We're all in agreement

We are still elated thinking about the judge's decision to grant our petition and allow us to adopt our children from Brazil. Our minds are racing wondering what we need to do to get ready, and our hearts are "oh so happy," as James put it today.

We're not sure when we'll actually be leaving for Brazil to meet our children, because there's still a small mountain of paperwork to accomplish. Back in our post entitled Hope, we started to explain some of the tangle of red tape that needed to be straightened out before everything can be legal, final, and just as we desire it to be. Well, three weeks after that posting, we understand the process better, and I'm going to spell it out here so that the record of our journey is as accurate as we can make it for our children, so that everyone who reads this can pray that God will carry us through these next few steps, and so that anyone who follows behind us on this path will have a better idea of what to expect. I'm working this out as I go, so things may not turn out the way we expect them to (they almost never do), but here's what I've deduced so far:

• Judge decided to grant our petition!!!
• We start working on our USCIS I-800 application, and all the documentation that goes with it. Lino has to get copies of the kids' birth certificates, so we asked him to get more photos and info about clothes/shoe sizes while is at their home.
• CEJA creates a document called an acordo, which is an agreement between the Judge, CEJA, and the US Department of State
• Until very recently (a couple weeks ago) no one knew who, from the US Department of State would sign the acordo, since the Hague Treaty changed all the rules. Seems like it's almost all sorted out (thanks to another AWAA family getting their acordo before us) now and we should be able to be one of the first families to creep through the new channel.
• When the acordo is all signed, a Letter of Invitation (LOI) is generated
• A copy of that letter comes to us so we can get visas, a quick 2-day process
• The letter itself goes to the US consulate in Rio because they will be the ones to issue visas to our children. (Visas that make them automatically US citizens when we arrive home.)
• USCIS approves our I-800 application which ensures visas for each of the children
• Meanwhile, Lino makes our court appointments and we make our travel arrangements

So, it's still a pretty complicated process, but until the judge gave us her YES, it was all paused. We've pressed play, and we'll make it to the bottom of the paperwork list and to Brazil as soon as we can.

For the Record

Kim and I have been through many emotional and spiritual ups and downs over the past 4 months as we waited for an answer from the judge in Brazil regarding our petition to adopt Maynara, Abraão Lucas, Luana, and Brayan, and last night we received an answer to much prayer. For the record, I wanted to write about our experience last night as we learned that the judge said "yes" and granted our petition! Though we still have some "waiting" and paperwork to do before traveling to Brazil to meet our beautiful sons and daughters, we are in the "when" and not "if" stage. And, man, does it ever feel good!

Keep in mind as I tell this story that we have hardly been away from our e-mail for any significant length of time in the past four months. I have my e-mail open at work at all times and Kim has an iPod touch with wireless, which makes a little "ding" any time she receives and e-mail, so she has been checking constantly at home during the summer. Except for some odd times here and there, we probably haven't been away from our e-mail for more than 30 minutes at a time unless we were sleeping, sitting in church, or driving to Pennsylvania to see our parents. We have especially been following our e-mail pretty closely over the past few weeks, as we have had a couple of requests from the judge for more information, which wetired to turn around as quickly as possible each time. (All the while wondering how anyone ever got through this process without e-mail!)

Last night, however, I got home late, around 6:40, from work, and Kim had dinner prepared so we could eat before our friends came for Bible study at our house at 7:30 as they always do on Tuesdays. We sat on the porch enjoying our dinner, leaving our e-mail unattended for some time. We finished dinner, took the dishes to the kitchen and were going to take one more quick look at e-mail before people arrived when we saw something new in Kim's inbox:

Tuesday, August 11, 2009 6:44:52 PM

Re: no news yet [a leftover subject from previous correspondence]

Please call me on my cell right now

Lu

How could we have missed this e-mail by almost 45 minutes!? Not knowing what to expect, hoping for the best, dreading the worst, and hearts pitter-pattering, Kim grabbed her cell phone, put it on speaker, and called Luciana. Luciana answered, apologized for the background noise as her husband's family was visiting, and proceeded to talk to us about our petition.

I swear Luciana must have been watching too much American Idol or other reality TV shows, because the way she started out didn't sound good. Our hearts started to sink. In what must have been 10 seconds, but felt like 10 minutes, she said, "Now we've known all along that this has been in God's hands, and that He always knows what's best for each family. And you should keep this in mind as I tell you that..." That WHAT, Luciana, that WHAT! "...that they're yours!" Ours! We can call them "our" kids! Not just "the" kids! "And now we wait some more," she added. But that didn't matter. We were ecstatic, smiling from ear to ear, not even knowing what to say!

