God was most definitely Glorified!

During the last twenty four hours I have gone from being anxious, excited, nervous that we might receive a court date today, but knowing it would be too good to be true after too many disappointments....to this morning completely relying on the strength of my father to get me through the first part of the day without a break down of what could or could not happen. Then around 11:30, I heard my phone ring and I saw our social worker's name and my heart began to race. I picked up the phone and said, "Oh gosh". Our social worker said, "Hi Melissa, how are you?" From the sound of her voice I knew it was good news. She said with a laugh, "You have a court date for December 3rd." I exclaimed, "Thank you Jesus!" And then I screamed! "I cannot believe this, oh my goodness! I can't believe this!!! Thank you Lord!" I am sure she was excited to bring me good news today after all the times she had to listen to me cry over the phone in the last month. I was truly in shock!!

All I could think about was, the Lord wanted it to happen like this. In the last twenty four hours hundreds of people around the country were praying for us and several other families who are in the process of adopting their children from Uganda. The Lord wanted his children, including me, to be fully reliant on him, to bring him the most glory. Well, I certainly feel the Lord was glorified through the wait of this process. I don't know the overall big reason why we kept facing obstacles, but I do know this adoption process has brought many believers to their knees. Like John Piper says, "God is most glorified, when we are most satisfied in him." I have been forced to fully rely on my savior with no other way to try to manipulate the situation. This has been so freak-en hard, but I have also "tasted and seen that the Lord is good" on many different occasions.

Now, I can let my guard down after so many months of guarding my heart, in fear of never getting a court date to see Charles Tucker's face in person and hold him in my arms. Well, tonight I have looked at 125 pictures and watched all 4 videos of him that many friends have been so gracious to take for us over the past 5 months. We even received more pictures from two different friends this week. God is sooooooo taking care of this whole process, way more than I can ever know.

So we have to be in Uganda on December 3rd for our court date. We are taking our whole family with us, so we decided it is probably best to get there a couple of days before to get adjusted to the time change and the jet lag. So our flight leaves on Monday, November 29th at 2:30 p.m. out of Atlanta. We arrive 23 hours later in Entebbe, Uganda. We were a little nervous after we realized we would have to buy Mary Taylor a plane ticket, because she will turn two next Friday, but the Lord completely worked it out. The tickets were so much cheaper than we expected, because we were able to book two weeks in advance, opposed to five days in advance. And I want to say a big thank you to my parents for giving us their credit card points for 80% of the plane tickets. You guys are such a blessing to us, thank you for allowing the Lord to use you in this way to bring your grandchild home! All these little details are such an answer to prayer...so amazing to see the Lord provide.

These 12 days will be a joyous time celebrating and anticipating our adventure to Uganda to bring home our "Cha Tu"! We won't have to rush or stress to make a flight in the next couple of days, God is good and we will even be able to see all of our family members before we take off during Thanksgiving next week. It will be a great send off!

Once we get to Uganda on November 30th, we will go see Charles Tucker right away. We will hang out with him at the babies home until our court date on December 3rd. Our whole family will go to the court date including C.T. Then probably the judge will ask us to come back in a week to get our verbal and written ruling to obtain Legal Guardianship of him. Then we will be able to bring him back to our guest house for good. Daddy and Henry will leave soon after this to come home. Mary Taylor will stay with us the remainder of the trip. So I will have two, two year olds, by myself, in Africa!! This should be interesting!! Once we have Legal Guardianship, we will start the process of getting him a visa, which could take several weeks. We have our flights booked for January, but who knows...we might be finished before Christmas. I am not worried about any of these details yet, I just want to enjoy what the Lord has done today. I JUST CAN'T BELIEVE THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have so much to be thankful for. I am just overwhelmed by the goodness of the Lord right now and how he has worked out all the details... I have been stressing over for so many months. It is amazing how much better this news of a court date has become after all the waiting and anticipating....I have to say it is soooo worth it!! Charles Tucker is soooo worth it! The Lord is sooooooooooooooooo worth it!!

Taste and see that the LORD is good;
   blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. 

Psalm 34:8

The heavens proclaim his righteousness, 

and all the peoples see his glory. Psalm 97:6