First Family Picture!

This morning, prayers were answered as we received pictures of Lizette and Gage from another world away.  Our agency director has been working in DRC this week, and so we have been praying for good news to arrive in an email this weekend.  What came this morning totally blew us away...71 pictures of our GORGEOUS children with our care packages in their hands.  There are pictures of them holding toys we sent and with drawings Bella, Mia, and Brody drew for them. There are many pictures of my sweet little boy wearing the girly Hello Kitty jammies you see here, but then they changed him into one of the adorable little 2T outfits I sent, and it fits like a glove!  Lizette is obviously a girly girl because she's had a dress on in every picture I've sent, so she will fit right in with her sisters.  The pictures show brother and sister snuggled up close and interacting in such sweet ways, and there are so many of them SMILING!  I prayed that they would receive our package and find out that they have a family waiting for them here, and that this would bring them JOY.  These prayers have been answered.  In this picture, they hold the pictures of us, and it is our first glimpse of our complete family.  We have to keep their faces private until they are legally ours, but we couldn't wait to share this joy with you until then.  Please continue to pray that our adoption will move forward and that God will bring them home to us in His perfect timing.  Thanks for sharing in our journey!

Care Packages on their way to our babies in Africa!

Friday we got some exciting news- not that we passed court (I wish!)- but that our agency director would soon be visiting the Congo!  I literally had a couple of hours when I found out she was going so soon to finish packing the 2 gallon bags and get them in the mail to her...so that made it that much more exciting.  I had already cut and tied fleece blankets for each of them (Brody helped) and picked out a couple of outfits.  I had appliqued an "L" on Lizette's dress, and Brody had picked out two of his favorite cars to send to Gage.  So I started printing photographs of our house and family as quickly as I could and made an album for each of them.  That's the exciting part- this weekend, Lizette and Gage should receive these packages and see our pictures and learn that they have a family waiting for them!  They will be checked on and loved on by our agency director.  We will probably even receive some photo updates of them!

Please be in prayer with me that our director finds them safe and well, with suitable living conditions and adequate nutrition.  Please pray that they are being well-cared for and loved by their caregivers.  Please pray our director is able to give them our package and bring them the HOPE of family.  Please pray that our case moves forward...we could pass court any day now, and we are really hoping to receive that news while she is there.  That is the step that will make them Hancocks!- a judge will declare them legally adopted as long as no one comes forward in the 30 day appeal process following the judgement.  There is even a chance we could have already passed and just not heard yet.  So, we wait...and continue to pray...and hopefully will have good news to share by next week!