Marek Joel SCOTT!!!

We received the incredible news today that Marek is officially a SCOTT! As many of you know, we ran into a small snag with our original courtdate, which was set for this past Monday. Everyone showed up on time...except for the court officials, who decided to take the day off ~ typical Africa! As a result, everyone present decided to meet back on Thursday to try the process again. However, today around noon, we received a phone call from Gladney letting us know that our case was approved today. (We were actually the ONLY case to be approved all day!)

As if this was not good enough, we also found out that our US Embassy appointment in Ethiopia is scheduled for July 8th. That's right...we are traveling in about 2 1/2 weeks to pick up our baby! Needless to say, we have experienced every. single. emotion. imaginable today...from being absolutely excited to being absolutely overwhelmed!

We began the process of booking airline tickets today. As of right now, it looks like we will be leaving on July 3rd or 4th and will arrive back home on the morning of the 10th.

We hope you realize that everything you have just read is a DIRECT result of your prayers. God has answered mightily and we are shouting praises from the rooftops tonight! Thank you again, for loving us perfectly and for laying our family before the Throne.

We've got a court date!

We received notification today that we have an official court date...June 14! Yes, June 14th...like, 12 days from now! What this basically means is that, bearing no delays or reschedules, Marek will officially be a 'Scott' on June 14th! Families typically travel 3-6 weeks after their adoptions are approved and finalized by the courts in Ethiopia. So, if everything goes smoothly on June 14th, we will (more than likely) be traveling around mid-July to pick Marek up...and bring him HOME finally! What an awesome BIG God we serve!?!

We also received another update on Marek today from one of Gladney's in-country reps:

"When I first came to visit Marek today, he was too intent on observing what was going on around him to pay much attention to me. He’s got quite the intense little stare: he’s quite the observer. But then a caregiver started playing peek-a-boo with him, and that got a big smile to spread across his face and broke his concentration. When he started staring at me again, I stared back at him playfully. This is also got big smile—and even a little laugh. Marek seems like he may be pretty active. It’s hard to tell right since he’s not crawling or walking yet, but he likes to move what he can and he’s got an incredible set of pipes! He can squeal with the best of them.”