The Court Hearing . . . one step closer, but still waiting!

I'm sure everyone is anxious to hear about the court hearing from Saturday (10/3/09)? Well . . . we ARE one step closer to finally having a court ruling for Permanent Guardianship . . . but not completely there YET!

We were up early Saturday morning, bottles & diapers packed, ready to go by 8:15, per Sadeem's instructions! You see, we were #17 in line to be heard by the civil case judge, so that meant that we should have been heard very early in the morning. However, what I now know, but didn't know on Saturday is - Pakistani judges determine when they start hearing cases in the day. It can be early or mid day! It's just the way of the Pakistani court system! The judge for our civil court room, did not begin to hear cases until 11:00 a.m.! So, that meant every case scheduled for the early morning had to wait until he finally decided to "sit on the bench" around 11:00 a.m.

So, from 8:15 until 11:00 we waited and waited and waited for the judge! Finally, Sadeem came to the guest house around 10:00 to wait with us. Basically, we could wait at the guest house (just a 5 minute drive to the court plaza) or wait in the attorney's office. We opted to wait in the guest house (much cooler!). Finally around 11:00 the attorney called and Sadeem said "Let's move!" (something he says a lot LOL!)

Once we were in the court room, it was so interesting to watch all the cases as they came and went. The court room was a smallish room, but was packed with people - - Yes, you get used to the "smells"!. We were very near the top of the docket so we didn't really have to wait long, about 20 minutes. Everyone was staring at us, but we just took it all in stride. One very nice lady started a conversation with me and asked about the adoption, it was obvious to her that I was adopting a Pakistani child :). It somewhat surprised me that she would strike up a conversation with me since she was dressed in conservative Islamic dress (burqa) and of course, I was a very obviously white, uncovered female. It just goes to show you that people are interested in others no matter what the culture.

Anyway . . . our "number", #17, finally came up and the attorney motioned for me to follow him to approach the bench. The pastor (social worker for the orphanage) and b.father followed as well. The "Deed of Adoption" was presented and the judge asked if all parties were present. Once that was established, he said he accepted the deed of adoption. Then something I didn't quite understand happened . . . we had to go to the back of the court room where a court officer keyed into a computer each party's informaion - - all over again! The same information was registered in the very beginning on 9/24/09 when we filed our petition to adopt. I'm not sure why they had to have it all over again, but they did. (Obviously, the courts' computers are not "networked"!) This took probably around 30 minutes. New documents were printed and a new file was created from these printed documents.

After that, we left and returned to the attorney's office to wait for the judge's ruling. I was told I would have to appear again in front of him for the official ruling later in the afternoon. The judge would probably ask me some questions and may require me to produce some of my original dossier documents. So, we waited and waited and waited for the call back to court for the judge's ruling. But . . . after 3 hours, it never came. At 3:30 p.m. the judge's decision was to delay the ruling until 10/8/09, next Thursday.

The judge's reasoning for delay is . . . according to the 1890 child welfare law in Pakistan, the ruling of the court to appoint permanent guardianship has a required delay of 10-15 days from the date of the petition to adopt. Our petition to adopt was filed and registered 9/24/09. So, Thursday, 10/8/09 is 12 days from the date of when our petition was registered. Well within the 10-15 day requirement.

Even if we would have been able to go before the court on our "supposedly" expedited date of 9/29/09, this would have probably happened. The reason is - - this is an adoption of a Christian Pakistani child and the judge wants to make sure that every letter of the law is observed. I totally want that as well, every "t" crossed and every "i" dotted! So, we will wait for Thursday to go before the court, for the 3rd time, to obtain the official ruling!

Definitely - - one step closer and by week's end, we should have the Permanent Guardianship order of Sweet Pea!

What we will do in the meantime, so not to "while" away our days . . . Monday we will go to the US Embassy and begin the process of the visa. There is a long checklist of documents that the US embassy will need to validate and verify in order to issue Sweet Pea's visa. So, I'll meet with them on Monday to begin that document verification process. They can begin to verify the documents we have already (tax returns, birth cert, I-171H, etc.). Once the documents are verified (all except the court ruling order) all we will need to do is submit the Permanent Guardianship order received on 10/8 for verification and Sweet Pea's visa can be issued quickly. We have been told by the US Embassy this is the best way to do this and we are hoping this will utilize our time wisely and speed us through the visa process, even though we won't have the official court ruling of Permanent Guardianship order until later in the week.

Below are some pictures from the day's court process! Enjoy!

Sadeem, Sweet Pea & Mama waiting at the guest house for the judge to begin the day's cases. Waiting . . . waiting . . . waiting . . .


Mama & Sweet Pea in the parking lot of the court plaza. This is the closest we will ever get to taking a picture of "court" - - cameras are not allowed! :( . . .


The attorney's office . . .


The reception area of the attorney's office. Sweet Pea stratigically placed her hand over her face! :)

So . . . no worries! Small, minor hitches! We are still on track and schedule for returning home on 10/15/09! But, if something should happen unexpectedly, we will just extend our visas and change the back end of our return flights! All is completely manageable! After all . . . I have my baby girl and I know we will complete this process soon!

Love to ALL!

~ Hugs

Mama, Uppa D & Sweet Pea