Court Process Explained

I received an explanation from our adoption agency on our upcoming court process and what we can expect. Here for your reading pleasure is detailed info. on what we'll be going through this next few days, months....

1. Case documents are reviewed by St. Lucy's Orphanage and then submitted to the local family court.

2. Family Court assigns a family court Judge to the case (Please NO SLOW JUDGE).

** I think we are on step 2 or 3 right now **

3. Judge reviews the case and schedules a hearing.

** This can take a while or happen quite quickly depending on the Judge and Court's schedule.

4. All parties are notified of the hearing. Birth family to represent themselves if they choose. If they choose not to attend the hearing the court assumes their consent to the adoption. An orphanage representative directed by their legal counsel represents us as the adoptive family.

5. Judge finishes reviewing the case and/or requesting additional information and issues the first ruling. Parties are notified of the first ruling.

** At notification of our first ruling, St. Lucy's contacts us with the update and gives us a travel date!!!

6. 10 business days are allowed for all parties to be notified of the Judge's ruling on the case. All parties have the ability to file any disagreement to the Judge's ruling. If the Judge's ruling was contested by any of the parties during the 10 days, the case would continue and the judge would hear all new concerns regarding the case.

7. When the 10 day notification period has ended, the court prepares the first and second ruling documents. These are the final civil judgement documents showing Troy and I as Kaylee's legal parents and will be used for immigration, readoption and citizenship.

8. St. Lucy's receives the final judgement documents and sends them out to be officially translated. Kaylee is scheduled for and receives her immigration physical exam performed by a US government approved hospital or physician.

9. Documents are changed at the local government offices to reflect Troy and I as Kaylee's legal parents. The documents are forwarded to the AIT for our VISA appointment.

10. BACK to the USA with Kaylee!!!

As you can see, we have a lot of steps to go through and no idea how long each will take and where exactly we are in the process. I think one of the hardest steps will be step 6 and making it through the 10 (business) day waiting period.

Please pray for us to have a smooth journey through all our steps so we can bring Kaylee home.