Wednesday, November 2, 2016

We Have A Court Date!!


Hello!

Thanks for checking back in, everyone - it’s update time!

WE HAVE A COURT DATE! 

This is exciting, people. Very exciting. As we discussed in our last post, we had a major delay that caused the time between trips to be a little longer than anticipated. But now we are moving right along again and getting the court date signals the beginning of the end; that is the last big piece standing between us and our return trip! Getting that date was a big day! We are one step closer to having the boys home forever. With the excitement of getting the date (which is late November, by the way), came the mixed emotion of hearing that the boys may not be home for Christmas. Due to the timing of our court date and the holidays, we were originally told to anticipate returning mid-January. In the last couple of days, though, we were told that we should be prepared to potentially go and pick them up in December. As you can imagine, this has been a flurry of high and low emotions as we were thrilled to have a date but devastated to know they wouldn’t be home for the holidays, but then became hopeful that there is still a possibility that they will be. So, who knows! We will be prepared for December, and we will be prepared for January – we’re ready to go and get them as soon as they say “GO!” so, we will see when that is!  We will be honest – the hope of having them home for Christmas is SO exciting. But we are cautious in this emotion as it’s a very real possibility that it’ll be January. Either way, it is exciting to know that people are trying to get them home as soon as they can. If it doesn’t happen before Christmas, it doesn’t happen, but we are so thankful to have the best of the best working on our case both here and overseas. We are confident that they'll be home sometime between mid-December and late January. Having a court date scheduled and a relatively small window of time for their homecoming is a wonderful feeling. 

Process between now and then:
  • Our file is prepared for court
  • Court happens overseas (we will not be there, we have an agency representing us) – we become the DeArmond Party of Five this day! WAHOO!!
  • Decree is signed making it all official
  • They schedule travel dates for us
  • WE GO AND BRING OUR SONS HOME!


Let the countdown BEGIN! 

As we have been waiting to receive our court date, we’ve been having a GREAT time celebrating our boys. We’ve been blessed beyond measure by our family and friends. We had a shower in St. Louis with Mary’s family thrown by Mary’s Aunts, a shower here in Indy with our friends thrown by Mary’s sisters and Mom, a shower at BOTH of our employers thrown by our colleagues/friends, and a shower in Berne with Scott’s family thrown by Scott’s sisters and Mom. Add to that Mary's friends making our annual Christmas get-together a shower celebration and still to come: the ladies in Mom and Dad E’s neighborhood are throwing a shower in a couple of weeks. HOW FUN! We are SO grateful for the incredible love and support everyone has shown. From step 1, we’ve had a village walking along with us and we are so grateful! The boys’ rooms and toy boxes and closets are all stocked thanks to all of you! Here are some pictures of all the celebrations for our three superheroes. We’ve had such a GREAT time celebrating!



We have been talking with the boys on Skype every weekend. It’s incredible the progress they’re making in learning English and the excitement they have as we show them pictures of their rooms coming together and toys they’ve received. We continue to be SO grateful for their caregivers, who are preparing them so well for the transition to come. And we are so grateful for technology that allows us to give virtual hugs, kisses, and high fives! Mary even got the most precious “Happy Birthday” videos a couple of weeks ago. Skype has allowed us to continue bonding through this wait and help prepare them for the new beginnings to come.

Thank you for continuing to walk this journey with us! Next post should be the biggie – our “they’re coming home!” post!!!


Love,
Mary and Scott