GREAT NEWS!

Here I go again, typing this as it all is still sinking in and becoming real .... you won't believe what we got in our email today:  our baby girl's adbandonment decree!!

We are so sad that she, like her soon-to-be-brother, was abandoned in a public place, but we are SO thankful to her birthmother for giving her life and having mercy on her by leaving her in a place where she had hope to be found. We're eternally grateful to the stranger who took pity on her and brought her to the orphanage. And for the orphanage caregiver(s) who have been caring for her for months!

With the email about this decree came MORE GOOD NEWS: we DO NOT have to wait a month for her birth certificate! {Because she is so young. This is an answer to prayer as we weren't entirely clear on this before!}

What does this mean?? What's next??

Baby R's waiting period after his birth certificate was issued will be up NEXT WEEK, Feb. 3rd!
After that our attorney can work on getting our cases presented in court and we will legally become their PARENTS when we pass court!! Can you believe it?!?!?! I am weeping tears of JOY just thinking about it and how soon it may be that I will officially become a MOTHER OF 3!

At one point we were told that it typically takes about 2 weeks to get a court date and 4-8 weeks after that to travel to bring them home, but who knows... we are trying to not trust in the words of man, but that it will all happen in our Sovereign God's perfect timing!!!

"The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with JOY!" Psalm 126:3

Joyfully,

Mother- Son Roadtrip!

Jonah and mommy took a roadtrip to our state Capitol on Wednesday to get our child-specific documents authenticated! It's only about an hour from our home so we thought it was well worth the drive in order to speed up the paperwork process. {Otherwise we could've mailed it in and waited for it to come back. But who knows how long that would take? We have been in the process to adopt for a year now, so I'm happy to do anything I can to keep the process moving along smoothly.} So we hopped in our car and made a fun little day of it!

OUR DOCUMENTS ARE AUTHENTICATED!! YAYY!!!
{Sorry, this picture is refusing to upload correctly.}

We even got to stop by and visit with some of our dear friends who live nearby!

Jonah and his buddy, Emma, sharing a snack.

Friends. Snack buddies. Future husband and wife? We shall see...
They would make some cute blonde-haired, blue-eyed kids. =)
And we would absolutely LOVE to have her parents as part of our family!

Next Step: We are mailing our documents off to a courier in the D.C. area today! (Which costs about $580.)

And we (Jon and I) are scheduled to get about 9 shots each next week. (YIKES!!!) Not only do I hate needles, I hate that the yellow fever shot alone is around $150-200! I am happy to get the recommended shots, I just hate how expensive they are and that our good insurance still doesn't cover them. Ahhhh well, I need to remind myself that the Lord has continued to provide for us and somehow we will pay for all these crazy shots. (I'll give you the rundown next week, incase any other DRC adoptive families behind us in the process are reading this & want to know all the shots that are recommended before you travel.)

Happily Authenticated and waiting for baby girl's abandonment decree & birth certificate,

More Answered Prayer: We got a REFERRAL!!!!!

Friends, I am about to weep tears of JOY as I type this, and it finally sinks in that this is really happening, our last 5 months of prayer have been answered:
WE GOT A REFERRAL FOR A LITTLE GIRL!!!!

We found out yesterday that she passed her medical and sent official notice to our agency today that we accept this referral for the beautiful baby girl, who we'll call "baby girl" for now! =)

She was just 45 days old at the time of her medical exam a couple weeks ago, so almost 2 months old now! And she is a healthy, precious little one! She weighs around 13.5 lbs!

Please Rejoice and PRAISE GOD with us for all that He has done & all that he is about to do! We do still need to get her abandonment decree and birth certificate, but we want to take a minute and pause and just give GLORY to God for all the ANSWERED PRAYER that we've had in the last week!

Thank you Lord for entrusting this baby girl to us! Thank you for giving us the priveledge of being her and baby R's parents, raising them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord, loving them, caring for them everyday! We can hardly wait!!!  Please help us get her paperwork in the next week or two so we can officially ADOPT our son and daughter and bring them home this spring!!!! Please give us patience and help us to trust in Your timing.

We are working frantically hard to get all our child-specific paperwork printed, signed, notarized, certified and everything else in the next 24 hours!! These documents have to be in the DRC before our court date in order for us to pass court and be officially declared as baby R and baby girl's PARENTS! =)

"Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!" Psalm 107:1

Rejoicing in God's lovingkindness to His people,