We headed away from David’s parents’ house at 3 this morning and made our way to the airport. Our flight leaves at 6am. First to Newark, NJ, then to Delhi, and finally to Hyderabad, arriving on Sunday evening India time. [...]

FINALLY, after 14 months since we first saw a picture of Evelyn’s sweet face, we have a date for finally meeting her! We have a passport appointment scheduled for June 14 and will travel and meet her a few days before that. We are happy although we were initially disappointed that this is still three weeks later than we requested. (So we’re not sure why they bothered asking us to request a date!) But a date is a date and we will finally get to meet our little girl! [...]

On Tuesday morning we received notice that we had received Article 23! This is fantastic news, but confusing so I will try to explain. Last week we learned about the error on our written court order and were told we would be waiting again for a new order. The estimate on this new document was two weeks. Then after the new order we expected to wait a couple more weeks for Article 23 and the birth certificate. However, one week after the written order delay, we received Article 23. We think the new order was created and then submitted for Article 23 without notifying us that the correction had taken place. So we’ve been told that they will let us know as soon as Evelyn’s passport appointment is scheduled and that’s our go-ahead to travel! Welcome to the roller coaster of plans and expectations! [...]

The one week mark came and went for our expectations of receiving Evelyn's birth certificate, and as we rounded the bend to two weeks we found out that India's adoption authority (CARA) reviewed our papers and discovered an error in the dates on our written adoption order. CARA has now asked the District Magistrate to redo and reissue the written order. So we are back to where we were 5 1/2 weeks ago—waiting for papers, with travel a ways off again. We are obviously disappointed as we've had bags stacked and ready to go since our false alarm in January. We know we will travel and our family will be united eventually, but for today we are just sad.[...]

We received great news on Tuesday morning that we had received our written adoption order!! This step was supposed to only take 1-2 weeks, but it came 3 ½ weeks after our virtual hearing. This has been the hardest part of all the waiting thus far, knowing that we are SO close to travel. And while we kept saying that receiving the adoption order was our indication to buy tickets, we were wrong. We forgot that first we need a birth certificate produced. This is usually issued within a week. Usually… But we are grateful and excited to have one more step complete. Travel is on the horizon![...]

Our early morning hearing was rescheduled to late night hearing, and it went well! We logged in at 1 am with Kira curled up on the couch beside us because we had also learned they wanted her to be present. The video call began and five other prospective adoptive parents logged in with our agency representatives AND all the kids we are all working to adopt! For about an hour we all sat there waving at the kids and waiting for the magistrate to log in. He logged in around 2:40 am and we were up first! He asked to see Kira and basically had no further questions. The other families were asked about their motivation for adopting and for their preparedness to care for the child. We think that seeing Kira was Indian and knowing it was our second adoption was as good an answer as he needed. We all climbed into bed around 3 am knowing we are one step closer and maybe now just a few weeks away from holding our little girl! [...]

We are so happy to have received notice that we have a virtual hearing scheduled with the District Magistrate for this Saturday, March 18 at 5:30 am. Why a Saturday? I have no idea. But do I care? Nope! We are just beyond excited that it is really happening this time! There is a possibility that with our hearing being at the end of the day (in India) that we could get postponed if other cases go long. So please pray that they are on schedule and that we have no further delays. [...]

After no movement or news for months, we got word on Friday of a potential virtual court appearance and immanent and quick travel to follow. On Monday morning, however, we learned that this was false and we do not have a schedule court appearance yet. This was a bit of whiplash, because with the initial notice of court we also learned that Telangana (Evelyn's state) is now asking parents to appear for the passport appointment, which the last family was asked to appear for just two weeks after their court appearance! So we went from Friday believing we could be traveling by the end of the month back to no news. Hopefully, this at least means we are on their radar and will be hearing of a true appointment very soon.[...]

Happy World Adoption Day! We thought this would be a good day for an update! 

One of my most favorite conversations about adoption that has come about with Kira is how the Bible says when we trust in Jesus we become one of God’s children and we are adopted into God’s family. She will tell you, however, that she has been adopted two times. She thinks that that is pretty special since her mom and dad are only adopted one time. [...]

We have no news to report on a court date, but we are hopeful that it’s coming soon. Since it is actually starting to feel like Evelyn may actually come home I want to start to describe what establishing a family through adoption looks like from the perspective on parenting and attachment. This may be one of the more boring posts to read, but is probably one of the most helpful for our friends and supportive community to know and be prepared for.[...]