seeing the heavy traffic up ahead, the turtle moves to the side of the road...

...to wait...

Okay, another update from Irina. Not brilliant news but, once again, slow progress:

Mike and Judy,
The lawyer talked to the people from Chita court. They told her about the appointed hearing for 17 December for which the family would be brought by the ushers(nice word for men carrying guns). After that they would send the report to Irkutsk by mail and via fax.

The lawyer will get the official reply from the judge tomorrow, but the secretary has already said what will be in it. The judge refuses to continue the process without having the report from Chita. The lawyer says that she tries to find out from the judge's assistance if it's possible to set a date for your hearing having a fax from Chita. If she (the judge) agrees than the lawyer wonders how soon you can get ready for the flights - your visas and tickets. The thing is that if the judge will be satisfied with the fax report she can give you the date for the end of December - 28/29 December. But we'll know it for sure on 18th of December.

If she waits till the report arrives, then she will set the date only after the New Year, in this case it will be necessary to have new medicals. (UGH!)

So, can you please answer the following questions:
1) If on 18December the judge sets the date for 28/29 December, can you get your visas and tickets ready? (probability is not very high, but it might happen)
2) If the hearing is in January, will you do the medicals at home (according to all the requirements stated by the judge)?

Irina

So there you have it. Only after we demanded in writing, a status report from the judge, did she take it upon herself to order the Chita family to be brought - literally - to court to give their statement. Irina seems to think that, given the fact the families from Angarsk all said pretty much what WE hoped they would, that perhaps shes hoping the Chita family will have a different story - one that says the Guardianship department didn't follow procedure as they did with all the other families. Not likely, but, perhaps it's the judges "dying wish"....

Mike & I, and Irina agrees, feel that althought it is frustrating to know this could have been done a month ago when this family contacted the court saying they had no transportation to the court, and couldn't afford to take the time off from work to make the long trip. BUT, we're hoping that the judge has run out of valid reasons to hold us up any longer and thus, is insisting on waiting for the report - even though it will almost certainly say exactly what WE need it to. Let's face it, if she had already found another loophole to stall any longer, why not schedule the hearing and once again disappoint us?

Bottom line is we don't know the date yet, BUT, it seems eminent that it will be the last week of December or mid January. You see, the Russian government gives its people 10 days off to celebrate the holidays. From 1 January - THEIR big holiday, til after Russian Christmas, 7 January (Skips Birthday). That being so, the earliest it would be would be the 12th, which is a Monday. The other problem is, our medicals (that we ran all around Russia for this fall) will expire on 14 January, so if the date is not before then, we're looking at redoing them. Of course the problem is, the clinics will be closed til the 10th, so we will need at least a week (the 12th to the 17th) to get them done, notarized and brought to court.

We're still hoping to go the end of December. It will mean we may spend Skips birthday in Russia, and certainly won't mean we'd be home for Christmas since we'd need to leave a week before the hearing to prepare for the hearing and meet with the attorney, BUT, it lets us know the earliest we are leaving, and lets us get on with our lives for the next two week. First on the agenda is trying to get Skip into the Church Christmas play. We didn't have him included since we were afriad we wouldn''t be here, and didn't think it was fair to have him practice a part only to have to have him back out at the last minute, and leave them with the problem of finding another child to say his one line (I'm sure that would be the extent of his contribution - but it's the big time for a 5-and three quarter year old! (He now tells everyone he is 5-3/4) .

So you're up to speed... the turtle has decided to rest the next 10 days... Please continue to keep us in your prayers! We have felt all your prayers, and know our gracious God, hears each and every one