Exciting News . . .

We said YES to a referral. 

In a sense we said yes twice—because our adoption agency has asked us to consider adopting TWINS. (Even more accurately, that’s 8 yesses, given that our sons have been and are a continual part of the decision-making process—and they have patiently wondered what’s taking so long.)

Questions abound, I know: When do they come home? What are their names? etc. We have to protect their identities right now, but we will keep you as informed as possible about this process as none of this would have taken place without your prayers and financial support. The next steps include:

• Requesting an Official Referral from the Hungarian Ministry of Culture and Innovation (saying yes started this process).
• The Ministry will send our Dossier to the local region responsible for making the final decision whether we can pursue the children. 
• The Ministry will issue an Official Referral. 
• Traveling to Hungary for about 45 days (travel time + 30 days of mandated in-country bonding during which we’ll have temporary guardianship + official court dates on either side of that bonding period). 

• Learning basic Hungarian.
• Preparing as if we’ll travel to Hungary in January (we don’t have an exact date, but we are told January is a likely possibility).
• Adding to/updating our home. Given the addition of more than one child, we’ll need another room (a garage conversion is most likely).
• Speaking with multiple medical and child education professionals about the likely specific needs our children will have.
• Continuing training, counseling, and education related to the needs associated with adoption (we’ve known from the start that trauma, medical needs, and/or developmental delays are expected).

• Travel. We’d like to know when these exact dates are so we can secure travel plans and figure out how many of us can go to Hungary. It’s always been our desire to have our entire family united there, but school and work schedules along with the international travel costs for multiple people will factor in. 
• Home updates. We’ll be talking to building professionals this month about the cost-effective and timely solutions for adding more space to our house. With this set of twins, we think an additional room is important. 
• Bonding time. Please begin praying now for a meaningful bonding time in Hungary. Part of that is the preparation that begins now—learning more Hungarian (they’ll pick up English before we pick up Hungarian!), planning how to spend meaningful interaction time with the children, and planning for all the ways in which planning won’t go according to plan! And pray for the preparation of hearts of all involved—our hearts as parents, the hearts of our children, and the hearts of the interpreters, social workers, and officials we’ll encounter overseas. 
• Unknown Needs. We’ll have more mysteries than answers. But that’s OK—we walk by faith, not by sight. Every human is marked by the mysterious image of God, regardless of how much background information we think we have. We’re asking God to prepare for us the right team to help with ongoing medical, educational, or development needs our children might have.