Friday, October 7, 2011

Drum Roll Please !!!!!!!

Introducing our newest daughter:

Dorcas Linda Kirabo
6 1/2 years old
Extremely shy a lot of the time, but around us - as smiley and giggly and goofy as any Britton child could be!

Wednesday, many of you were praying for our Court date. It was a fantastic experience...much better than anything we could have hoped for. We sat in court for about 2 hours before it was our turn. After some questions, the Judge stated that he would have his official (written) ruling for us on Friday. Today is Friday! So we went to the court house once again to obtain the ruling. (This is what officially grants us Legal Guardianship of our girl!) He called us into his chambers first thing in the morning and read us his positive ruling granting us guardianship. After he said all his legal, official words - he turned to us unexpectedly and offered up some incredibly kind and encouraging words about what we are doing in adopting this child from His country. The honor is all ours!


Now that we have the ruling in hand, we were able to drive back to Kampala to finish up the paperwork needed with the Embassy (we have been 5 hours away in Dorcas's town - Fort Portal - since coming to Uganda). Aaron and Provi are going back to Colorado on Sunday night. We will miss them, for sure. Especially Dorcas. She has attached to Provi in such a beautiful way. I'm afraid she will grow very bored with just mom. Please pray for the remainder or our time to go swiftly so we can all be together SOON.

We are so blessed. We are in awe of this sweet child, and enjoying getting to know her. More to come now that details can be shared! But for now.....

Enough of my blabbering - here's what you really are interested in:

First greetings! (Kids here are taught to shake hands and bow upon meeting an adult.)


But shaking hands just wasn't gonna be enough. She graciously offered us a hug!!!


Meeting big sister, Provi, for the first time. She went straight for the hug!


Dorcas showed us to her room and began to pack her bag.


Daddy won her over by being silly!

Right at home! Playing play-do with Provi

A walk in the gardens!

Goofs!

SWIM!!!!


Court...waiting for our ruling.

12 comments:

thisisallyj said...

just bawled through this this morning. what beautiful pics and a beautiful little girl. she looks so full of life!! so glad provi got to be there. wow.

B said...

AMAZING!! Huuuuuge congrats! She is beautiful. :D :D :D
~Bethany

Michelle E said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Traci said...

So very very very happy for you guys. My heart just smiles for you!

Jeff said...

I'm at work - there's no crying at work! (so I'm covering it up, pretending - allergies :-). Just made my heart melt. congratulations!

Sharilyn said...

Congratulations!! So happy for you all! I'm sure this will be a big time of adjustment for Dorcas, but she is blessed with a loving family and wonderful parents. Praise God!!!

Michelle G said...

Oh so happy for you! I have a purple post it on my office wall that simply says "Britton Family" that reminded me to pray for your adoption. I'm gonna leave it there :)
So pleased to see that your time in the valley has brought you here to the Mountain top :)
Blessings and love to you!

Marci said...

She sounds a lot like our UG sweety! Still slightly bummed we couldn't meet up ... but simply amazed and so happy how smoothly things are going for you! We are praising God with you! Keep us posted! And enjoy the BMU... say hi to all the "regulars" there for me.

Marci said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Laura Jean said...

My heart can barely take it, Jody! I'm in love with your family.

aaron said...

I would like to personally apologize for my tie performance in that last photo. . .everyone knows you straighten your tie before a photo. . . .oh well. . .the judge liked me

Pamela Fruechting said...

Congrats to all! What a celebration! (I'm Kendra's mom & Duncan's grandma). Praying for expedient Embassy processing. This made my day...especially since we have had 2 adopted Ugandan Tooro boys here visiting us and Duncan this weekend.