I have written so many half blog posts over the last few weeks, but I've gotten derailed and then the information is out of date. So I'm going to try to be brief, get to the prayer request and actually post this one, because we really literally be on the verge of our departure to go get our sweet boy.
Most of you know that we got our official court order on April 5th, after being matched with Moses for almost a year at that point. That is pretty long, in the world of India adoption. Our coordinator originally had told us that we might have him home by his 4th birthday in September, but delay after delay and slowdowns and missing papers and a general lack of urgency left us with our written orders April 5th. When we finally saw the digital copy, we found a number of errors. We let the our agency know and they sent them through and we saw the corrections uploaded to the site on April 12th. They had told us that they would get the certified copy of that court order within 10-12 days, they would get the birth certificate in 8-10 days and the passport in 15-20. We weren't sure if those were consecutive or concurrent, but based on other people's timelines, we were thinking it would be the end of May when they would have it all and we could travel to pick him up.
Two weeks passed. No word of the copy of the court order, however, we circumvented some processes apparently and got a document we needed and his birth certificate (with our names on it!) around April 26th. They absolutely need the copy of that court order in order to apply for his passport. Then we found out that the lawyers (or advocates) in the whole state of West Bengal were on strike and all the court houses were shut down and not doing any work. Then the cyclone came through the next weekend. The lawyers were still on strike as of today and they have said they will strike until at least May 10th. However, we have been told by everyone over there, that the supreme court in Kolkata is going to force them back to work today. The orphanage is apparently certain that the judge will sign the order and they will have their copy by the end of this week. But Thursday is a court holiday anyway.
So, if we continue to wait for this court order copy, it could be who knows how long until they get it and are able to apply for the passport. They are saying that the passport will only take a few days, but they also said that about everything else that is now is the weeks and months territory. I also know many adoptive families who wait 4-8 weeks for their passport when the orphanage does it, so not sure how ours would be a fraction of that time (when nothing else has gone like that so far).
We really, really want him home with us by the start of the summer. There are so many reasons for this. He has quite a few definite and possible medical concerns that will need to be addressed and having the summer before we start homeschooling again would be so much less stressful. Then, there are just gut feeling reasons as well. Joanna's due date was 6/14 (the day before our anniversary), but all of our kids have been 1-2 weeks early. I was convinced that we were going to be a family of 6 the first week of June. Obviously she never came. But as this timeline has started to flush out, I've just had this feeling that we are finally going to be a family of 6 the first week of June :)
We have prayed for wisdom and asked a lot of questions in all kind of communities and this is what we have decided:
If God can miraculously make the court strike end today and get the judge to sign our order and get the copy to the orphanage in one working day and it's in their hands on our Friday morning, we will take that as a sign that the Lord is going to move the passport mountains for us as well and we will continue to prepare to leave, but probably not for a few weeks at least. We will most likely travel around the beginning of June, in that case.
If the orphanage does NOT have the copy of the court order in their hand by Friday, we will plan to go there and do the passport ourselves, in an expedited way that the orphanage would not be able to do. We would leave next Friday, May 17th and would be picking him up May 20th! The hope is that the court order copy would be in their hands sometime next week before we got there. So, we hope for a miracle or two! But we also want to be courageous and bold for Moses and do anything we can to get him into a loving family as soon as possible if God wants us to. Moses has known for awhile that we are coming and we don't want him to have to wait any more!
