What an amazing afternoon! I could not possibly explain our court experience here in this note except to say that I have not recently been so imidated in my life. I kept thinking in my mind about Jesus when he said to Pilate that he has no authority but that which God has given to him. I kept looking at the judge thinking that he has no authority in our case except that which God has given to him (John 19:11). God orchestrated events in such a way that our judge today granted an immediate decision for us to be Elliott’s parents. This was unlike either of my two previous deliveries in which I became a mommy again:)
We do not actually have Elliott tonight. He will spend his last night in the orphanage tonight completely unaware of what has been decided in his life until we are able to go tomorrow and take him away from the orphanage forever. Even then, we are not expecting him to be happy about leaving, in fact, we are fully expecting him to be upset when we get in a car and pull away from the only home he has ever known. We’re completly comfortable with whatever emotion comes out from him because we do know that better things are coming for him in his life. How true that is in my own life. I think I know what is best and often for me that means sticking with what I am comfortable with and what I know, when in fact, God sees the full picture of His plan for my life, and I am sure He often is okay with my lack of understanding of His plan, but He does expect me to follow Him. We are okay with Elliott’s reaction to leaving with us tomorrow, but we do expect him to find security in us…not in the events of his life right now…but in the fact that he trusts us and we are safe for him. God is safe for me to trust anytime, regardless of what is happening in my life at any given time.
From here, we should be able to wrap up documents tomorrow and head back to Kiev on Tuesday night. We will have a full day in Kiev with no appointments on Wednesday, and then should have our two appointments in Kiev on Thurdsday and Friday. For now, we have been told we should be able to begin our flights back home on Saturday. We will know more tomorrow and will clarify before we book our return flights. We will likely book those on Wednesday! My mind is spinning from all that has happened today, so I think I might cut my update a little shorter than usual! Please give God thanks and glory for how He has worked in our adoption journey today and this entire trip.
One final thought for now…Jon checked and found that we “offically” began our adoption journey by registering with our agency last year on Dec. 9th. We will be completely done with our process almost a year to the day from when we started…WOW!!!
Melinda