Court day...or not

Today is Tuesday, November 11, 2008, the day scheduled for our court hearing in Ridder...sort of. Alma arrived last night for what we thought was a brief session to review our court speeches but it wasn't quite that simple. (You have to understand that Alma is very efficient and doesn't fluster easily...but when she is flustered, her favorite English phrase is, “Oh, my God!” We knew something was up when she came in and said, “Oh, my God!” three times before she was able to tell us what was going on.) She had been to Ridder earlier in the day to prepare Aniyar and Madiyar and had called the court around 4pm to reconfirm our date and time. Instead of the hearing we had been promised, the clerk instead told her that the judge will make a “determination” about our petition at 9:00am. What does that mean? Even Alma wasn't sure, she called her contact in the courts here in Ust to get the explanation...it's a step in the process that isn't even done in court here and it's basically a review of the petition before it's assigned a date. Sigh...back to square one, right?

Well, maybe...but the clerk also said we might still have our court hearing later today. Anyone out there have a crystal ball? Anyway, Alma says she'll call us as soon as she talks to the clerk this morning but that we will go to Ridder in the afternoon in any case. Yes, we're back to begging...so we'll be dressed in our finest and driving the now snowy mountain roads to Ridder for an event that might or might not happen. It's really cold here now and the road conditions are getting worse. Alma's driver had to stop to change to snow tires yesterday on her trip to Ridder...it seems other cars were spinning out. (Our friends the Gibersons were in the car at the time...pretty exciting, right, Anne?) Anyway, keep us in your thoughts and prayers today as we make the journey into the unknown in more ways than one.

We do have some good news...Alma said she talked with Madiyar yesterday about his rather conflicted feelings and she says he's ready for court. He says he's still nervous but he wants to join our family, both for himself and for his brother. Both boys practiced their court speeches and are ready to go. The director of the orphanage and our friend Natalya are ready for court and so are we...they all still think court is today since this change was a last minute surprise...and maybe it will be. We'll just have to wait and see...as Alma would say, “Oh, my God!” and as my mother would say, from her lips to God's ears...we could use the help here.