We've got this....actually God's got this....

I know many of you have been following our crazy training adventures on facebook - but thought I should update the blog as well!!  So, just a quick recap....

We have a court date, October 30th. When we were issued that court date we also received notification of needing an additional 70 hours of training, including 30 hours of face to face training.  Over the last couple of weeks, we, with the help of our agency have been scrambling to pull together the necessary training in the time frame we have.  If we had several months this wouldn't have been that difficult, but because we had essentially two weeks time to get it figured out in order to get everything done in time to have the certificates and an update from our social worker AND have it all notarized and apostilled before we leave the country on October 22nd - it's been a bit of a challenge to say the least!

BUT....we've got a plan!  And it's all going to work out!  :)  Give us a hoop and we'll jump through it!! 

Our awesome agency has found a social worker at an agency in San Francisco who is willing to do our face-to-face training!!  We have already completed our additional training (which was very informative by the way!), so we just need to finish the face-to-face portion.  We will be going to San Francisco this weekend for a few days in order to have this training.  We are actually looking forward to it, even though it's an unexpected trip and an unexpected expense! 

We knew when we started this adoption process almost a year ago (!!!) - that it would be filled with ups and downs and unexpecteds.  We started with no true expectations of when our girls would be home, because we knew there was NO WAY we could truly predict how the process would go.  We had a best-case scenario, but at the same time told ourselves we need to be completely flexible, and have NO expectations, that way we can't be disappointed. 

But, now - we're almost there!  Just a couple more hoops to jump through (finish this training and get it all apostilled, go back to the girls' country and have court...) and then they'll be home for good!!  WOW!  Can you believe we're at this point?  We can't wait to see our girls again - and we will in just a few weeks!  I can't wait to kiss those little cheeks and play with them! 

Will you pray for us as we scramble around finishing up all the last minute details before we leave? And more specifically will you pray for us as we prepare to go from a family of 2 to a family of 4?  Pray for our girls' hearts to begin to be prepared for leaving the only life they've ever known....pray for Brandon and I as we enter parenthood....pray for the judge who will oversee our court case, that her heart will be soft to international adoption, and specifically to children with special needs.  Your prayers and support have been SO encouraging to us throughout this journey, we couldn't have done it without them!!!