Emigration "Exit" Permit

The past 2 months have contained so much: 

1 completed fundraising puzzle

1 love-filled World Adoption Day

  

3 Christmas presents sent over 7000 miles 

After 134 days of agonizing wait, 1 joyfilled email telling us that Lyla's Emigration Permit was SUBMITTED on November 30, 2017 followed by countless tears of happiness.

About 40 pages of immigration paperwork sent to USCIS to ask for Lyla to be an American citizen.

1 Christmas package received by the cutest korean baby I have ever seen.

15 pictures and 2 videos of our precious baby girl

And after only 29 days, 1 BIG answered prayer for a QUICK Emigration Permit APPROVAL!!

Y'all!!!!!! So much love and excitement in our family these past 2 months! Our big wait has finally come to a close. The Korean Emigration Permit that we were praying for and crying over was officially submitted on November 30, 2017. This ridiculously long 4.5 month wait was one that revealed Jesus' character more than ever before. It showed me how God is faithful and good even when I cannot see Him working. The suffering of these hard months apart from our daughter have brought us to His feet and He was beyond faithful to speak over and over to us. To comfort us with sweet words.

"For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:17-18

"We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love." Romans 5:3-5

"And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words." Romans 8:26

There are no words for the excitement and relief that came with our EP Submission news. We were then told that our wait for the EP Approval could be 1-5 months. We prayed that God would push Lyla's Emigration Permit through quickly, and then 29 days later, her Emigration Permit was APPROVED! Oh how this news was sweet, sweet joy for our little family!! 

So now, we wait to be submitted to the Korean court (within the next week or so) and are assigned to a judge. This judge will set our court date in the next 4 months. Please be praying we are assigned to the QUICK judge as this could cut our waiting time in half and we want our girl home as soon as possible!!

So now we are putting together Lyla's care package that, Lord willing, MAY be her last one (if we get a court date in February)!! It is filled with snacks, updated pictures of us, a journal for her foster mom to write in, a flash drive to fill with pictures of her time with them, a lion that Madilynn picked out for her Baby Lyla, and pictures of the room she will share with her overjoyed big sister.

 

"Hope deferred makes the heart sick,

    but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life."

Proverbs 13:12