A long awaited update....

I first want to apologize for just now giving an update on the blog over 2 weeks into the trip. I knew lots of people were having issues signing in to read it so I just figured I'd wait til I could put it public again.
Nya is adjusting surprisingly well. I seriously didn't expect her to connect & attach to me as quickly as she did. I'm sure a storm can happen at any time after this smooth calm, but for now she's doing great with her Momma :-) She likes to be with me or attached to me. When someone else is holding her, she makes sure I'm in her sight & then she can have fun with that person. I can see the progression every time we return to the baby home. All the times at the beginning we would go visit the Auntie's & she would smile & reach for them right a way. Today was a different story. She was in my Moby wrap & all the Auntie's would talk to her, but she would just look at them & then look at me & hold on really tight to my arms. You can tell it makes them a little sad. I feel sad for them! They've loved her & cared for her her whole 7 months of life, and now she either doesn't recognize them or is fearful that I will leave her with them. It just doesn't seem fair. I will forever be grateful for the love they gave her. It's because of them that it was so easy for her to love me & attach to me I feel. She knew how to love because of them.
Our ruling yesterday was interesting. We went into the court house & met a family there that had an appt at 10AM & were still waiting when we got there at 11:45. We were a little nervous the judge either wouldn't see us b/c he was behind or Josh would have to leave before we heard the ruling to get to the airport. God, pulled it all together & we were in for the ruling only about an hour later than planned. I told Josh I was going to try to hold back the sobbing if I actually heard what we've been waiting for 3 years to hear. As we sat down, we heard the judge say to our lawyer, "Well, we have a problem..." I think both Josh & my heart dropped at that moment. Come to find out his printer wasn't working so the problem was that he would have to read the ruling off his computer as opposed to reading it off paper... we'll take that problem :-) He started reading off all of Nya's case for about 5-10 minutes then came to the end to say "I see fit that the applicants, Joshua & Anna Cousineau be granted legal guardianship of this child." Yeah that's all I needed & the tears came pouring. His clerk in the office kept watching me. I'm pretty sure she just likes to watch the Mzungus cry :-)
It was hard to send Josh off. I wish he could have stayed with us, but I know how happy the boys will be to finally see him. God worked miraculously to allow Jon to come travel to be with Nya & I for the rest of the trip. We actually were debating on rather or not we would have him come, but God made that decision for us & how happy & grateful I am for it! He'll hopefully be coming on Thur. or Fri. Josh just left last night & I'm already anxious to have family with me.
We have our embassy meeting on Mon. @ 2PM so 7AM your time. Please be praying that we have all the paperwork that is needed & that it is all done correctly so we can head home the end of next week. I am so anxious to love on my boys!!!
I'll be sad to leave here. I am in absolute love with this country. The people are amazing here, so friendly, helpful, & loving. I'm pretty sure this will not be our last trip here ;-) Hoping God has a plan in the making......
Thank you so much for all your prayers, emails, comments, etc. We cannot wait to introduce all you to our sweet baby girl!!!!!

It's Time!

The time has finally come! We will be leaving for Ug@nda Sun. night to go get our sweet baby Nya! We will be arriving in Ug@anda at 11:45 PM Mon. night (Ug@nda time, 3:45PM your time). We're rushing to get things put together, finished, & completed before we go. I've been waiting for 2 1/2 yrs for this, but yet I feel as though it has rushed upon us. It's probably due to the "you need to leave in 4 days" situation.
We received an email yesterday that Lil J left with her dad in Jan. As I wanted so badly to meet her, I've also been asking God to limit the roller-coaster rider on the rest of this journey for me. I'm figuring this was His way of protecting me & getting me through that little part.
We will try to update this blog as much as possible while we're in Ug@nda. I'm not 100% sure the internet is reliable there so I can't promise anything just that we'll try.

Things to pray for:

*Safe & uneventful travels for Josh & I (in the air & we also have about a 2hr drive once we get into Ug@nda to the place we will be staying at. This will be in the middle of the night so please pray for safety for that as well)

*For the boys. They will be in good hands, but we know they will miss us & be affected by this.

*For Bammy (Barb) who will be with the boys.

*For Nya (transitions, bonding etc....)

*For our court hearing which is scheduled for Mar. 10. (I'll update on the time when we find out)

Thank you so much for all your prayers! We're going to need them!