New Order

As I indicated in my previous post, Friday was an intense and suspenseful day.  Fortunately, it ended well.  As I have written about previously, the Ugandan court of appeals issued a landmark decision about ten days ago that affirms the power of the Family Division of the High Court to grant legal guardianship to non-citizens of Uganda over orphaned or abandoned Ugandan children.  This is important because Ugandan law does not permit non-Ugandan citizens to adopt Ugandan children unless the non-Ugandans have foster parented the child for at least three years in Uganda.

There had developed a split among High Court judges as to whether a grant of legal guardianship was permissible under Ugandan law because such a grant allows the child to immigrate with the family who was granted a legal guardianship over the child to a foreign country and then be adopted in that country, which effectively gets around the adoption preclusion.  The couple about whom I have been posting, Andy and Sara Ribbens, had been denied legal guardianship of an abandoned Ugandan baby based upon jurisdictional concerns of the High Court judge who had decided their case.

Ten days ago, the court of appeals granted the Ribbens legal guardianship of the young girl (Nya) and granted them permission to immigrate to the United States with her.  That gave rise to a huge celebration, as indicated in my prior post, and Sara’s post.  Unfortunately, the celebration was short-lived.  When we received a copy of the 26-page ruling a few days later, we discovered that it contained a provision that explicitly stated that if the Ribbens wanted to adopt the child, such adoption would have to occur in Uganda.  This mandate, in and of itself, was not a problem.  Adopting Nya in Uganda would be perfectly fine.  In fact, the Ribbens would have been thrilled to adopt Nya in Uganda.  But they are precluded from doing so for two more years (they have been here nearly a year).  The bigger problem, however, is the United States’ requirements for obtaining a visa to allow the Ribbens to bring Nya into the United States.

There are essentially two possible visas available for parents bringing children from other countries into the United States.  One type (IR-3) allows for a visa to be issued after the child is adopted in the child’s home country.  This is not available for Uganda unless the parents are willing to live three years in Uganda with the child.  The other type (IR-4) allows for a visa to be issued after the would-be parents are given legal guardianship over the child and permission to immigrate the child to the United States, so long as they are not precluded from adopting the child in the United States.  Herein lies the problem.  Because the court of appeals decision mandated that Nya be adopted in Uganda, the US Embassy was not empowered under its guidelines to issue a visa.

As you might imagine, it was heartbreaking when we learned that the court’s ruling, which was clearly and unmistakably intended to permit the Ribbens to take Nya to the United States and allow her to grow up as part of the Ribbens’ family, had exactly the opposite effect.

Lots of prayer and lots of strategizing ultimately resulted in a flurry of activity on Friday, including the fastest appellate brief I have ever written.  Late Friday afternoon, the Ribbens’ Ugandan lawyer was permitted to make a brief argument in chambers to the court of appeals (they allowed me to sit in and watch silently) seeking a revised ruling from the court that would omit the language that precluded the issuance of the visa by the US Embassy.  After deliberating, the court announced that it was granting the motion for reconsideration so that the purpose of its prior ruling could be fulfilled.  More tears.  There was a special moment when Sara and Nya (and the other family directly affected by this turn of events) were permitted to personally thank the court.

We are now praying that the final stages of the process will go smoothly this week with the US Embassy so that the Ribbens family can travel back to the United States.