Laundry is running its cycle, clean clothes are being folded, suitcases are being pulled out and Russian phrases are playing in the background–evidence that in less than a week we will be in Eastern Europe standing in court on behalf of her. Some months go really fast and some go painfully slow. July was a slow one, but August is finally here and we are all that much closer to bringing her home!

Our court date is August 9, but since her country is 11 hours ahead, mark your calendars to pray for us when you go to bed on August 8. While you are sleeping, we will be grilled! Our court experience with DOP was exactly that…we were grilled. It was long and it was hard. We even had to provide additional documents from across the ocean and go back a second time. It was brutal. To be honest, I don’t care to repeat that experience. Well, who in their right mind would?!

God has moved mountains for her and I do not doubt that He will continue, but please do not take your part in prayer lightly. We are relying on you to pray us through. I would love to think that because everything else has been easy-ish that court will be too, but I also realize that we asked for the court to make an exception for us so we could adopt her, despite our family size, and I expect that they will ask us to defend our reasons. They will want to know exactly why we think we are the absolute best family for her. Standing in a foreign court before a foreign judge and prosecutor is no easy feat. It’s intimidating to say the least. Enough to make me quiver in my boots if I didn’t have the God of the universe on my side.

It probably wouldn’t even hurt to start praying now. Pray for the judge and prosecutor. Pray for us. Pray for our translator/coordinator. Pray for her as we visit her briefly, but leave her for another 2 weeks. Pray for our travel to go smoothly. Pray for our health (ours and our kids). And pray for me as I pack a family of seven to go a million different directions.

Back to that packing thing…