June 28th - Party of Eight!

Today has been an amazing day! We woke up early this morning and headed to the Court House. All six of us very nervous and yet so excited that today was the day that we had longed for, prayed for and hoped would happen. We arrived at the Court House only to be told that we were in the wrong place. We obviously do not speak the language well enough to ask where to go and so we called our good friend Nicco and he explained that we were in the correct place. I assume that since we were the first family to have to be in court the guard of the building thought we were in the wrong place. Most families who have adopted in the past did not have to attend court and so the guard was just confused.
After arriving we started to get nervous that our agency was not there to represent the children or us. We were told that court would begin at 9:00am and so we arrived at 8:45am. At 9:25 someone from our agency finally arrived only to let us know that someone else would need to be there as well. I was completely stressed out but praying that somehow everyone would get there prior to our case being called because I was not sure that I could handle being rescheduled due to our agency not showing up on time. A few minute later the other lady from our agency arrived and explained to us that the MOWA letters (needed prior to passing) for the day had not arrived but should arrive shortly. Withing five minutes the MOWA letters arrived and we prayed that our letter would be included. Around 10:30 our case was called and we entered into the Judges room for our case to be heard. I can't begin to express my feelings but physicaly I actually got hives on my neck and chest from the crazy emotions of these few minutes.
We were in the courtroom less than ten minutes but those ten minutes completely changed my life and the life of our family forever. When the Judge declared that Tizita and Geremew were ours~ tears poured from my eyes and I knew that all of the pain, heart ache and trails of this journey were all worth it. They were ours and nothing in the future could ever change that. Two precious children who were orphans were no longer orphaned but placed into a family~ Our family!
We are now on the beginning of another journey. A journey for two fatherless children to quickly feel the love and care of a family and a Father in heaven who loves them even more than we do. The journey ahead will be a long journey filled with great ups and downs as we head into a world of the unknown. We will hold tight to Jesus as we love, serve and raise the new blessings that were added to our family today.
After court we traveled to the orphanage to let Tizita and Geremew know that they were now ours. They said their goodbyes to friends and we were off to lunch as a family. At lunch on Monday, June 28th, we were indeed Henderson Party of Eight!