About that time, I saw a car pull up in front of our house. Our friends James and Mina were walking up to the house for Bible study. I ran to the front door, opened it and said, "we're on the phone with our adoption agency! The judge said yes! You're the first to know!" Kim talked with Luciana for another minute or so while Mina jumped up and down and James and Mina hugged and congratulated me.

After Kim hung up with Luciana, she called her family on her cell phone while I ran upstairs to call my family on my cell phone. Kim's parents were at a baseball game with 50 people from their church. Her Dad answered the phone, Kim told him the news, and he yelled, "She said yeeessssssss!" To which the whole of left field started shouting and celebrating. Those church folk of theirs have been praying along with Kim's parents for this for a long time.

I called my parents and my Mom answered. They are visiting family in Alabama and were on their way to have dinner with my Aunt and Uncle and their family. I told my Mom right away, she started crying, and told my Dad to pull over! We celebrated together with tears and smiles over many miles. She told me she has been carrying their picture everywhere and showing it to everyone.

I also updated my status on Facebook while I was upstairs on the phone. (Which explains the phone calls that we got during Bible study! Oops!) We got through Bible study nonetheless, prayed for the concerns of the group--and of course this great news!--and then proceeded to call our friends and family after everyone had left our house for the evening.

Whew. What an adventure. For many months I have been praying that the God would open the judge's heart to our petition and that she would see a family when she reviewed all of our paperwork, and not just a big stack of paper to deal with. It took about 4 months--far longer than we or our agency ever expected--but, with God's help, she finally did see a family! All the while, however, the petition has been in God's hands and His timing. We may not ever know why it took so long, but we trust in God's infinite wisdom that this was time well-used for His purposes and His kingdom.

Praise the Lord, for He is faithful!

Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from him.

(Psalm 127:3)

Praise the Lord for Maynara!

Praise the Lord for Abraão Lucas!

Praise the Lord for Luana!

Praise the Lord for Brayan!

She said YES!!

The judge finally said YES to our petition to adopt our four children. We can finally call them ours!!!

And, because of this great news, we can finally introduce to you our two sons and two daughters:

Maynara (10), Abraão Lucas (7), Luana (5) and Brayan (4)

Praise God!!!

Psalm 105

¹ Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name;
make known among the nations what he has done.

² Sing to him, sing praise to him;

tell of all his wonderful acts.

³ Glory in his holy name;
let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice.

⁴ Look to the LORD and his strength;
seek his face always.

She wants more information... again

The judge made another request for more information. This time she wonders about our financial situation. So, we tallied up all of our monthly earnings (again) and checking and savings account totals (again) and explained to her how very careful we've been in the last several years to plan financially in preparation for becoming parents. We sent off our responses in the middle of the night and Luciana sent them to Lino first thing Thursday morning. Dayse, the psychologist, wanted to bring the translated answers to the judge right away.

Deep breath.

We're glad to know that she's working to make a decision, but weary of all these redundant questions. We imagine we're just a little closer to her response, though. We trust God for a "yes" but when we hear things like this from a good friend who has walked a parallel road from the El Salvador program to adopt two older children from Colombia, we can't help but feel that family's pain and dread.

Lord, Have your way.

Persistence

¹Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. ²He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. ³And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.'

⁴"For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care about men, ⁵yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!' "

⁶And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. ⁷And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?⁸I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:1-8, NIV)

After a weekend of answering a number of questions from the judge in Brazil and gathering more than a dozen letters of reference from our family and friends in record time, this parable kept coming to mind. I kept thinking, "isn't there a place in the Bible where a woman is seeking justice from a judge who won't give her an answer? Except the woman won't give in and keeps approaching the judge over and over again for that justice. And in the end the judge grants her plea, not necessarily because he wants her to have justice, but because he's tired of her bothering him!"

After searching out the reference and re-reading the parable, I can see that the situation Jesus describes isn't exactly parallel to our situation, but the story does have a number of things that are worth noting and have been an encouragement to me as I thought about them this week.

