Whew! I have not updated in a while; I apologize!
As you saw in our last post, we received our First Ruling in July. Then, in August, we got Travel Approval! THIS WAS THE MOMENT WE WERE WATING FOR!!! We bought plane tickets, we had our embassy appointment scheduled, as well as our "placement" or pick-up-kids date on Oct. 12. We were scheduled to fly home on Oct. 16 and start our new life as a family of 6. Then in mid-September our world came to a screeching halt. We found out that the children's birth mom had been notified of our First Ruling also, and she filed an appeal to win back custody of her kids. This was a huge surprise for many reasons. We didn't think she had the legal right to do so (she does) and we just generally thought we were in the clear and nothing would stop our adoption. After all, we had plane tickets! I was packing suitcases! We were devastated. We had to cancel our plane tickets (we did not get a refund, but we have a year to use the credit with United) and cancel our whole trip to Taiwan. On Oct 28, there was a court hearing to decide our Final Ruling, and decide whether or not we get to adopt our kids. Birth Mom was present as well as 2 more family members, expressing their desire to help her parent the children. As far as we can tell, the children were also present (a surprise to us) and asked what they wanted. They expressed that they like Mommy and Daddy and big brothers in the U.S. and want to come live with us. Obviously this is both heart-warming and heart-wrenching to find out that the children went through this, and that the judge has such a difficult decision to make. So now we wait. Again. It has been a long 2 weeks since the court hearing, and every day we wait for the phone to ring to tell us everything is going to be ok and to come to Taiwan right away. But we just don't know what's going to happen. Would you please pray with us? Pray that we get the kids. Pray that the judge has wisdom to make this hard choice. Pray for the birth mom, who's heart is surely breaking. There's a lot more I'm not sharing, that leads us to believe we are the best family to raise these kids. Pray for Robert and I to be sustained during the waiting, because we are low-key depressed. Just pray over all of it. Thank you friends and family. We dearly appreciate everyone's support and love these last several months.
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AuthorAll posts are written by Robert or Rebecca. Maybe you can guess who's who based on the number of emojis and exclamation points!!! CategoriesArchives
February 2023
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