July 9, 2013

Verbal Approval!!!!

Wow--finally!  Blogger hasn't been working properly.  Sorry for the late update.  Here's what happened yesterday at court:

We arrived at our lawyer's office at 9:00 in which we were told that we needed to go over to the courthouse to wait until they called us for court.

Well - we started off strong and the boys entertained themselves by some of the toys & drawing pads we brought. "A" wanted to eat the entire time we were waiting.  And as we sat there, the clock continued to tick.  By 1:00 pm, we had still not been called in.  So we called our orphanage director to ask what was going on.  She came over to brief us on the hold up and said she would call us soon.  But before we knew it, it was 2:00 before anyone came to us.  By this time, I was running out of good ideas...I had already done Simon Says, ring-around-the-rosie, tickle monster, fed them every snack that I had packed...and just when I thought we were never going to be seen, our lawyer came for us at 3:00 and hurried us down to the judge's chambers.

The rest of this story, I can share later, but it was crazy. I felt as if it wasn't me sitting in the seat listening to the judge. Very strange feeling to be in a room and asking yourself "is this real life?" My head started spinning as the judge grilled the lawyer for answers and paperwork...and numerous times, I  resigned myself to the fact that the judge was going to rule against us.

But I closed my eyes ever so slightly and began praying, as I clutched little "A's" body in my lap...I begged the Lord that if he wanted these boys to be in our family, that he would not let any obstacle stand in the way.

And just like that...without even a glance in our direction, the judge stamped the paperwork and told his  clerk "Approved".

I looked at Chris, then at our orphanage director who flashed us the biggest smile.

We had been approved!!!!!!

Ahhh...God answered our prayers.  One of our biggest hurdles is now out of the way.  Not everyone gets their "verbal ruling" the same day as court. Usually they get it about a week later and then you wait for the "written ruling" to be given to you.  So we will go back to court on Tuesday for the written ruling.

Next steps (Please pray for these important steps):
1) file for boys passport (our lawyer does this)
2) take boys for 2 mandatory medical appointments
3) File with U.S. Embassy
4) U.S. embassy exit interview & paperwork  (This is the biggest hurdle! We need to make sure that all of our documentation is correct and accurate, as well as all of the background information for the boys checks out)

We can't tell you enough how grateful we are for your prayers!!! We feel them in big ways.  God has been allowing us to be broken down and he's building our family together piece by piece.  I've NEVER experienced anything in my lifetime as hard as this.  But those of you who have sent emails and messages to us, have been lifting our spirits.  Please let us know what is going on at home as well.  That is one of the hardest parts of this whole process, not having close family or friends to be able to walk through this with.  But God has supplied a whole bunch of awesome adoptive families at our guest house who have been instrumental in helping us with parenting, adoption advice, and filling us in on the next steps of the process.  We can see that all of this is working together for His good!






5 comments:

  1. So excited to get this update - just read it out loud at CG. :)

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  2. Your Johnson crew has just been DYING for news...we've been praying/e-mailing/texting/talking/waiting...Praise the Lord!!!!!!!!!

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  3. That's great! You're getting closer.

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