It's here! It's here! It's here!

Our official referral showed up on Tuesday! We had a scare last Thursday that there might have been a problem, apparently everyone at the agency thought we had our referral already. Sort of a nerve racking weekend!

Yesterday, we dropped the 100 pages of signed and notorized documents and another check off in the mail. (okay, not quite a 100 pages, but it felt like it). So glad that part is over.

Next step is waiting for a court date. We hope to hear about our court date before the end of December, but it could be January. We do not have to be there for the actual court date, a representative of the agency handles that for us. The theory is we should "pass" court a-okay because our daughter was on a special list and all her paperwork is in order. Some people don't pass court the first time, which just means the judge wants clarification on something, so you get another date and so on til you pass.

Once we pass court we get to travel. It's about 3-4 weeks after court...typically. We are praying very hard and would appreciate all prayers that the next 2 steps go very quickly as Emma has a birthday toward the end of February. We would love to have her home by then.

In the meantime we are keeping very busy with the holiday season. We will have family over for Christmas day dinner and our dear friends are going to drive all the way from Virginia to spend the week before and New Year's with us. We are so excited to have them again this year. The distraction will be great for the kids as everyone is getting anxious nervouse and anxious excited.

My apologies to everyone, but I am not mailing Christmas cards this year. I will try to get a great picture of the kiddos up as you won't believe how much they keep changing!

Thank you for all your warm thoughts and prayers.