Headed in the right direction!

What a difference 2 days can make in the world of adoption! What a difference a good phone connection can make!

We have received some great news from our agency today..... NO MORE INFORMATION IS NEEDED!!  Did you hear the "WOOHOO" coming from our home today? We are rejoicing in this great news and are preparing a really big celebration for when we hear that we have passed court and that Jeremiah is officially a "Jones".  So here is the scoop...

MOWCYA (not the judge) was still requesting more information in order for them to write the favorable letter of recommendation which is needed  for us to pass court. Yesterday, our agency went to MOWCYA and sat with them and reviewed our case with them in detail. As we all know, a face to face exchange can be much more insightful than just reading a document. This meeting proved to be just what needed to happen in order for MOWCYA to see that everything that could be done had already been done. So, they told our agency that they will be writing our letter and that the courts would have it in their possession by Monday. Our agency is planning to follow up ASAP and make sure that the document is seen and that all that would need to be done is for the judge to sign off on our case. At that point, we will have officially passed court! Timeline for passing court.... ? Could be as early as next week but the bottom line is we cannot try to predict anymore.

So, as we rejoice in this news, we also remember that any curve ball can be thrown at any point. We are thrilled that we are one step closer to completing this part of the process and still trying very hard to ignore the calendar!  After what happened on Tuesday, we are realizing that we really have to put Jeremiah and this whole process in God's hands and not try to make it fit into our own desires when it comes to the timing of him coming home.

He continues to teach us so many things through this process and for that, we are thankful.
We are also thankful for each of you and for your prayers, emails, texts, and all your support. We feel very loved and Jeremiah has no idea how much is he already loved and how big his fan club is! :)

disappointment

Disappointing news is hard to swallow. When things do not go the way we hoped, the way we desired or according to our plans, it is often hard to take it in stride and go on about your day. Today has been one of those days. We have been waiting most of the day for the phone to ring to tell us the outcome of court. Given that Ethiopia is 8 hours ahead of us, it really was making no sense to me that we did not have the information by lunchtime. However, I was trying to be patient and not call the agency since I had called this morning.
So, after getting off the phone with our agency at 2 pm, all the news we have to report is that we didn't pass court because the judge wanted more information. Our agency was cut off from the in country director and she hasn't been able to get in touch with her again so that is all the information she had received before they were cut off.
We are experiencing many emotions right now and until we have the complete story, we just have to wait, to trust, to be patient and to remember who is in control of all of this journey. Our agency has told us that unfortunately we are in this group of people who have had to go through more hoops to get a court date or to pass. There are new processes, a new judge and for whatever reason more difficulties. We know they are trying to protect these children so we are trying hard to remember that.  Perhaps there will be something about all of this that benefits Jeremiah when he is older and trying to understand his story. God knows the whys, so we just have to trust.

I will post whenever I have more updates.

Court Date...June 19th!

We have been given a little bit more clarification and the biggest thing we have to share is that June 19th is our official court date! While this news is very exciting because we have the hope that we finally hear the words we wanted to hear on May 21st (HE IS YOURS!), we also know that we have to be prepared that we may not pass that day for whatever new reason.

So we ask you to pray with us for these specific things...
1) That MOWCYA writes the letter that we need in order to pass court and that it arrives BEFORE the 19th
2) That there are no other NEW PROCESSES created that we have to go through
3) That all of these delays might actually help us clear embassy more quickly so that we could bring him home
4) Pray for all of us to "trust in the Lord with all our hearts and lean not on our own understanding"

We know he is being well loved and cared for, however, we are ready for him to come home and join our family. It already feels like forever ago that we were there.....

Thank you for encouraging us and praying for us. We will keep you all posted as we know more.

Just when we thought we were almost there....

the finish line for this part of the race has been moved again. 

 We heard from our agency yesterday that the MOWCYA (see previous post) is requesting more information. Our agency hasn't been able to talk with the in country staff yet to find out what exactly they are wanting but all they know is that they have until June 19th to get this information to them. We should be informed by tomorrow what exactly it is that they're wanting. Our agency tells us the soonest we could pass court is June 19th. 

Who wants to be invited to a pity party?? We are considering having a big one but I know that a pity party will not really get us anywhere. So instead, we are trying to remind ourselves of all the positives. We are busy in the here and now with 2 girls, about to enjoy a week at the beach with family, and we still need to finish Jeremiah's room! We will try to keep ourselves distracted with all the fun things about summer while we continue to wait for the day that seems like it will never come!!

God loves Jeremiah more than we do or ever will and He knows EXACTLY when and how it will come to be that he joins our family. So, until then, we pray for Jeremiah's heart, mind, body and soul and still hold out hope that we can celebrate his 3rd birthday with him (August 3) God can work miracles!!

Still waiting... a little Clarification....

After receiving a few emails this morning asking about the "court date"  I had referred to in the last post, I remembered that I had not updated the blog with the little bit of new news that we had. After talking with our agency this week, we learned these few things....

1)the ad has to run until June 6

2)they do not know if we will have to have another court date. They may just pass us after they receive the MOWCYA letter.  The MOWCYA (Ministry of womens,children, youth administration) writes letters of recommendation to the court on behalf of the families once they have reviewed the files and approve everything. In order to pass court, you must have the letter. The letter was supposed to be written by the end of the week (yesterday) but our agency isn't sure if the courts will just go ahead and pass us after the 6th or if they will give another court date. 

So, we will be ecstatic if we hear something on the 6th, realistically it might be more like the 7th or 8th. Please pray that they will just pass us and that we will not have to wait for another court date just for formality sake. We are ready to move past this waiting place and we are past ready to hear "He is yours!" 

Thank you all for praying and thinking of us. We feel very loved and supported!