Court is tomorrow...please say a prayer for us.

In 24 hours, Jeff will stand before a judge and ask to be allowed to adopt Sydney and Sarah.  Please pray that the judge will agree and let the girls become a part of our family.  The exact time of court will be 9:30am in-country time which is 1:30am my time, CDT, early Friday morning, Aug 19.  

We love Sarah and Sydney so much.  

Is today Groundhog Day?...day 15!

I'm just kidding, but if you have ever been through an international adoption, you know exactly what I am talking about!!  There comes a point after about two weeks in-country where the days start to run together and look something like the movie "Groundhog Day".  That is not saying that each visit is becoming mundane...no, not at all....each visit is still very special and priceless.  It's just the day-to-day routine becomes very similar to the one before it and the one coming next.  But, oh, what a blessing each visit is!!  Getting tiny little hugs, grins from ear-to-ear under chopped-off bangs,  blown kisses, and sad faces when each visit is over.  Priceless indeed!

Sydney

Sarah

 

Daddy with Sydney

Big sisters having fun being silly

Little sisters having fun being silly

The orphanage does not allow visitors on Sunday, so Jeff, Rachel and Holly took the opportunity to run down to The Sea of Az*v, which is about 1.5 hours away.  This sea is a part of the Bl*ck sea and is the most shallow sea in the world with the deepest depth being only 46 feet.  The water is very murky and full of industrial runoff so swimming is highly discouraged.  The girls found LOTS of sea shells and had a wonderful time walking the beach and seeing the sights. 

Eating dinner after visiting The Sea

Until Jeff gets through court on Friday and the girls are legally ours, it is advised not to reveal on this public blog exactly where everyone is.  It just protects the girls' identity until they become full-fledged Hannons!  That is why I never name the girls country, or their city, or even "The Sea" that they visited.  Thanks for understanding.

Settling in...and a bang trim!....Day 12

The daily visits to the orphanage are going very, very well.  Everybody looks forward to the visits each day.  Sarah and Sydney are full of energy and love to play together.  They get so excited when they see Jeff, Rachel and Holly coming for them and they get really sad when it is time for their visit to be over.  Bonding already!!!!  What an answer to prayer!!!

Somebody was given a little bang trim overnight :-0    I'm sure the nannies were just trying to be sweet and freshen up Sydney's hairstyle.  It's the thought that counts...right?!?

Bangs grow back!

We have a court date!!!.....day 10

Yep, you read that right. God moved that big ol' mountain and paved the way for a quick court date to boot! August 19th at 10:00am...Court is in session!

We were assigned a judge yesterday and she took all day today to review our case and make sure all of our paperwork was in order. It was. Then around 8:00pm local time today, she had her assistant call our facilitator to give us the good news about court. Our facilitator was "shocked" that the judge would even agree to hear our case and double "shocked" that our court date was scheduled in just 10 days instead of the usual 3-6 weeks! Amazing! I LOVE it when God shows off!!!


Jeff and the girls will stay in-country until court and then come home during the 10-day wait. (There is a 10 day waiting period after court to give time to protest the courts decision) Please pray nobody contests the decision. Sarah and Sydney need to come home to us. They have waited almost 4 years for a family. NOBODY has ever came to visit them, not once, in almost 4 years.... until Jeff, Holly and Rachel came Aug. 5th.


Please pray the judge and prosecutor will agree to let us be Sarah and Sydney's mommy and daddy. We would be so honored to call them our daughters! They already are in our heart.


Here are some pictures from today's visit. Sydney's cough is gone so she was allowed to play outside. Jeff did not know it is a BIG no-no to let children sit directly on the ground in this particular country because it is believed sickness will come.   Oops!  One of the nannies ran over to him with a blanket and told him to have the girls sit on it instead. Lesson learned!  Sure hope Sydney's cough doesn't return tomorrow ;-)  All of the pictures below were taken right before the nanny gave Jeff the blanket.

Enjoy!!!

The orphanage

Day 9...Great visits and a little hug from Sydney!

The visits with Sydney and Sarah continue to be such a joy! Today, Jeff got a little surprise in the form of a tiny little hug from Sydney.  What a sweet treasure to get!!!!!  


Sydney was said to have a cough again today so she had to play indoors.  We are grateful she did not seem sick with fever nor did she cough during the visit.  

Enjoy the video!
*scroll down and pause my playlist so you can here the video* 

Sarah, daddy, Holly and Rachel continue to enjoy their visits outside!!!

Day 8...New pics!

Jeff, Holly and Rachel had a nice visit with the girls this morning.  Sydney was said to have a cough so she had to play inside, but at least they let her come play.  She never did cough while she was with Jeff so that is good.  Maybe it was more of a 'swallowed-the-wrong-way' type of cough that the nannies heard.  We'll see how she is doing tomorrow.

Sydney playing inside

 Sarah playing outside

And some fun pictures from around town.

 

Thank you all so much for your prayers!   We should be assigned a judge either Tuesday or Wednesday and our facilitator will ask for a pre-trial meeting to see if he/she will hear our case.  Jeff and I fully believe they will agree to hear our case and that there will be no more hiccups in our adoption process.  God has this!


I'll update as soon as I know more.