Good News!

We had a great morning yesterday! This was the last chance for Gertrude's dad to appear in court before the courts terminated his parental rights. He did not show up so the decision was made to terminate. As we have said throughout this whole ordeal, we hate to celebrate something like this. It is a tragedy that this kind of decision ever has to be made. But it is obvious that her dad is unable to care for Gertrude for whatever reason(s) and she needs to be free to move on. We have known this about her dad for a while now, and believe the best thing for Gertrude is for her to be adopted.

So, when we heard the news that she will be free again, we were soo excited and relieved . Tena had left for the bus stop when I got the e-mail so I got in the car (still wearing my PJ's) and drove up to the bus stop where Tena was waiting with about 15 other kids. She came up to the car and her first words to me were, "why are you in your pajamas?" Once I told her the news she forgot about the embarrassment I caused her and got so excited, and went and told her friends. What a way to start the day!

There is a 20 day waiting period for this decision to become effective, then she will be free for adoption again in Latvia. Then some papers must be given to the Ministry and the Orphan Court so that they can again give her clearance to be adopted internationally. After that, they will be able to set a court date for us to come back to Latvia. We hope to have her by Christmas but it's hard to say how long all this will take. After the 20 day waiting period, it should only take a couple weeks, I believe, for the paperwork to go through to clear her again. Last year, once she was cleared, they had a court date for us only a couple weeks after that. So, good news is, she will be free again soon and we can finally bring her home. Exactly when that will be remains to be seen but we have seen God's perfect timing at work through this whole process, and we expect to see it until the end. I can't tell you how excited we are though. We love Gertrude so much and it seems like our family is missing a vital part. She needs to come home and fill it up!

So, next step is, once again, to wait. We're getting really good at it so I don't anticipate any problem there!