Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep...

...I pray the Lord my babies keep.

As Brian and I fall asleep tonight, the courts in Ethiopia will re-open and our paperwork will make it's way on to the judge's desk. We are praying for expedient attention to our file and swift court dates assigned.

While we've been told not to expect court dates until 2011, our faithful family and friends have been praying in faith, hope, and love that we'd have our babies home by the end of '10. I lack faith in that reality, but if you also feel compelled to pray that please do! He can move the mountains and anything is possible with God. I do believe that [just not for our family, I guess].

In other news...this weekend I received 4 more pics of our Ethiopian beauties from a mom picking up her son at the same orphanage our kids are at! Included in these pics were the first pictures I got of our kiddos playing together!!!!! Of course, I cried.

She wrote from Ethiopia: We saw your sweet kids. Oh my. They are precious. I just can't tell you. They are sooooo sweet. They had them in the upstairs room, the same room where we spent our third day with Isaiah on our first trip. They were sitting on the rug, and the nurse and nannies had them sitting close with some toys. they asked your son to share with your daughter, and he did it right away. So sweet!!! His eyes. . . yes, you know how striking they are.

They had to wake Baby T up from her nap, so she was a little groggy, but she was still just precious.

My cup overflows...

Paperwork Submitted!

YEAH! This is a great morning already! We got an email from our case manager this morning that our paperwork will be submitted to the courts on Tuesday morning. Guess when the courts open? TUESDAY!

Since we got our referral 5 1/2 weeks ago, we've been praying that our paperwork would be completed and on the judge's desk when the courts re-open! God's answered that prayer plus one: the courts were scheduled to open on the 30th, but are now opening on the 28th. THANK YOU JESUS!

This paperwork includes our dossier [huge stack of paperwork that we submitted to Ethiopia on 10/20/09] AND all of Lil' A and Baby T's paperwork. Our paperwork is together, submitted to the Ethiopian courts to officially, legally join their lives to ours. MIRACULOUS!

I'm beyond convinced and compelled that it's your prayers that are moving mountains and expediting our process. We've been praying that prayer - EXPEDITE - for over a year. It seems like God is answering that specific request these days. Please keep praying these babies home!

In the upper left-hand corner of the blog I'm posting the most important and current prayer requests. This is the request God answered this morning:

Our paperwork would be waiting on the judge's desk
when the courts re-open on September 30th [9/7/10].

NEXT?

2 court dates scheduled by the first week of October [requested on 9/24/10]
2 successful, Ethiopian court dates before the end of 2010! [requested on 9/7/10]

2nd Medicals - APPROVED!

We have approved our 2nd medicals in record time [not really, but it was quite quick!]!!! We talked through the new set of tests, lab reports, and exams with a great doctor-friend of ours today and sent in our official "YES" just a little while ago!

Now What? Lil' A and Baby T's paperwork will be completed, compiled with our dossier, and transfered to the Ethiopian courts. Then, we wait to be issued our 2 Ethiopian court dates after the courts re-open on September 30th.

Prayer Requests:

• Our paperwork is ready to go - waiting in line - when the courts re-open on the 30th.
• That we'd have 2 successful court dates by the end of 2010. It's ambitious, but possible with God! This would also mean that we'd travel to Ethiopia by the end of 2010. [Plus it's just a catchy saying...haha]

Thanks so much for praying them home. "Passing" these 2 medicals is no small thing and getting them completed in less than 3 weeks is borderline miraculous. I believe it's because of your prayers! Keep 'em coming!!!!