"Give yourself fully to the adventure of today. Walk boldly along the
path of Life, relying on your ever-present Companion. You have every
reason to be confident, because My Presence accompanies you all the days
of your life- and onward into eternity. Do not give in to fear or
worry, those robbers of abundant living. Trust Me enough to face
problems as they come, rather than trying to anticipate them. Fix your eyes on Me, the Author and Perfecter of your faith, and many difficulties on the road ahead will vanish before you reach them. Whenever you start to feel afraid, remember that I am holding you by your right hand. Nothing can separate you from My Presence!" Hebrews 12:2; Isaiah 41:13 (Jesus Calling)
(If you didn't read this quote at the top, read it. Seriously....you will be glad you did.)
For those of you who haven't heard yet, our court date for our sweet baby girl is TOMORROW, March 21st!!
At
this hearing we hope to obtain legal guardianship of our daughter. Upon
receiving legal guardianship we will apply for her Ugandan passport and
her visa to enter the U.S. These things come with their own
uncertainties and difficulties and we'll be asking for prayer for those
soon enough but right now we're focusing on one step at a time. We are
asking that you join with us in prayer that this Thursday in court would
go well and that within a week or two we would hear a FAVORABLE ruling
from our judge! We believe we have a solid case and we know we have a
great lawyer, so we feel pretty confident about the process but there is
still the fear that things may not go smoothly.
We have been assigned a great judge as far as adoptions go. He has granted legal guardianship to hundreds of
international families and is very favorable towards adoptions. We were told
that he likes to see that families are well versed with Ugandan
culture. So, we have done several things to strengthen our case. We
bought Ugandan outfits for all of us and took pictures to give to the
judge. We visited the Ugandan cultural center and the King's
Palace and bought a $25 certificate showing that we went (we were told
he LOVES this), we figured out wich "clan" Baby Girl is from (She's an "eel"), and we made a
photo album with pictures of Baby Girl and our family at historic places
such as the Equator and with traditional Ugandan dancers. Not to mention
the fact that I lived in Africa for 12 years and Uganda specifically for 5 years growing up, Drew and I have
lived here for a year, and my parents live here (and I have two Ugandan adopted
sisters!). We feel our case is strong but with Ugandan adoption you
never know when a curve ball will be thrown into the mix.
As
well as praying that we would receive a favorable ruling, please pray
that the judge would see us in a timely manner and that the kids would be good while we wait. We are supposed to be to our
Lawyer's office by noon tomorrow but she said the judge may not see
us until between 2-7 pm. Our judge is notorious for making people wait,
apparently! That's a long time for an active 2 1/2 year old and 11 month old to wait in a little
waiting room while missing naps and having nothing to do!
Thanks for being a part of this journey with us. And thank you for your prayers! We will keep you updated!
For I am the Lord your God
who takes hold of your right hand
and says to you, Do not fear;
I will help you.
Isaiah 41:13
