July 13,2012

Today is a day we will remember for a long time. It is the day that that we officially became a family of 5. It is the day that we heard the news that we finally passed court... Oh what a glorious day!!

We got the call bright and early (7am) but unfortunately Tony had left to have breakfast with some friends. So the girls and I decided to make a sign and head to his work. I had told Tony I needed to drop off the girls for 1 hour so that I could go to a visitation. I was going to have the girls standing outside his office with the sign and I was going to call him outside. Well, that plan got thrown out the window because it was pouring down rain. So, as soon as we pulled in the parking lot, he saw us and I waved him towards the car. (He couldn't quite understand why I wasn't just sending the girls inside)  He ran out, hopped in the car,  and he saw the girls in the back seat holding the sign. Once it registered what the sign meant, he was overjoyed!

Needless to say, we are so thankful for this answer to prayer! We have felt so loved and prayed for this week through all of  this by our family and friends. We really are truly blessed!

So, what's next??? ............U.S. Embassy!
It takes an average of 3-5 weeks to get all the paperwork ready to be submitted to the U.S. embassy. It can only be submitted on Wednesdays so if it is completed on a Thursday, they have to wait 6 more days. Then once we are submitted, it takes anywhere from 1-5 weeks to "clear embassy". Once we get the email that says "You have cleared embassy" we will fly out within a few days to pick up Jeremiah Jones!

So that is where we are.... the next phase of waiting!!

But this little guy is worth the wait!!!

                                                   Still trying to see if we can photoshop Courtney into this picture!! :)

 If only we could call him to tell him the good news!!!

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty
The King of creation
O my soul, praise Him
For He is thy health and salvation
All ye who hear, now to His temple draw near
Praise Him in glad adoration

Praise to the Lord
Who o'er all things so wonderfully reigneth
Shelters thee under His wings
Yea, so gladly sustaineth
Hast thou not seen how thy desires e'er have been
Granted in what He ordaineth

Praise to the Lord
Who doth prosper they work and defend thee
Surely His goodness and mercy here daily attend thee
Ponder anew what the Almighty can do
If with His love He befriend thee

Praise to the Lord, O let all that is in me adore Him
All that hath life and breath
Come now with praises before Him
Let the 'amen' sound from His people again
Gladly for aye we adore Him

Court Date..... ! yes I found it in me to use an !

I cannot believe I am typing this but we have a court date for THIS FRIDAY. Yes, Tony was quick to point out that it is on Friday the 13th, but thankfully we are not too superstitious around here! I'll go with "third times a charm" or even "Lucky #13" before I fear Friday the 13th! :)

So.... what does this all mean?? It means that MOWCYA asked for a court date and they got it. 2 days from now we will hopefully hear that MOWCYA did their part and wrote the letter and that we passed court. 

It also means that we are trying our best to guard our emotions and remember that there are definitely not any guarantees that we will pass. 

And finally it means that we will be on our knees praying for good news. We are ready for this step to be behind us and move on to the next stage of waiting. We would love for you all to pray with us that we pass on Friday. 

All of this is for our good, for Jeremiah's good and ultimately for God's glory. May we remember that if we receive good news on Friday and may we also remember it if we receive bad news on Friday. 

Psalm 33:20-22

We wait in hope for the Lord:

he is our help and our shield

In him our hearts rejoice,

for we trust in his holy name

May your unfailing love rest upon us , O Lord,

even as we put our hope in you.

We Are Weary....

Yes it is true, we are weary. We are weary of hearing the same thing over and over from our agency. "The letter hasn't been written. MOWCYA says it will be next week" No letter. "It will be next week" no letter. And then today the message comes that MOWCYA is now requesting that we have another court date scheduled in order for them to write the letter. Not sure why they are requesting it but that is what they have done. So now we wait yet again for another court date. Obviously, it is our hope and prayer that this will be the final court date and that this part of the process will be behind us.  However, our emotions are so trampled on that we struggle to find the hope in passing the next court date.  So, yes, we are weary.

We are weary of telling the same story over and over again. There are days that I feel like the knife is being driven into my heart deeper every time I say "We have no idea when we will pass court and therefore we really have no idea when we will be able to bring him home" We will not celebrate his 3rd birthday with him and yes the girls will  have already gone back to school.
Is this our idea of perfect timing? No.
Is it HIS perfect timing?.... Yes.
Am I struggling to understand this timing?... Yes.

A single girl I know once said she grows weary of going on first dates because she gets tired of telling her story over and over again on first dates. However, she realized that it isn't her story but that it is God's story. It should remind her where He has brought her and how He has worked in her life. So today I am trying to remember that. As much as I am beginning to cringe at my own voice as I listen to myself say the same things over and over again, I need to remember that this is Jeremiah's story too.  God has already woven our hearts to his and all of this painful waiting will be a testimony to him one day of how loved he was by his family (and friends!) before we even had him in our home. It is a reminder that God has woven his story together perfectly even though we cannot see how it is "perfect" quite yet. It is a reminder that we have to lean on Him in all of our weariness because he has promised something for the weary....

Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
   his understanding is unsearchable.

He gives power to the faint,
    and to him who has no might he increases strength.

 Even youths shall faint and be weary,
    and young men shall fall exhausted;

 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
    they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
    they shall walk and not faint.

Isaiah 40:28-31

Once we have a court date, I will post again and ask for all of our prayer warriors to join us once again in prayer and petition that we would pass and move one step closer to the day we can bring Jeremiah home.

What will this week bring???

Those of you I have seen over the past few days have asked.... "any new updates?" The only updates we received this week are below... 

As of today, we are still waiting for your family to pass court. The judge ended up needing to take an exam on Monday and Tuesday, so case processing was slow today and we were not able to learn whether a MOWCYA letter was at court for your family. We’ll be back there tomorrow and push to see if you have a MOWCYA letter (and will hopefully hear you have passed).

And then there was this one...

MOWCYA has had several employees in a training this week, so they are not working at full capacity and have not written your family’s recommendation letter. We are hopeful this will be done tomorrow, and I’ll let you know in the morning how things went.

So what will this week bring??? Only God knows!  One minute I think to myself... "THIS could be THE week that we pass court!!!" And then I think about what happened last week and quickly realize that ANYTHING can happen. I really didn't think that we would get to July and still not have passed court. Once again... it hasn't gone as we HOPED, as we PLANNED and I cannot see the purpose in it. So that is why we have to wake up everyday claiming Jeremiah 29:11

For I know the PLANS I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a HOPE and a future.  

He knows when the letter will be written and when we will pass. We will continue to pray that it is sooner than later and continue to try our best not to have a pity party! :)