Still waiting ... and Hoping ...

I came back from being away for a week for Thanksgiving and checked my answering machine first thing, certain it would contain a message from Nan about our departure date. To my surprise, there was nothing there. It was too late to call her, so I called her yesterday morning. Would you believe, no date has yet been set? The hold-up is a paper that needs to go from the court (in Pune) to the orphanage (in Pune). It's been two weeks. The paper still hasn't reached the orphanage.

Once they have it, though, it's a simple matter of the director of the orphanage signing it, and then we're good to go. The paper (in case you're wondering) just says that if for any reason the adoption of Hope in the U.S. doesn't go through, the orphanage will assume responsibility for her. India has designated Nan & Bruce to be Hope's guardians. Actual adoption will take another year or so in the U.S.

In any case, there's every reason to believe we will be able to pick her up on December 10th, as planned. We just need to get the "go" signal from India to make our arrangements. We're hoping to get that GO today!!