More Delays

Well, the anticipation of finding out if our adoption would be underway ended last Thursday when we got an e-mail entitiled "bad news" from our attorney. The hearing never happened, to determine the father's rights, because the judge was sick. I was relieved because after reading "bad news" I thought they let the dad's rights stand. So, after a few seconds of relief and thinking that in the next day or so they would hear the case, I read on and it says " they think it may be about 3 months." So, since the judge was sick, the case wasn't heard and it's back to the back of the line. We are praying for a miracle, because this is SO unfair to Gertrude, to have to wait another 3 months after it has already been 6 months since this whole delay began. I am hoping to hear from the attorney next week that they will make an exception and do it this coming week. I don't know how we'll wait that long, or how she will. I'm just so glad we are getting her in a couple weeks for a visit. It will make the wait easier.

Yesterday, we had her friend and her new adoptive mom over to swim. Christina is good friends with Gertrude. She asked me a couple times if we like Gertrude. I told her we LOVE Gertrude and she got a big smile! I think she is anxious for Gertrude to get here. Christina is doing great so far, she has been here two weeks now. She, Tena, and Bethany (our "almost" daughter from Christian City) got along famously and spent hours in the pool and on the trampoline, and ate about 3 pounds of sugar in ice cream and popsicles!

Anyway, Tena asked me the other day, that if we don't end up getting Gertrude, will she still be able to come visit. She wants her sister so bad, and I think all these delays are causing her to wonder if we'll ever get her. I reassured her that I'm almost positive we will get her, it's just going to take some time. Hopefully it will be soon.

Court Date For "Dad"

We got the good news today that this Thursday, May 24, is the district court hearing to decide on Gertrude's father's rights. Agnese thinks the only "reasonable" verdict is to terminate rights. Of course, one never knows what might happen in some of these foreign countries. We hope to know the decision by this Friday. What a great day that will be, if we hear good news. It is Tena's last day of school (and we are ALL so happy about that!) and we may find out that our adoption is finally moving forward. Please pray all goes well on Thursday.

Visit with Gertrude

Today we got an e-mail from our friend Kathleen, who is in Riga, Latvia right now on her last trip to pick up her daughter Christina. Christina lives in the same Children's Home as Gertrude. She said she saw Gertrude and she was all smiles and seems very happy. We spoke with Gertrude just one day earlier and she sounded very happy. I think she finally gets it that she is coming here! Kathleen said she gave Gertrude a big hug from us. We are so grateful, but we can't wait to give her a hug ourselves.

We just found out that there are six children coming from Gertrude's home. This is wonderful news for Gertrude, because we believe it will help her to be so much more comfortable with the adoption. Between having her sister here, her friends here, her friend Christina here, and the prospect of her children's home director coming at Christmas or next summer (she is studying her English and hopes to chaperone on a hosting), Gertrude should start to understand that she will still be able to have some of her friends, and maybe even see some of her family after she is here permanently.

So, as you can see, God's hand is in this whole process, and the timing is perfect, even though we wish we had Gertrude now. It's exciting to watch this all unfold in a way we never would have imagined!

Gertrude's Sister May Be Coming!

We received some great news yesterday, that the directors of the hosting program that we are going through to host Gertrude, are going to try and host Gertrude's 16 year old sister! They just have to wait for approval from the orphanage director. Gertrude's sister is Agnese and she is 16 years old. She has been "struggling" for the last several months, although I am not sure yet in what respect. We know she may not be supportive of Gertrude's adoption, although we are not sure of that either. We had really prayed that Agnese would be hosted, but once they chose all the children and Agnese wasn't chosen, we just let it go and decided it must not be the right time. However, yesterday I heard from Jennifer of Simple Obedience. She said that Agnese had been on her and her husband's heart very heavily for the last couple of weeks. They began to pray about what God wanted them to do and recently have felt very strongly led to host her themselves. This is great news, because first, this will give Agnese some hope and happiness in her life, that hopefully will carry her through now and through the difficult life she may be facing in the future once she leaves the orphanage. Also, we will be able to get to know her, and hopefully she will become more supportive of Gertrude's adoption and not worry about what kind of country or people she will be with. It is a great opportunity for all of us, both of the host families of Gertrude and Agnese and both girls. Also, Gertrude can see that even though she may be living 6,000 miles away from her sister, that doesn't necessarily mean she will never see her again! She will have living proof that her sister is can actually come here too. They will both also see that we accept Agnese and that we want the girls to stay in contact after the adoption. So, this is awesome news for us and we just pray all will work out for Agnese to come. We hope to be able to develop a good relationship with her, since she will be part of our family through Gertrude.