We Have a Court Date!!!

Very exciting news came today!!!

After daily court-stalking, our case has finally showed up!! We were registered this past Saturday with our first hearing on July 11 (court in India)!!!!!!!!!! Please please please pray that we pass in 1 hearing! It is very uncommon {in the state that she is in}, for court to only have 1 hearing, so we are preparing ourselves for several. BUT God can do whatever He wants to do and we are praying for a miracle that this judge will pass it the 1st time! Mark July 11 down in your calendars and be praying with us! Once our case passes, we are SO close to going to India and bringing our sweet girl home!!!!

If you would like to join in on the fun of helping bring K home, you can visit our online donation site here. We still have about $12,000 in travel costs to raise/save! And looks like we may be travelling sooner than later! YIPPEE!!! Let the craziness begin! :)

The countdown continues....

Hey guys - A couple of quick updates.

• A little over a month ago we received our NOC (no objection certificate) which moved us into the final stage which is the "court stage." We were given the timeline of 3-6 months for this and we keep praying that it will not be any longer than that. The state of Uttar Pradesh in which K is in, does not have a good reputation for moving cases quickly, so we are a little worried that there will be some delays. This final stage is not easy for my OCD self as I'm checking the India court website daily to see if our case shows up. I have to remind myself that it will happen in God's perfect timing....but its so so hard. So- be praying daily for court to move quickly, pretty please! 
• We had our pictures made for K's photo book that we get to make and send to her. We are finishing up putting that together and it should make its way to India by May. We are really excited about this since this will be the first time she is "introduced" to her new family. We had a lot of fun with these pics and couldn't have done it without our family and the super fabulous Courtney Paige Photography aka my best friend/sister. Y'all go check her out here. 
• We haven't made much progress on getting K's room ready since we have been super busy with end-of-school year stuff, but hope to knock that out in May. :) 
• And lastly, our India t-shirts that some of you purchased were sent to us with a small mistake, so they had to re-print them all and ship new ones to us. They have finally made it here and I will be sorting all the shirts and delivering them this week and next. We have some extras, so I will post specifics on how to order those very soon!

I know it seems like our adoption process has been the longest wait in human history, but we want you all to know how so very thankful we are that all of you are still supporting us and praying for us since we began this journey in 2014. It means so much and I look forward to the day when I get to flood your emails and news-feeds with pictures of our sweet girl in our arms. Keep praying - I know I say that a lot - but prayer works y'all! :)

If you didn't get a t-shirt but want to help be a part of bringing K home, you can visit our online donation site here. We still have about $12,000 in travel costs to raise/save! 

xoxo

Ryan & Megan 

p.s. here are some pics for our photo book! 

WE HAVE NOC!!!!

Last week I posted about how we were struggling with the wait for our NOC approval. Well our prayers were answered and we received the news of our approval last Friday! We now have our NOC (NO OBJECTION CERTIFICATE) to adopt our little girl! The wait time for this was estimated to be 3-9 months, and we waited 4. We are so thankful that the Lord guided us through that time and allowed us to receive the approval quickly!! Thanks for praying y'all!

What's next.....

We begin the court process (last step before travel). 

"The purpose of the court process is for the judge to legally finalize the adoption and confirm the adoptive parents as the legal guardians." This process is estimated to take 3-6 months. "In most cases, there will be several court hearings where the judge conducts a preliminary review of the case and orders the court social worker to visit the orphanage and check the child's file. The social worker will prepare a report that will be given back to the court for the judge to review. Most judges will not rule on the case immediately following the review but will instead schedule another court date. At that final hearing the judge will approve the adoption." We will hear from our orphanage once there is a "verbal approval." While the court documents are being finalized, the orphanage will apply for K's passport. Once the passport and court docs are received, we can GO GET HER!

Now that we have our NOC, we have the privilege of making a photo book for K filled with pictures of us, our home, our pets, family, etc. The orphanage that she is at will decide when the right time is to show it to her and tell her that she has a new family! This is such a bittersweet time because we are so excited that she will now know that she has parents, but at the same time, it's hard because we are not able to be with her yet. We pray she is filled with joy and peace as she looks at it. :)

Also, since we have the NOC, we are going to begin working on her room! This means lavender paint, girly things, and elephants galore! So fun!!

We are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, so please continue praying with us!!!

Love,

Ryan & Megan