Cuidado Personal

Today, we were officially granted custody of the girls!! We are SOOO excited and a bit relieved. It was nice to know that if this judge didn´t like some of the reports and needed more information, that we had 3 ladies who knew our story, know us and know the girls waiting to testify on our behalf. During the proceedings, I took out 2 of my most favorite pictures from recent days that have each girl smiling. They smile so often now and even Eliana is attaching well. This morning when we left, Eli cried for about 5 minutes and she kept holding her arms out for me to hold her again. Now that is IMPROVEMENT!! Praising God!!

The next MAJOR step is the adoption. In order to finalize the adoption we must have our permanent residency. This should be granted to our family sometime in December or at the latest January, but here in Latin America you never count your chickens before they hatch. So, being kind this judge gave us foster care custody (cuidado personal) for 6 months and then we can extend it basically until we get our visa. We hope and pray that we won´t need to use that full 6 months because we also have to leave for the states in late June/early July. This will require additional paperwork, which will need more time to be completed, so we are praying for the finalization of the adoption in January or February. Please keep praying for the 6 of us!!