Going to Bat for Your Kids

Dearest Children,

It's late here in Connecticut and I pray that you are sound asleep in your beds in Curitiba. Your Mom is sleeping here beside me, but I have been awake for the last couple of hours writing a letter. You see, after all of the many people and agencies who have touched our application until now, the decision lies in the hands of one particular judge in Brazil. (Actually, the decision lies in God's omnipotent hands, but I think you get my point!) This judge is actually on vacation right now, but in a few weeks when she comes back, she'll be looking at a mountain of paperwork, information about your Mom and me and information about you guys, and decide whether she sees a family or not. I, of course, have been praying since I saw your pictures back in March that when it came to this moment, she would see a family!

Apparently, she actually did see our file the day before going on vacation, and she expressed some concern about the fact that we are relatively young and that there are a lot of you guys! Because it was such a big decision to make, she decided to go on vacation and make the decision when she got back. I suspect that this is probably a good thing--I'm glad she didn't make a hasty decision of "no" just because of our age or anything. This delay gives her time to give the amount of consideration we all deserve, and it gives us an opportunity to write a letter to her.

You see, though we've written certain statements and things along the way, most of what she is looking at are things that other people have written about us (social workers, psychologists, friends, pastors, employers). And all of it was written before we knew about you guys! This letter, then, is an opportunity to bring our application up to date by talking about you all, to show our true heart, to tell her how much we feel that you are our children, and to plead with her once again to allow us to come to Brazil to prove that we can be a family.

I recall when I was young and living at home that my Mom always said a parent has to go to bat for their kids.  This means that a parent should advocate for their kids, defend them, protect them. I kinda feel like that's what this letter is. Your Mom and me, well, we already think we're a family even though the judge hasn't approved our petition yet, and so this is our way of going to bat for you guys before we've even met you! We hope and pray that this letter may do the trick, and that we can be together soon!

Wow, tonight is going to be tomorrow in just a few minutes, so I must go to sleep myself. I just wanted you to know that I had drafted one more letter that I hope will help us become a family someday soon. I'll let your Mom see it tomorrow so she can do some editing, too--she actually did some work on it before me, so we've both put our hearts into this for you.  It should be off to Brazil before too long, probably by the end of the week.

In the mean time, sleep tight, my loveys! Eu te amo muito.

Love,
Papai