Usually when this happens, the courts don't assign a 3rd deadline. They just wait for MOWYCA to catch up. So for now we are just hanging and waiting for this important piece of paper. Although there are very few cases being processed by my agency right now, it sounds like the other agencies in Ethiopia are experiencing the same delay. MOWYCA was in a lot of trainings and people just weren't in the office working so there is a big backlog. Luckily, they don't do Thanksgiving over there and Ethiopian Christmas isn't until January (different calendar again) so holiday season doesn't seem to be an issue moving forward.
So basically, we just wait. Until we have that letter, we can't get assigned a new "important interview" date for people from Trent's past, and until that interview happens we can't get our date to fly. As much as I would have loved to have him here with us at Christmas, and there may be some tears on that fact from me during the holidays, there is some peace that the current citizens of America Sibley boys can enjoy a holiday with Mom and Dad's full attention.
Lucas, Ben, and Sammy have had a year of 5 different homeless children up in their personal space for long periods of time. They have been brave and have literally shared everything they have, especially their Mom and Dad's energy.
Our most recent little man went home on November the 18th (sob). We miss him, we love him, and I found a little present he left me this morning jammed into our printer. He was a bit obsessed with our printer in a rather inconvenient way. This isn't the forum to talk openly about that case, but we loved him and his sister and we loved them and advocated for them well for 4 months. We did everything there was to do and now we release them to their biological families and Jackson county to move forward, hopefully toward a healthy and nurturing home life. Holy goodness, I miss them.
Sob.
So for now we pray for those that have been part of our family only temporarily and we pray for those yet to get here.
We are hopeful for more news on our case in the next few weeks. Until then, we will enjoy this holiday season and continue to prayer to be the best parents possible for Trent.
