They Are OURS!

Today is a day to celebrate!

We are legally the parents of our Fish Sticks in Africa.

We passed court and received documents today that are being translated.

Every time I think about the FACT that on paper our boys are really ours - we are now a family of 10 - I just tear up.

They are not just cute little boys in a photo.  They are ours.  They are Fish Sticks now.  Forever part of our family.  I will see them blow out their birthday candles for years and years to come.  I will tuck them in bed at night and read them a story and pray over them.  My Man will teach them how to ride a bike (he's rolling his eyes at that one - we don't fight over that job in our family).  I will hear their dreams, train their hearts to know God loves them, cry with them when they hurt and cheer for them when they succeed.  I will see them graduate, send them to college and cry at their weddings.  I will hold their children and rock them to sleep.  They are FAMILY.

They are OURS!  It's hard to grasp, yet in the papers filled with foreign words I recognized their Africa names with "Fish" as their surname.  What a beautiful sight!

So now our agency will translate these documents and we will send them along with the I-600 form to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services.  After processing, we will forward documents to our boys' birth country and after a couple more legal appointments and papers, their homecoming will be soon after.  YIPPEE!

And although you know for the safety of our kids, I can't say their country, please pray for Africa.  There is not peace there in some areas and there are recent threats of future force.  Pray that all presidents of not just Africa but all countries would pray this prayer for their country, like the president of Uganda just did.  Read it here.