Well it's been 7 weeks since we received our referral and it's been 6 weeks since we signed our Power of Attorney documents and sent them to our agency. They have to travel through many hands before they actually reach the Taiwan court system. We are told that our agency sends them to the State of Utah, then they are sent to the Taiwan office in San Fransisco and translated, then sent back to our agency for review and then sent to St. Lucy's in Taiwan before going to the court.
We have not yet heard anything from our agency as to where we might be in the process. When we received Faith's last update with pictures there was a small note attached that said "waiting for court filing update". This might mean that our counselor Laura (with Families for Children) has yet to hear back from St. Lucy's as to when they submitted the documents to the court. I hope we hear something soon, it's killing me.
Once the documents are in the courts the following is how the court process should flow:
1. Family Court assigns a family court Judge to the case (Please NO SLOW JUDGE).
** I think we might be at this point in the process.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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!!!
5. 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.
6. 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 Lindsay and I as Faith's legal parents and will be used for immigration, re-adoption and citizenship.
7. St. Lucy's receives the final judgement documents and sends them out to be officially translated. Faith is scheduled for and receives her immigration physical exam performed by a US government approved hospital or physician.
8. Documents are changed at the local government offices to reflect Lindsay and I as Faith's legal parents. The documents are forwarded to the AIT for our VISA appointment.
9. When we travel to Taiwan to pick Faith up we are then scheduled to meet at the government offices the next day to sign documents and pay a fee, they process all the legal documents over night and we return one more time to pick them up. These are all the forms that bring Faith home safely and legally with us.
10. BACK to the USA with Faith!!!
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 keep us in your prayers. We love you all so much and it is so comforting knowing we have so many people rooting for us.
Loves
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