Slowly We Move Forward ...

It has been a tense, few weeks   We thought that we would be in Costa Rica by now.  After all, we were told by PANI when they first matched us with our children that they wanted our adoption process to be completed by the end of April! 

Alas, the judicial process has been as slow as a tortuga (turtle). First the judge received our dossier.  Then the judge asked for clarification with some of the translation.  Our attorney then worked with the Court translator and Clerk to redo certain sections or sentences. (We don't even know what she clarified! All we do know is that our attorney has been extraordinary in trying to smooth out any bumps quickly and smoothly to avoid long delays). Changes were made.  Our dossier went back onto the court calendar. Our attorney was hopeful and said that it looked good. 

Then we waited to get our travel date.  First one week went by.  Then another.  Then we panicked. Our caseworker was magnificent. Very responsive.  Very compassionate.  (We highly recommend Gladney Center for Adoption -- but more about that another time).  It turned out that while it looked good, we were not exactly approved.   The judge still had to issue a "resolution"  (not sure if this is the right word or if it got lost in translation).  Until we had a resolution in hand saying that we were A-OK, the judicial process could not move forward.  Double, triple, quadruple sighs.

We skyped with our cousin.  She talked with us at length about the judicial process in Costa Rica (not as efficient as we would like) and the Costa Rican culture ( Pura Vida; everyone is agreeable; and it'll all work out in the end -- all lovely, but clearly not working for us in the absense of facts).  

Then, thankfully, at 5:05 pm yesterday, our caseworker called to say that the court officially accepted our dossier.  We are approved to adopt Evelyn and Jose.  So, I guess we have that "resolution."  Now, we still need to wait for a date to travel to CR, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel!  From what we understand, we will need to be there 2 weeks before our court appearance. Our attorney believes that we will have our court date at the end of April, so we will travel to CR right after Easter. 

So, while we are anxious to pick up and go to CR right now, we keep reminding ourselves that slow and steady gets the results.