It's official!

As of this afternoon it is official: Sam is our son!

This day was full of surprise blessings and I can't help but feel like it was all of you who are praying for us, petitioning God for us, and helping make it possible through faith!

When I woke up this morning I sent a text message to our social worker to see if there was any way, (since we were expecting our ruling tomorrow), that we could plan to have our son's 'going away' party tomorrow too; the 'going away' party is the final visit to the orphanage, and a big step to starting our own adventure as a family! Unfortunately, the answer was 'no', because the kids had a full day planned at the orphanage, and that we didn't have the ruling just yet to make it official. I was disappointed, but understood.

The morning was productive enough from there - I was getting some personal and volunteer work done on my computer, and enjoying a bit of quiet time as it rained a bit outside. That's when we got a call from our social worker saying that our written ruling had arrived but needed some edits from our lawyer, so we were thrilled but knew we had one more day left before the edits would be processed and printed by the court again.

A little while later we got another phone call, this time saying that the written ruling was officially done, edits and all, printed, and in the hands of our lawyer! We were so excited! Sam was ours! Sam was family! Sam had become my son ... officially!

After that news, our social worker tried talking to the director of the orphanage again to see if we could do the party tomorrow now that we had the ruling, and guess what? She agreed! The director went from saying the day was 'too busy', to 'sure, why not!?'

On top of all that, we also were told to go in for Sam's passport interview... tomorrow morning, first thing!!

Guys, your prayers and our great God are getting things done!

To those of you who are praying over us:

• Please say a prayer of praise and thanksgiving that the written ruling is complete, that the party is tomorrow, that we have the passport interview tomorrow, and that this is all happening quickly! God is good and we want to thank him for all He's done and is doing!
• Also if you would be in prayer that the passport would be processed quickly, (just like the written ruling), that would be such a huge blessing to us! Each step of the process has to be completed in order, so we weren't able to file for his passport until we had the written ruling, and the next step, (his medical check to be allowed in the U.S.), cannot be completed until we have the passport, so your prayers for the passport to get done quickly mean his medical check gets done sooner, (and the sooner the medical check is done, the sooner we can get his visa and get him home to all of you who want to love on him)! 

The process is crazy, but worth it, because tonight I heard the words, "I love you, Mama," for the first time, and that makes all the paperwork and waiting worth it! 100% worth it.

Thank you again for your support; we could not be moving along this quickly without your prayers and wouldn't be here in the first place without your monetary support and verbal encouragement! We love our community and miss you all!