1. This parable is first and foremost about the importance of persistent prayer. Luke says that Jesus' parable was told in order to show people "that they should always pray and not give up." What an encouragement at this time when Kim and I might be tempted to be discouraged about how long is has taken for the judge in Brazil to rule on our petition! Jesus' words remind me that, however I may be feeling about the situation, God still wants me to pray about it, over and over if necessary. And unlike the judge who gets fed up with the persistence of the widow, God never tires of our approaching him with our petitions and prayers.
2. Parables are always interesting to look at because they teach a spiritual truth while telling an interesting story. And this story just so happens to be about a woman and a judge, which seems to make sense given our current situation! Though the widow in the story is seeking justice against her adversary and Kim and I are seeking a family, both of us have petitioned the court for something, and both of us have to wait upon that court for an answer.
3. Though I am not at all suggesting that, as in the parable, our judge in Brazil doesn't "fear God or care about men," or that she is "unjust," the widow's persistence spoke to me. It was interesting that justice was granted for a seemingly selfish reason on the part of the judge: so that the widow wouldn't "wear [him] out with her coming." As we were putting together the package of information for her this weekend, I kept hoping that the answers we provided and letters we gathered would overwhelm the judge so much that she would see how much we love these children already and how much support we have from our family and friends, and that she would grant our petition. I hoped that she would see that we were willing, like the widow in the parable, to continue to wait upon her and petition her until we received an answer.
4. At the end of the parable, Jesus brings it back to God and prayer: "will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night?" This statement about God's answering our prayers is in contrast to the act of justice granted by the judge in the parable. God listens to our prayers and grants our petitions out of love and grace, not out of exasperation of us approaching Him! But even in the context of the parable, I like to think about the way God might be working in our own situation. In the parable, God uses an "unjust" judge "who doesn't fear God or care about men" to do His will, namely provide justice for the widow. I am encouraged that God can use the actions of our judge in Brazil to carry out His will, regardless of whether she is a Christian or not (even though I pray she is!), and even regardless of whether she is sympathetic to our case (even though I hope she is!). Our persistent prayer is that God's will be that we are united with these children and that His hand move through the judge to make it so.
5. This parable, as is so often, ends with a zinger, cutting close to the heart, piercing like an arrow! "When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" Whoa! This reminds me how important it is to continue to have faith and be persistent in prayer. We can say how much we believe that God listens to our persistent prayers, but if we don't persistently pray, we're not really practicing what we're preaching! (God help me to be persistent in my prayers and petitions to You!)

When it was suggested a few weeks ago that we might consider other referrals because of how long this was taking and not having received an answer from the judge, Kim's and my response was immediate and united: "absolutely not!" Though adopting four children was not something we had ever considered until God showed Maynara, Abraao Lucas, Luana, and Brayan to us back in March, through much prayer and many discussions, we felt compelled, yea "led," to petition the court to be their parents. And that is how we have felt ever since March/April when we submitted our petition. These are our children, and we will be persistent in pursuing them, in waiting upon the Lord with our prayers and the courts with our patience. After all, our heavenly Father continues to pursue us, even before we know him, until we are brought into His family! He sets such a good example, how could we possibly give up now!?

I had lunch with a good friend today and he was asking me about this adoption process. He was trying to find out how we were doing "waiting" and how we were staying so positive. My answer is simple, "If these are my children, then isn't waiting for them is the least I can do!" When I'm tempted to feel like "waiting" is a burden, I remind myself that they have been waiting for a family longer than I have been "waiting" for them. When we are united as a family forever, all of this time will feel inconsequential, I am certain. Since God is infinite, what are a few months for Him!?

Now to you, my loves, your Mom and I are persistent, and we will not give up on you. We will continue to pursue you, praying that God will bring us together as a family very soon. I can't wait to hug you all for the first time and all the 10 million times after that! Love, Dad.

God, hear my persistent prayer: that the judge see a family when she reviews all our papers, and answers, and letters; that she feel compelled to move quickly and grant the petition, and that it be soon, Lord; that things move smoothly as we prepare to travel; that we will be soon be united with the children You have had planned for us since the beginning of time. Amen.

Hope

We're getting to the end of July, 2009 and still don't know when we are going to go meet our precious children. The latest estimate is sometime in September. That's because even after the judge decides to grant our petition, there is still a tangle of red tape to sort out.

• Judge decides
• Submits decision to CEJA
• If it's a "yes" CEJA creates a document called a "Letter of Invitation" (LOI)
• A copy of that letter comes to us so we can get visas, a quick 2-day process
• The letter itself goes to the US consulate in Rio
• The consulate apparently has to send it up to the US to... USCIS
• USCIS approves our I-800 which ensures visas for each of the children
• Meanwhile, Lino makes our court appointments and we make our travel arrangements

That whole thing will probably take 2-3 weeks, but no one really knows because no one has ever done it before. The I-800 process is a new one and we were going to be the first Brazil family to go through it. However, we're told that another AWAA family is beating us to the finish line and will adopt their children soon. They are currently in the pre-travel document-push right now. Hopefully they will pave the way for us. And if things go well, we may overlap some time in Brazil with them.

