Pastor Dongo recommended a lawyer for us to help navigate the court process in Uganda. Our lawyer, Victoria Katamba, will prepare our dossier and present our case in court to receive legal guardianship of the children. Uganda doesn't have extremely clear laws regarding international adoption and instead gives judges leeway to interpret the Ugandan constitution's coverage of minor's rights. The judges are supposed to look out for the best interests of a child when deciding legal guardianship. After we receive legal guardianship of Maureen and Alex, we will return to the United States and finalize the adoption.
I had a meeting with Victoria in December and was very impressed with her experience, knowledge and organization. Since the children were born and raised with their parents near Amuria in eastern Uganda, our lawyer filed our court papers in Soroti. Soroti is the largest town and the administration center in this region and has a population of nearly 60,000.
Links
Amuria - Wikipedia
Soroti - Wikipedia
Traveling to Soroti will be the most challenging part of our trip. It will take several hours to drive there from Kampala and there won't be a big selection of hotels compared to Kampala. The positive of this trip is that we will be near Alex's and Maureen's extended family and will try to visit their home village. It sounds like it is in a fairly remote area, so Angie and I have received our yellow fever shots and are packing anti-malaria medicine.
Both Angie and I need to be present in court and the judge will ask questions of us and the children. We've been told by Victoria that she has requested a court date in March. We hope to hear sometime this week when the court hearing!
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