Monday, June 28th - Day 5 - RESCUED!

No matter what I write today, it is going to be so painfully inadequate. The emotions of the day are overwhelming that I am just stunned.

Both Mendy and I had a lot of trouble sleeping last night. Trying to wrap our minds around the impact of what today would hold was challenging. On the one hand, I had a lot of trust that we were doing everything we could do and confident that God would do what only he can do. However, I was not presuming upon God. He is not obligated to make this happen and I was bracing myself for a few of the “what if” scenarios. What if the MOWA papers didn’t arrive? What if the biological mom did not say the right things? What if our agency messed something up? What if the judge simply said no? So I tried to sleep a little with these thoughts rolling around.

A new group arrived at the house we were staying at. They came in around 11 or 12 and were pretty loud. I was reading a book called Compassion and I was having trouble finding compassion towards their loudness. However, Mendy gently reminded me that we have led groups before that got in late at night and certainly weren’t very quiet. All that to say, we didn’t rest well.

We woke up and EVERYBODY was a little on edge. I was stressed, Mendy was stressed and the kids were just trying to figure out what was going on. By 7:30 AM we had two kid meltdowns, and Mendy and I were sitting in silence, frustrated at each other. I apologized for my insensitivity and she reminded both of us that Satan was certainly at work trying to steal the day and our joy.

We were planning on arriving at the court house by 8:00 AM even though the court time was planned for 9 AM. We were running behind which raised the stress level. We arrived at the court house around 8:30 AM and then it hit me. I didn’t know who I was supposed to meet – what they looked like or what their name was. For all I knew, I wasn’t even in the right building. We called Nicco and he was almost there with the twins birth-mom. When he arrived he said he didn’t know who we were supposed to meet either. You see up to this point we have been working with two people in our agency – neither of which handle the court side of things. Nicco had a phone number to call but no name. However, he did confirm that we were at the right building, so we went inside.

We climbed three flights of stairs and walked down the hall way to a stark room with chairs lining the walls. I asked Nicco if he had called our agency. He told us he only had a number and not a name. Mendy and I were stressed out…filled with anxious thoughts. There were probably 40 people in the room and everyone trying to talk quietly – while we were there with all of our kids, trying to keep them from making too much noise and fighting with each other.

Nicco called the number but no one answered. I asked him what needed to happen right now for this to pass… oh and at this point it is about 9:30. He said that two representatives had to show up and the MOWA document had to get delivered.

I kept thinking HOW DID I LET THIS HAPPEN. I have taken nothing for granted during this process. Every small victory has been celebrated and resistance from the enemy is expected at every turn. So how did I get to the most important day without making sure who our contact was, where we should meet and when they would be there… oh and who was checking on the MOWA document? I was ticked at myself. I kept praying over and over again for these three things to happen. A LONG 10 minutes later one of the agency representatives arrived and he said that the other was on her way. Another LONG 10 minutes later the second representative arrived. And about 5 minutes after that a person came in to deliver some documents to the judge. When he walked in both of the representatives lit up with a smile and nodded to me that those were probably the MOWA letters. Okay, now to wait…

A few minutes later we were all sitting in front of the judge. The judge was a very polite female. She asked Tizita and Geremew’s birth mom several questions about her situation and made sure she knew this was final. Then she asked Mendy and I, if we were ready to adopt, why we wanted to adopt from Ethiopia, etc. It was a quick five minutes in front of the judge and she congratulated us for adding two members to our family. We passed!

This is the day we have prayed for, hoped for and longed for. There was so much emotion in the day that I have been completely spent the rest of the day. Mendy’s smile was as bright as I have ever seen it. We truly felt the favor of the Lord and the prayers of so many people. It was and is amazing.

We made a quick plan to try to get our embassy date moved up and then we went to the orphanage to get Tizita and Geremew. It was a sweet reunion. Their birth mom rode with us. As we entered, it was difficult for Mendy as their birth mom said goodbye to them. She just can’t imagine doing that as a mom and knows how difficult it must be. We took pictures and let the kids say goodbye to their friends. Then we all went to meet Nicco for lunch. The Henderson 8 plus Nicco and the kids birth mom. We had a good lunch complete with a trip to the ice cream store downstairs. This time also included several trips to the bathroom (most kids bladders are so small because they aren’t used to drinking that much – or so we are told). We said our goodbyes to Nicco and their birth mom and headed for the guest house.

Megan, Kaylee, Jacob and Lindsay have been completely amazing today (except for the waiting time before our case was heard). They have fully embraced their roles as big brother and sisters. It is so amazing to watch. Megan is appropriately and maturely mothering, Kaylee will have these kids speaking English in no time because she is great at explaining everything to them. Jacob is very , very affectionate to both kids – he hugs them, puts his arm around them and you can tell he just really cares from deep within. Lindsay is so glad to have a playmate. She told Mendy that this was even better than she thought it would be.

Amazing Day! Topped off with dinner with Posts and a lesson in hair management from Carmen.