Hedge Trimming

One of Aaron's favorite games...  He could do this for hours!!

Trimming the hedges...

     Tomorrow we should officially become Aaron’s parents. Our facilitator Luda is supposed to pick up the court decree that makes him our son on her way to our village tomorrow. We still cannot take custody of him until we have traveled to his home village and obtained a new birth certificate for him, one that lists us as his parents and gives his new name. We are hoping to accomplish that on Tuesday and apply for his passport on Wednesday. We don’t know yet when we’ll break him out for good, because it depends on the details of the paper chase. Since nothing else has been easy, we won’t be surprised if we have more delays with this bureaucratic mess. But we’re hoping we won’t.



      We are bone-weary of being here. We know that our boys at home reached their limit a long time ago. When all is said and done we will have spent 6 weeks in this village, and close to 8 weeks in this country. We are done. We want to come home. The next week or so will be a whirlwind as we run from place to place to get the documents required to bring Aaron out of the country. We expect over 25 hours of car rides over roads that look like they’ve taken artillery fire. We may be popping a good bit of Tylenol. At least we have a good driver in our friend Slava. He still plays “dodge the pothole,” which makes for a sick feeling in the back seat, but at least he doesn’t drive at break-neck speed.

      We covet prayers for this last leg of our journey. We may have to leave Aaron for several days as we chase papers. We have come so far with him, and it concerns us to leave him for any length of time. Even though he laughs a lot, there is still a frailty about him that has kept both of us by his side these last two weeks when we could have gone home. It pains us both to leave him, even for a day.

     We also ask for prayers for something that could affect hundreds of other families who are trying to adopt children from this country. On Tuesday, this country’s Parliament is scheduled to consider a bill that would ban international adoptions. This is not the first time this bill has come up. It failed the last time, but it was not without support. If it passes, adoptions end. Depending on its terms, adoptions already well on their way to completion may end. I can’t even bear think what that would mean for the many children who are stuck behind the walls of institutions across this land. Please pray that this bill will again be defeated.

     Thank you for your continued comments and support for us. We are so grateful each time we open our computer and find messages from home. God has been good to us. He has been faithful in our weakness, has carried us in our distress, has encouraged us in our sadness and has lifted us up when we felt we couldn’t go another step. In just a week, or a little bit more, we will be home. Praise God. He is Good.