Waiting!

It seems as though so much has happened since our last blog post BUT the best summary is that we are WAITING! We are currently waiting to receive our court date. A couple of weeks ago our case was assigned to a specific judge but, since then, the judge has moved from the Family Division and we are waiting for our case to be reassigned. Once our case is assigned, then we will wait for the judge to schedule our court date. Once our court date is scheduled, then we can book our flights. Here's the process from that point (as we understand it). We will have to go before the courts 3 different times--an initial time to present our case, a second time to provide any additional information the judge might request, and a third time to receive the judge's decision. The end result will be that we will be Gideon's legal guardians. Once this happens, then we will have to get a Ugandan passport for Gideon as well as meet with the US Embassy in Kampala to get a visa for Gideon to enter the US. Once we return to the US, we will go through the La courts to legally adopt Gideon. We have already secured a local lawyer who will help us through that process here. Whew, I'm worn out just writing about this. OH--Mary and I will BOTH have to be in Uganda for the first 2 court visits. She will then return to the US and I will return with Gideon once everything is finalized. Mary's time in Uganda will be 1-2 weeks and mine will be 4-6 weeks! Please continue to pray for us as we wait!

Things are picking up!

On Tuesday morning we received our second update on our baby Gideon complete with 4 new pictures. Again, sorry we can't post them here. Trust me, he's a cute one! He's about 5 months old and we could tell he's gotten bigger. The orphanage also included some written updates. Here's exactly what they said:

• Has grown in height and weight
• Trying to sit down but with support
• Likes to feed on mashed irish potatoes
• Has put on weight
• Loves to be carried a lot

We found out that the lawyer our agency works with in Uganda filed our paperwork with the courts this past Thursday. We were told to expect to find out about our court date in the next 2 weeks. Once we get our court date we will travel in a month!! Bottom line...we should be traveling in March...maybe even as early as the end of February! We are excited about the pace picking up.

The other new development is that we're seriously considering bringing the boys with us. We thought we had settled on leaving them here but it's starting to feel more and more like we should bring them. So much so, that we went today and applied for passports for all of them AND Mary has already talked to the principal at Jonah's school about the possibility of him being gone for a couple of weeks!

Keep praying for us as we begin lining out these final details and as we make these crucial decisions about our trip. Pray that everything would begin to fall right into place.
Thanks!

Close to a Court Date!

Our apologies for not updating sooner. We were traveling a lot during the holidays and we are finally getting back in the swing of things. We want to update you all on the process. Most recently, we have just submitted an affidavit with our agency which will be sent with our Dossier to Uganda. This is the last step (I think) before we get our court date. The court date will determine when we travel to Uganda. All signs seem to be pointing toward a travel date in MARCH!! Like many things, this isn't set in stone so we will wait for the official word.

Over Christmas, we were blessed to receive a grant from Show Hope--what a wonderful organization and what a tremendous Christmas present!

When we travel to Uganda, Mary and I will both have to be gone from Jonah, Seth, and Abram for about 10 days. I (Jamey) will have to remain in Uganda for up to six weeks. Please pray for us as we make preparations for our children to be cared for and for all of our responsibilities to be covered while we are away.

One of the most special gifts we received this Christmas was this nativity set from some dear friends of ours here in town. It's cool because it was made in Uganda. It's funny how we feel connected to that country even though we have never been there.
Also, during the holidays we couldn't help but think of our little Gideon who is already such a part of our family but was not with us as we celebrated Christmas together. We long for him to be with us ASAP! We need one more face in our family photos, don't you think?!?

Another Glimpse

About a week and a half ago, Mary and I were getting ready for bed and I got an email on my phone. I opened it up and it was from our social worker at our agency. She is in Uganda and she had spent the day at the orphanage. She sent us about 10 more pictures of our little Gideon. It was good to see a picture of someone holding him because it helps us picture ourselves holding that little guy. There was a picture of him smiling and looking cute! We picture the day (hopefully very soon) when he is in our home with his family. Pray that day comes quickly!
Here I am getting Abram's "big boy" bed ready to move into his and Gideon's room. It's time for him to move on up--now it's time to fill that empty CRIB!!

Referral Received. Referral Accepted.

Monday was a great day! That's the day we received our referral for Gideon and found out much more information about him. We have already accepted the referral and are continuing to move through the process. Also, we finally got to see what he looks like!

One big surprise is that he is currently only 3 months old! We were expecting him to be closer to 18 months and no younger than 6 months. We are thrilled! He's a cutie with big, bright eyes and little sprigs of curly hair on top. It was a lot of fun showing the boys their new brother--can't wait to throw one more boy in the mix.

The next step is to finish pulling together the final few documents for our dossier, send them to Uganda, and wait for a court date. It's possible that we could travel as early as March--though could be as late as early summer. It can't happen soon enough.

I'm sorry we won't be able to post or distribute a picture of him at this time--we want to protect him and our process. We were able to send a picture of our family to the orphanage so they could put it near him. We can also expect to get regular updates on him. I'm sure these updates will be highlights each month and we will be sure to share any new info with you.

As always, thanks for the support--prayer and financial--that so many of you have offered. This continues to be a humbling journey. We still have about 20 shirts if anyone would still like one. Also, we are waiting to hear back regarding a couple of grant applications. God continues to provide!

Stay tuned.