I'm afraid of my email today

Has anyone ever been afraid to read their email? It's never happened to me before. Until today.

I don't want to get an email from our adoption agency today. I don't I don't I don't.

Our court hearing was held in Ethiopia today. I say "was" because the workday is over in Africa (here it's 12:51 p.m.). So whatever decision has been made about our little girl has been made. Were all the right documents there? Did little e's birth mom show up like she was supposed to? Did the electricity work? There are people out there who know the answers to these questions. I'm dying to know, too.

But not today.

Because this is the game we play at this point in the adoption process: someone in Ethiopia calls (I assume they call) our agency with the results of the court cases heard that day. If we don't pass court, our agency can tell us right away. If we do pass court, they won't. Because they want the judge's written order in their hot little hands first. Which obviously takes longer.

But we adoptive parents on our agency's board aren't stupid. It didn't take us long to see the pattern: if you hear from Holt the day of your court hearing, it's bad news. If you don't hear for a couple of days, it's because you've passed.

It's now lunchtime in Oregon (where our agency is. 12:08 precisely). I bravely peeked at my email and so far no news. Whew. Five more hours in the workday. If we make it through five more hours, we'll know--okay, we'll know nothing (ahh, the adoption process is fun).

But this, I suppose, is adoption labor. Or false labor. Hopefully we won't know for two more days.