We haven't been able to share a picture of him until he was legally ours, and then this last month got away from us and I haven't posted much of anything. I want to share his picture now, though, because we are so excited that he will very soon be physically with us and you may be meeting him! Yes, he has special needs and as we meet you, we will share them with you on an as needed basis. The obvious things are that he has repaired cleft lip and palate and limb differences and he is basically a superhero who can do everything that we can do with half the amount of fingers and toes. Pretty incredible. This picture is from November and he is rocking a Gucci shirt and a very large bindi mark. We think he's pretty stinkin' adorable and can't wait to get to meet him and hold him and never let him go ;)
Most of you know that we got our official court order on April 5th, after being matched with Moses for almost a year at that point. That is pretty long, in the world of India adoption. Our coordinator originally had told us that we might have him home by his 4th birthday in September, but delay after delay and slowdowns and missing papers and a general lack of urgency left us with our written orders April 5th. When we finally saw the digital copy, we found a number of errors. We let the our agency know and they sent them through and we saw the corrections uploaded to the site on April 12th. They had told us that they would get the certified copy of that court order within 10-12 days, they would get the birth certificate in 8-10 days and the passport in 15-20. We weren't sure if those were consecutive or concurrent, but based on other people's timelines, we were thinking it would be the end of May when they would have it all and we could travel to pick him up.
Two weeks passed. No word of the copy of the court order, however, we circumvented some processes apparently and got a document we needed and his birth certificate (with our names on it!) around April 26th. They absolutely need the copy of that court order in order to apply for his passport. Then we found out that the lawyers (or advocates) in the whole state of West Bengal were on strike and all the court houses were shut down and not doing any work. Then the cyclone came through the next weekend. The lawyers were still on strike as of today and they have said they will strike until at least May 10th. However, we have been told by everyone over there, that the supreme court in Kolkata is going to force them back to work today. The orphanage is apparently certain that the judge will sign the order and they will have their copy by the end of this week. But Thursday is a court holiday anyway.
So, if we continue to wait for this court order copy, it could be who knows how long until they get it and are able to apply for the passport. They are saying that the passport will only take a few days, but they also said that about everything else that is now is the weeks and months territory. I also know many adoptive families who wait 4-8 weeks for their passport when the orphanage does it, so not sure how ours would be a fraction of that time (when nothing else has gone like that so far).
We really, really want him home with us by the start of the summer. There are so many reasons for this. He has quite a few definite and possible medical concerns that will need to be addressed and having the summer before we start homeschooling again would be so much less stressful. Then, there are just gut feeling reasons as well. Joanna's due date was 6/14 (the day before our anniversary), but all of our kids have been 1-2 weeks early. I was convinced that we were going to be a family of 6 the first week of June. Obviously she never came. But as this timeline has started to flush out, I've just had this feeling that we are finally going to be a family of 6 the first week of June :)
We have prayed for wisdom and asked a lot of questions in all kind of communities and this is what we have decided:
If God can miraculously make the court strike end today and get the judge to sign our order and get the copy to the orphanage in one working day and it's in their hands on our Friday morning, we will take that as a sign that the Lord is going to move the passport mountains for us as well and we will continue to prepare to leave, but probably not for a few weeks at least. We will most likely travel around the beginning of June, in that case.
If the orphanage does NOT have the copy of the court order in their hand by Friday, we will plan to go there and do the passport ourselves, in an expedited way that the orphanage would not be able to do. We would leave next Friday, May 17th and would be picking him up May 20th! The hope is that the court order copy would be in their hands sometime next week before we got there. So, we hope for a miracle or two! But we also want to be courageous and bold for Moses and do anything we can to get him into a loving family as soon as possible if God wants us to. Moses has known for awhile that we are coming and we don't want him to have to wait any more!
We haven't been able to share a picture of him until he was legally ours, and then this last month got away from us and I haven't posted much of anything. I want to share his picture now, though, because we are so excited that he will very soon be physically with us and you may be meeting him! Yes, he has special needs and as we meet you, we will share them with you on an as needed basis. The obvious things are that he has repaired cleft lip and palate and limb differences and he is basically a superhero who can do everything that we can do with half the amount of fingers and toes. Pretty incredible. This picture is from November and he is rocking a Gucci shirt and a very large bindi mark. We think he's pretty stinkin' adorable and can't wait to get to meet him and hold him and never let him go ;)
Thank you for your support and prayers!
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