DFACS Update & Prayer Request

Today was the third visit from our adoption case manager, Mrs. Parkey. It was nice to tell her about the milestones Hannah has passed.

Recent Milestones:

• For example, on Sunday we were getting dressed with the door closed and Hannah was on the other side of the door. She called us both in one sentence by name. "Da Da! Ma Ma!", she called, quite assertively. She was ready to go to church and wanted us to hurry up!
  
• And yesterday, I took Hank and Michelle out shopping for new Bibles for school. Before going, Hannah insisted on a goodbye hug and after returning, she was waiting on the steps and gave me a big hug to welcome me home. Until then, all the hugs were from me to her, but now she is learning to initiate. How sweet!
  
• And one more thing; Hannah is gradually learning how to answer with a nod and a smile in the affirmative. Even when she wants something and knows what you are asking, she doesn't know how to say yes. Somehow she already knew plenty of ways to say no, but how nice it was today to see her nod and smile when I asked her a question. These seem like little things, I'm sure, but for us they are causes for celebration!

We also discovered that adopting Hannah may take longer than we were told before. Here is a summary of what we learned:

Why the adoption is going to take longer:

• There was a hearing for Hannah on July 27th. We were expecting the judge to do a TPR (Termination of Parental Rights) for the father, but he didn't. (The mother's rights were already terminated back in May, so terminating the father's rights and allowing a 30 day appeal period should have been all that was left before we could begin the adoption process.)
  
• The reason the judge didn't terminate the father's rights is because a lawyer that was supposed to have served him with papers did not. He was supposed to serve him with papers or advertise in a newspaper for the past 60 days, but he did not.
  
• DFACS has filed a complaint against the lawyer asking him to get his act together.
  
• The judge set a new date for another hearing in October. This is to allow 60 days for another newspaper advertising period, since it hasn't been done yet. After that, there should be that 30 day allowance for an appeal before we should be able to start the process of adopting Hannah.
  
• Originally, we felt sure that we could complete Hannah's adoption by the end of the summer. Now it is starting to look like it may take until December or January, assuming it will take about 45 days once the process starts.
  

Prayer Request - We would appreciate your prayers that Hannah's adoption can take place as soon as possible and that there will be no more unnecessary delays.