Court Date

We have a court date, it is on Thursday December 3rd at 12:30 (most of you will be sleeping!). This is where the judge will pronounce Nina to be our daughter, and she will become Nina Stumbo, what a crazy thought!

After Thursday we begin our 10 day waiting period. This is a period of time where someone could come and contest the judges decision. Nina has no family, so we are confident nobody will contest this. Of course we wish the 10 day could be waived. We have heard in this region that sometimes creates problems because then someone will contest the judge's decision. And they say it has never been granted (so how do they know it creates more problems?).

Andy flies home on Saturday, day 2 of our wait.

After the 10 days I get to go get a new birth certificate for Nina. In this certificate, Andy and I will be listed as her parents. After that, we can apply for a tax code (not sure what it is for). They say this tax code can take 5-14 days to get. It is necessary to have this to apply for her passport. Once the tax code is here, we can apply for her passport. They say it takes around 10 days.

Nina then has to have a medical examination where to determine she can fly home. Once she is in the clear, we take the results with her passport to apply for a visa. Once we have the visa, we come home!

So this is what we have left in order

-Court

-10 day waiting period

-Birth certificate

-Tax code

-Passport

-Physical

-Visa

Somewhere in there we go to the bank and give Nina's money (all orphans have some money put aside by the government) to her orphanage as a gift. I think we have to have the tax code in order to do this.

So, at this point, me being home before Christmas is looking hard. BUT, we are asking you all to pray that the Lord comes before us and that all things fall into place so we can be home before Christmas! This would be cutting it short, but it can happen. So please, pray with us!

Prayer request

-That we continue to bond with Nina

-Wisdom regarding the 10 day waiting period, to wave or not to wave

-For things to move fast!

-That we are home for Christmas

-That we are witnesses to our translator and facilitator, how sweet if they got to know Jesus!