Another 2 Obstacles

We decided to travel 4 1/2 hours to California today for our niece's 3rd birthday party...on our way here, our Georgia attorney called with bad news for us. Not only did we arrive in Arizona too early, but Georgia does not accept Arizona's consent for terminating a birth families rights, so we have to go with Georgia's law as well as Arizona's. Something our "wonderful" agency should have known don't ya think? What this means is that we now have to wait 10 more days once she signs on Monday morning b/4 Kenna will be closer to ours. So Katrina will be staying much longer than we anticipated.

Our 2nd blow was that Cynthia is a registered tribe member. This was such a blow because this can be a big hangup and we were told by our "wonderful" agency that she was not a tribe member, making the process much easier. This means that we have to hire another attorney who specializes in ICWA laws (Indian child welfare act), luckily our many fees cover this extra attorney. There are a few more papers to sign and another court hearing to satisfy ICWA. Our attny did say that this was not a difficult thing and he feels that the tribe has no rights since she is relinquishing her rights voluntarily.

We are on such a roller coaster ride, we get hit daily with bad news and then God blesses, turns it around and uses it to bless us! He is so much bigger than all of this and we are seeing Him work in only ways He can! We will list a few of these to end this post on a good note.

So we got out here 3 days early, which was going to make us spend a lot more in hotel costs, rental car costs, possibly airline costs. We lost the chance to get the babies room ready, we would have known it was a girl, etc... Well, I know your wondering the blessing in this, here is where Kenn comes in. He knows some wonderful people in Phoenix (Steve and Theresa) that opened their office to us as a base of operations (Internet connection, couch, drinks, and a TV for Kayla) as soon as we got into town. This image is what we saw when we arrived at the office. Steve was out of town but his wonderful assistant Kristy helped us find a place to stay as well as printed us off directions to every place in town we might need. Kristy also let some friends know of our situation and instead of having to spend more money for a room Brian and Angela offered their extra room to us for the night! Kayla even had a room of her own!! We can't put into words the feelings of appreciation we have for this group of people...they still want to help us out when we return to Phoenix on Sunday evening!!

Katrina was about to run out of minutes on her cell phone and she called Sprint to buy more and they gave her 300 extra bonus minutes!!!

Our wonderful family (that we drove to see) had a home cooked meal for us and another place to stay tonight!! Family is so wonderful to be with during hard times!!! Kayla really needed this time to run around with her cousins (they have 5 kids) and be a kid!!

So, 2 nights out of town and no hotel rooms!! In the morning we are going to John MacArthur's church, so we know we have an awesome place to worship!

So, we are waiting to see how God handles this next challenge. Please pray specifically about the extra 10 days we have to wait now. If we feel comfortable enough with Cynthia's steadfastness in her decision we may all 4 come home next Sat. We love you all and are glad to be able to share with you what God is doing in our lives.