Moving on ...and a letter to Eliana

 ****I am going to give a pretty generic description of what is going on with our adoption below, because writing out each detail would take pages to write, but this is a summary.

As most of you know we got a court date, set for Nov. 7 in Uganda. In the last week, the US Embassy made a high alert travel advisory. Long story short, Al Qaeda terrorists have recently attacked Kenya, who are allies of Uganda. Uganda is the biggest supporter of the African Union Mission in Somalia [AMISOM]. They have sent troops into Somalia and they are upset that they will not withdraw them. The situation is continually worsening and now businesses and schools in Kampala are closing down, as they have been alerted that the attacks are imminent.

See link below for more details...
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10/18/21025232-americans-warned-of-kenya-mall-style-terror-attack-imminent-in-uganda?lite

We are set to travel in 12 days and after speaking with our Ugandan attorney and adoption travel agent, we have decided not to travel at this time. Our judge has a very high chance of not granting us custody even if we did risk traveling there during this extremely dangerous time. Many Americans are being turned away, as our media is portraying a picture of Americans that is not very pretty. And sadly, the terrorist activity is not ending any time soon. The attorney stated that even as a Ugandan man, he is afraid for his family and on high alert even in his own home. Being American, our risk of traveling is heightened tenfold. We feel putting our own lives at risk is not fair to our children and family, no matter how badly we would love to go and swoop her up and take her away from all of that turmoil.

So what does this mean? We can not reschedule our case, we have our hands tied at this point and can not continue with our adoption in Uganda. As much as we are completely heartbroken for Eliana and selfishly for ourselves, we have to be realistic and level headed and trust that God has a much bigger reason and plan for our family.

Thank you so much to each and every one of you who has supported our adoption, and made us feel so loved during this process. I will never forget the messages from friends just to say you are praying for our adoption, donations made to help the orphanage (which by the way will STILL happen, which we are so excited to be able to do, so thank you again for buying those tshirts and donating so generously!), just pure love we received in our quest to this little person has grown friendships and taught us lessons we will forever cherish. Seeing peoples true hearts for these children and acts of love towards them..... I get teary eyed thinking about it! We don't know what the future holds for our family, whether we will add another little one or not, but we know we are beyond blessed to have 3 beautiful boys, who bring more contentment and love to our lives than we could ever have imagined before they were born. We are going to take this time to just enjoy our family and emotionally move forward.

Eliana,
We have fought for a year and a half for you, a sweet helpless little girl, that now we will never have the opportunity to meet. That in itself leaves us feeling deflated and quite simply...sad.  We don't consider this time a waste, or this process as a failure. Although our end result is not at all what we had planned...the lessons and experience through this journey has taught us more than we ever would have learned had we not had the opportunity to pursue you. We feel grateful for this process, yes we feel sad too, but if anything else, my desire to help the "least of these" that can not help themselves is even greater. I promise you I will fight as hard as I have for you, to help others just like you. Eliana, you will shine brighter than before, because now you have the power of prayer on your side, so many people, praying for YOU, an itty bitty brown eyed 21 month old beauty. You may never live the life of a princess on this earth, but in God's eyes, you are forever the daughter of a King. 

I will always pray for you, beautiful angel, and I will never forget what being an "almost mommy" to you has taught me.  Dream big sweet girl. You are loved.

COURT DATE!

Yah! We FINALLY received our court date! Nov. 7th is the actual date, but we will be leaving on Monday November 4th around 2:00 pm. We will arrive in Uganda Tuesday night around 10:30 pm , Uganda time. They are 8 hours ahead. We have 2 layovers...first is in Detroit and then Amsterdam. In Amsterdam airport, we can grab one last warm shower before arriving in Africa!

According to other adoptive parents in the process, going to court isn't so great. Every single one has waited at least 8 hours, watching criminal cases etc. and went last. Most are not passing court right now either because the judges are very weary of sending their children to America because of many things they see in the media. So if they can find any relative who is willing to even consider taking them (even if they can't support or feed them) they will do their best to keep them there.

 It's a very messy situation over there in regard to adoption. I feel optimistic about our hearing, however, I am also preparing myself for other outcomes...such as... the judge putting our hearing off...requesting meetings with the family privately at a later date, or in the worst case scenario, not to be granted guardianship of Eliana. It's a tough pill to swallow...but we have to be realistic and know that this is our reality.

With all that to say, I do believe in the power of prayer. I know that God's ultimate plan will prevail in our case. We have to trust that and believe that as hard as it may be to do. I ask for your prayers for John and I as we prepare for this trip and for court, for knowledge for our attorney, and for the judge to extend grace to us crazy Americans walking in there "taking his children". By the way, he told a friend of mine that "Americans can't just walk in here and expect to take our children easily". It's backwards and frustrating, but it's what we are dealing with.  We may or may not get a verbal ruling on that day...usually it is a week-a month (yes more waiting) before you get the written ruling. After the written ruling, we can take custody of her in Uganda and begin our exit process, which is getting a passport for her, getting a visa, taking her for a final health appt., and getting through our American Embassy (which is no easy feat.)

One step at a time....not concerned with all that follows just yet...we just gotta get through that court date!!!