Once all the paperwork gets to the court...

We waited 2.5 months between acceptance of the referral and being informed of our court date. We were travelling 6 weeks later. BUT - we accepted the beginning of June - and rumour has it the summer is a bad time to expect anyone on the Polish side of the adoption system to be moving and shaking.

Wow. That makes me really sad. :( That seems soooo long from now. Well, it's better for me to live in realty than in la-la land. :)

We accepted our referral Sept.14th and did not get a court date until right before Christmas. We travelled Jan.30th. -- over 4 months from the time our paperwork arrived at the courts. However -- it is VERY court/judge specific. Another family who received a referral more than 2 months after us, travelled before Christmas because the judge was able to set a court date sooner. Our judge (although NOT necessary) sent all our paperwork to additional governmental ministries to be "validated" and then she was on vacation around the holidays. She is also known as a more "difficult" judge. I also had to stay the entire time despite planning two trips; however the court did at least recognize this change and granted a 2 week bonding (many people in the area have had 3 week bonding periods) and shortened the waiting period to 14 days -- which is very unusal. Good luck, I will be praying everything gets there quickly and you judge has availability right away!

I was in a situation like yours with a pre identified special needs child. It took us a while to get a court date, but with us they moved the child to another region and so that was an issue. We also had three weeks bonding and then the two weeks waiting and I had to stay the whole time, plus one more week after the waiting period was over to do the passport and stuff. We also very nearly had another two weeks because our son told the judge before court that he did not want to go to another country. But the day of court he said he did. (I think his legal gardian threatened him) but if he had said no again, the judge was going to make us wait an additional two weeks for him to see a psychologist daily for that time. Anyway, it's all up to your judge. OUrs had only done one other international adoption, so she was being very careful.

It really depends on the court and the time of year. We got our referral in February and had to go meet them (preliminary trip, which is unusual) and when we liked them, they set the date for early July...so from March 26 to July 8 (court date)...it was a long time! Then we arrived in country in late June, and left with them on August 24.Jessi

Here's hoping that everything moves smoothly and that you will have good news of a court date soon!! I imagine that knowing who your child is must make it ten times more difficult to wait. We are waiting for a referral (which I don't expect for awhile yet) and that is hard enough!

We received our referral in early August, could not travel to meet the children until early September, had our first court date about a month later, and the orphanage staff wanted us to come back for the court even sooner (that all was in 2006)!! To be honest, that was too fast for us :). But, we were dealing with a very adoption friendly judge in Warsaw, who was a supporter of the orphanage and put us on her busy calendar anyway. By the way, for me, it was more difficult to wait for the referral, once you know of the children, you can call, write to them, etc. Not knowing and going crazy trying to guess (and being unable to prepare the room, clothes, get busy with that) was absolutely the most difficult time in the process. And, of course, you never know how long the wait will be. Once you get the referral it is a bit more structured. Happy Easter to everyone!