses travel, this definitely changes their plans. On the other hand, the reasoning behind this is to protect the children and the adoptive parents. Parents will now be able to meet their child before they pass court and will be on site at the court date to see how everything processes. I think this can only involve us more in our adoption process (which I love) and it also gives us the opportunity to see more of our child's birth country. Plus, we would get to see our little guy sooner! Of course, it would be extremely painful to leave him as we can't take him home on the first trip. The courts want to personally meet the parents before they grant legally custody to them. I get it. I do. It's just going to be difficult for a lot of families currently in the process to figure in two trips. I know for us, we have to figure out how we are going to be away for 2 trips with work, but there's not too much we would have to work out. We'll figure it out. Right now we just have a TON of questions. Our agency is in Ethiopia right now so we are just waiting for more info to filter in from them. Another element of this new law is that it goes into effect after April 9. This means if we get a court date assigned to us BEFORE April 9 (even if the actual court date is after April 9) we do not have to travel for our court date. After April 9, 2010 anyone assigned a court date must travel to it. I think we have a chance to get a court date assigned to us before April 9, so maybe we do not have to make 2 trips. We will see. I just wish we had this info now. Everything seems so up in the air. Ahhh...I want to know when we are traveling! And, I want to know things we just won't be able to know for sure, such as how much time will be between traveling for court and traveling for an Embassy date? What if it's only a few weeks difference? Maybe one of us stays there to bond with our baby in between the travel dates?? Oh boy...so much to twist up in my little mind. :)