News....

     We have news.  It is complicated and... complicated.  BUT.... there is quite possibly a light at the end of the tunnel!  Praise God.

The short version: 

     On Tuesday morning our facilitator, Luda, found out that the judge had finally arrived in court. Luda quickly grabbed a taxi and did a mad dash down to the village (that's going to cost us a pretty penny) and after much persuasion, she was able to gain an audience with him.   It was in one of those God-arranged minutes because he was LEAVING FOR VACATION FOR TWO MONTHS the very next day! 
     After much heart-stopping discussion, he signed the papers to move our case to a nearby district court.  Luda then drove like a wild-woman to that court (more money) and was able submit our papers there.  The judge in that district is on vacation until Monday so we will have to wait until then to find out if she is willing to take our case and when we can get a court date.  Hopefully on Monday, Luda will travel back down (yikes... this is going to add up) and the judge will agree to take our case.
    
  
     We are beyond grateful that things are moving.  We are trying to breathe, but holding our breath at the same time as so much hinges on so much.  But God has again shown Himself to be the director of this drama so we just continue to need to trust and obey.   

We are definitely stressing about how we are going to arrange our lives with such ridiculously hard change-of-plans. We are being hit with expenses that are causing us to gasp.  I don't want to go into details but all of our 'best-laid' plans have been trampled in the dust in regards to the finances.   One of our deepest desires since Aaron is older was for both boys to be introduced to him in his country.  Elijah went and I can honestly say it was the best decision we made.  NOT that it was easy for him.  It was downright difficult on every level.  But to know that Aaron and Elijah first bonded in Aaron's world was worth every nickel we spent on his plane ticket.  

The decision to take Ben is weighing heavy upon us.  He is bursting at the seams to go and we again believe strongly that Aaron needs to bond with Ben on his home turf.  Aaron is a cognitively normal disabled child in a special needs mental institute and is dealing with issues that go way beyond what a little guy should have to carry.  He needs his brothers to understand.  My boys need to understand him.   It is a hard, hard decision. 

     So we sit on the side-lines, waiting, praying more and even more, trying to make unbelievably hard decisions, planning and then watching our plans become dust at our feet, clinging to each other and to our God. 

     Thank you to so many who reached out yesterday when I was hitting bottom.  The e-mails, hugs from friends in our world, comments, facebook messages, prayers - they helped carry me through. 

I can't end this without posting some 'brotherly love' pictures of Elijah and Aaron....