UPDATE...

We got an email last night, actually Scott got the email. I was downstairs at the time and he came running down the stairs like I've never seen before. I thought something was wrong because he was crying; but they weren't sad tears, they were happy tears!

We have been patiently (no, not really) waiting to hear about a court date. We had been told back at the beginning of January that court would be in the middle of January, but there was some miscommunication between our agency and our lawyer in CAFAC. The reason why court is such an important step to get to is because technically Asha is not "officially" ours until court goes through. But God has been working during this whole process and let me tell you how I know this. First Ms. Martin who facilitates the adoptions through the St. Vincent adoption board has to send out documentation to each member and have each of them return the document to her before court can go through. We were told that this can take up to four months to complete. The documents were sent out only two weeks ago and they have ALL been returned. After this step, our lawyer can reserve a court date for our adoption to be processed and finalized. This is the email we got:

Scott and Desiree:

We received the following report from Agnes today.
Karen

From: Agnes Cato
To: cafac@minnedosa.com
Sent: Feb 25, 2009 5:51 AM
Subject: Asha Mikaela Nyah Parisien

Roberta, I am informed by Ms. Martin that this adoption should be ready to be sent up to the Court by next week. I shall keep you informed. Agnes

What does this mean? Well after Agnes - our lawyer - books a court hearing, several days later she signs on our families behalf and the decree is released. Then Agnes applies for Asha's new birth certificate and passport. She then sends the adoption decree, passport, birth certificate onto Trinidad for Asha's visa to be finalized. This is normally when we would get notified to come and travel to St. Vincent. As you have read we plan to leave on May 1st, but if God's work still continues like we know it will, we could possibly look at going to get our daughter earlier. So keep those prayers going for us like you all have been doing and praise the Lord for this wonderful news!!!