Another Round of Visits This Week

Wednesday we had our 2nd GAL appointment here at the house. This lady is amazing.
We found ourselves just chatting in general as well. I even let her borrow my Super Baby Food book as her youngest is 9 months old and she is looking for some feeding ideas.
She is how I always imagined what Kenyans would be like: warm, friendly, enjoyable to talk with. And although of course our school day gets off schedule because we have to spend the day cleaning before her arrival (!), her visits are always very pleasant.

Thursday the Little Angels' social worker came for her third and final visit. These appointments tend to be a little more awkward, as she sort of just watches us interact with one another. Normally that's fine, but I feel like I have to defend myself by fielding questions such as, "What does Isaac do during your school time each day?", etc.

Our lawyer took our paperwork to court on Wednesday and filed all our documents. HOWEVER we cannot get a court date yet until this social worker files her report.  She said she took it down that same day, but my lawyer never found it. I texted and called and emailed on Friday but no one seemed to know. If we filed on Wednesday then we should've gotten a Feb 15 courtdate, but now it looks like Feb 22. I am irate about this of course. With each mistake people make, it pushes our exit date further and further. So we'll see...

Recap of Our Meetings Last Week

Last week was a wonderfully busy week of meetings.

Wednesday - Met our attorney for the first time. She is great. (Received her LLM at Georgetown in DC!). She said we can file for our first court date on Day 91,which is Jan 30, not Jan 28 like I thought. They actually calculate from 3 months, not 90 actual days. Either way, if our Little Angels' social worker gets her official report in to the court in time, then we will most likely get a mid-Feb court date. At this first court date, the court will acknowledge our GAL appointment. They will also hand our case back over to the Children's Department so they can assign their own social worker to do yet another round of homestudies. When the Children's Department files their report (they have 45 days after their 3+ visits), then we can file for our second court date. At THAT court hearing, the judge can grant the adoption right out but most likely will schedule a third date to make the adoption official.

Thursday - Our Little Angels social worker conducted her second visit here at our home. Clean, clean, clean! She is very nice. I hope the appointment went okay. She seemed again to be a little overwhelmed  by our family of 7 and homeschooling. She asked, "When do you have any time for yourself?" Hee hee. I love that question. Anyway, one more visit and those are done.

Friday - We had our first Guardian ad Litem visit here at our home. This lady is so professional and so beautiful! She has four kids too. I find that makes a huge difference in talking with folks about our family. She was so cute. "Do you know what a Guardian ad Litem does?" Then Kevin explained that we are both lawyers. She will come here for two appointments before our first court date. There will be a total of four visits by the time this is all over.

WooHoo!!

Spoke with our Attorney Today!!

What a great birthday present to me today:

I spoke with our attorney for the first time (which ironically we were appointed the same attorney that I wanted!!) . Our first meeting is this Wednesday. She says she will have everything together in time to file on the 91st day...the first day after our foster period is over.
I spoke with Little Angels. They have appointed us a Guardian Ad Litem and she will meet with us this week as well. Our second social worker visit is this Thursday.

HOOORAAAAY for things moving forward. Ah this is turning into a GREAT YEAR SO FAR!!!