Hallelujah, we got a court date!  In one month, we will hop aboard a VERY long flight so we can meet our little boy!

On this trip, we will meet Sam twice for one hour on each visit.  Then we will go before a judge to answer questions about things like our motivation to adopt, how we will provide for our new child and if we will promise to love him and care for him as we would any biological child.

After this court appearance, we will wait a week or so for Preliminary Approval.  Basically, this means the judge approves us to adopt Sam.

There is then a 14-day “cooling off” period.  Sam’s birth parents will be notified one more time during this process.

After the 14-days, we will receive Final Approval (hopefully within a week).  We will then book another flight to Seoul, but this time we will get to take custody and bring Sam home as his legal parents!

Long story short:  Our November court date means will will probably bring Sam home at the end of December!

One interesting thing that I keep smiling about:  If Sam’s paperwork on March 23rd had actually been a positive pregnancy test, he would have been due in December.  Paperwork pregnancy indeed!

If you follow me on Instagram, you probably know last week was a bit of an emotional roller coaster.  The day after my last blog update, all of the other families in our Friday group received their court date, but we didn’t.  This caught us completely off guard, and we will likely never know why our case was held up!

It was a situation completely out of our control, and it gave me a TON of anxiety.  I was emotional, couldn’t sleep, appetite and energy were low, and I just felt overwhelmed.  It was not fun.  And yet, God is using it for good.

It was such a very small taste of how Sam will feel as we bring him home.  Confused, overwhelmed, unsure, out of control, grieving.  If I felt so strongly as an adult, how much more difficult will it be for him as a toddler?

I also spent a lot of time thinking about Sam’s birth mom and foster mom.  If I am this devastated over the thought of losing a little boy I’ve never met, how much more difficult was that decision for his birth mom?  My heart ached for her.  I wish I could hug her.  I wish I could know her.  I wish I could promise here face to face that I will give him every thing I have as a mother, and I will love him until I die and beyond.  And that I am FOR her.

And his sweet foster mom.  I can’t imagine those emotions.  She has cared for him since he was just a tiny little thing, and now he will be across the world.

These amazing women — I just love them so much.  It is a privilege to be included in this story of three women loving this little boy the best way they know how.  I am forever changed by it.

One month.  One more month, and I get to hold my baby.  Somehow the time feels long and short, just like all of this.  Just like all of motherhood really.

What a gift this all is.