Just thought I'd give a little update on where the girls' adoption process is at the moment (see http://africamommy.blogspot.com/2012/05/update-timeline.html for the overall timeline). The 30 day wait for both girls' birth certificates finished on June 9th, so hopefully and prayerfully our case has already been submitted to the court system and I am hoping to hear in the next week or two that we've passed the first stage of court. This stage is called consent court, and is basically just a meeting between the girls' guardians (currently the orphanage directors), myself (via my lawyer as my power-of-attorney), and the justice of the peace. In this meeting, all 3 parties give their consent for the adoptions to proceed.
A couple weeks after that, I will hopefully hear that we have passed the second stage of court, in which the adoptions are tentatively finalized, pending another 30 day appeal period. At the end of that appeal period, a no-appeal decree is issued, followed by the adoption decree and eventually the girls' new birth certificates with their new names, including "Heller" as their last name! I think that my estimate of picking them up sometime in November or December is still reasonable, though I continue to pray that things will be expedited and they will come home sooner.
Looking forward to the day when I will finally meet them in person!
It's all very encouraging!
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