Do You Believe in Miracles???? **Updated**

Today, we do! We got an amazing phone call from Mary, our caseworker at 12:38 EST today. We were in a truck wash in Pennsylvania giving our new 5th wheel camper a bath when the call came in. It's a funny story about how that all happened. I'll update this post in a day or so when the reality of it all sinks in!

Today,,,,we are officially the proud parents of:
"S" Faith and "S" David.

And the rest of the story goes something like this:

My Uncle Joe was at the shop when we received the call on May 22nd from Mary that we did not pass court. My Uncle came bearing some interesting news: my aunt, who lives in Rhode Island, who believe it or not, her husband had a massive heart attack and died 4 days before my mother passed away 4 years ago, had a 5th wheel camper she really wanted to sell. A few years back, she offered it to us at a price we couldn't afford, so we said no. The news Uncle Joe had for us regarding the reduced price of the camper was really too good to pass up. So, David and I, along with Pickles, headed up to Rhode Island on Sunday morning. We stopped in Connecticut, saw some old friends from high school, and then headed to Rhode Island early Tuesday morning to meet the ferry (did I mention my aunt lives on an island...just to complicate things further). After a tortuous 3 hours at the Rhode Island Department of Motor Vehicles, and then driving all around Rhode Island to pick up the camper, and backtracking almost an hour to get her back to the ferry by 5:00, the last ferry of the day, we headed home. We made it about 4 hours, into NE Pennsylvania before we stopped for the night.

Wednesday morning we got up and start heading home. We were stuck in road construction traffic for about an hour and a half and were sitting in a truck wash getting the camper washed when Mary called. Let me back up a minute. Earlier Wednesday am, David asked if we heard from Mary. I checked my email briefly that morning at the hotel, received an incredible update on the kids, then quickly logged off. So, I told David, no news is good news right now, thinking about how I was going to get through the next 8 or 9 days agonizing over whether we were able to get back through local court.

At 12:38 pm, Mary called. She asked how our vacation was going. I laughed and told her it wasn't a vacation..we travelled to Rhode Island to pick my aunt's camper and had no trailer brakes (the people that put the 5th wheel hitch in didn't hook up the brakes). She asked if David was with me, and I said, yep, he's out talking to the guy who's washing the camper. Then she tells me she has some news for me, and I immediately pleaded with her that it be good news because I didn't think I could handle any more bad news. She then went on to explain to me that we had an Appeal to Court, the Judge heard the appeal, brought the birth dad back in, questioned him again. He did admit to being really nervous. The Judge asked him a series of other questions, and through a miracle only God can achieve, the Judge granted our adoption of Big and Little S! Shocked, stunned, flabbergasted, at a loss for words........We had NO IDEA about the appeal. We quickly contacted the travel agent (already had tix on hold), booked our flights and in a few short weeks are heading to Africa!

We are so incredibly happy......and thrilled. We've started to run around in a frenzy trying to get everything done before we leave! Thankfully, we already had the arrangements for Pickles worked out. And I have to start my lists again, and pull out all the stuff to pack that I put back a few weeks ago! Our humanitarian aid is already packed and dropped off at my girlfriend's house in Connecticut who is travelling with us and was only using one of her two suitcase allocations. How perfect is that? Our trip to Connecticut/Rhode Island was just meant to be!