The thing is that before the judge decides, she will have to receive a report from CEJA's psychologist, Daisy. All the letters (13 of them!) and answers to questions that we sent to Luciana on Monday (July 20) were translated by Lino and another helper that same day and taken to CEJA on Tuesday (the 21st). The psychologist needs to put all of that information into a report (even though I think it would have been easier and just as effective to put it into a folder!) for the judge. Having read all 13 letters from our friends and family and having easily answered all the judge's questions with very well-reasoned and heart-felt answers, We really think that the only thing the Psychologist can say in her report is, "This is clearly the family God has chosen for these four children."

So, everyone is feeling very positive about the future outcome of this process. We all feel like the Judge is looking for reasons to say YES, not reasons to say NO and that she will eventually say yes.

Last Wednesday when Luciana suggested that we might need to move on and look for other referrals... that was really the pit of despair for us. We had dinner that night with our friends Rose and Marcelo. We had dinner with them again this Wednesday and they commented that we seemed much more joyful and less burdened. It's true. We went through that moment of darkness, sustained by God's grace and the purpose He has given us (that's YOU, my children!) and we are now filled with hope.

We WILL be a family. Hopefully, after the LOI is written, Lino will be able to get us some updates on the children... more pictures, clothing sizes, more info! That will make the time go so much faster.

We missed Maynara's 10th birthday in April not long after we knew these were the children God had for us, and it looks like we'll miss Brayan's 4th birthday at the beginning of August too. This is sad for us, but we are focusing on all the birthdays and everydays that we'll celebrate when they are finally our sons and daughters.

Another thing that has been encouraging is the tremendous outpouring of love and prayers and support from our friends and family and some blogland people we have never met. We feel like we've really grown during the last 3 years and we are looking forward to the stretching growth we'll experience as parents.

Not giving up

As the agonizing imminence drags on, doubt creeps in and we wonder what God is up to. Will the judge ever decide on our petition? Why is CEJA, once so eager to push our case through, now asking us to be patient a little longer? Why can't anyone get any straight answers? What if the judge delays another week, 2 weeks, or another month or longer? Can our hearts take it? Did we hear our call correctly? When will God put our family together?

Luciana is concerned about our hearts and how much longer we can and should continue to wait for an answer before we consider the unthinkable--moving on. During a very kind and personal talk with her today, she seemed to be preparing us for the worst. Here are some of the down-heartening gems that came out of that conversation:

• We've never had to wait this long before.
• We don't understand what CEJA is doing.
• The head of CEJA is in charge of this part of the part of the process, she has been doing her job for a long time and she's personal friends with the judge. And still nothing moves.
• Lino is mad and frustrated.
• Would you like me to look for some more referrals for you?
• Now is the time to pray and have faith.
• If this goes on for another week, we should probably move on to other referrals.
• No one understands God's plan (followed by a long, sad, story about a family who suffered years of infertility followed by a heartbreaking miscarriage--and years later the children God planned for that family).

I realize that this is one serious downer of a list and that this kind of mood is atypical of the character of the record we've sought to keep here. However, this is real and we really want this the story to be recorded just as it is unfolded by its Author. And the really real reality right now is that we're in the pits. So I'm writing from the pits so that our children will one day know that we didn't give up on them even on days when everything seemed to be going wrong and it would surely be easier to move on or give up. We did not choose to grow our family this way because we thought it would be safe or simple. We're not haphazardly trying to rescue children from their unfortunate situations. (We've always said we're not in the business of rescuing children--just finding the ones God made as our sons and daughters.) We are trudging through dark, mucky waters in the middle of deep forests filled with fog and uncertainty. But we are trudging because we know that the road will shape us and in the clearing there will be a family and a future of joy and many other blessings. We are trudging because we know that our children need us even more than we need them. We are trudging through because... what other option do we have? What parent would give up on their children?

I wish I could be strong enough to bear this burden joyfully. I feel like I have for a long time, and now I am just so weak from the long journey that I cannot bear it well.

Yesterday I read Genesis 19:16-21 where the angels of the Lord pull Lot and his family out of the city of Sodom before it was destroyed with fire. They had to bodily pull him out by the hand and they told him to flee to the mountains so he would be safe. He said to them, "But I can't flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I'll die. Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it—it is very small, isn't it? Then my life will be spared." And the Lord agreed to spare that small town and let Lot and his family go there instead of into the mountains. Of course God could have given them the strength and protection they needed to flee to the mountains. God wasn't asking him to flee to his death. But Lot felt that he was too weak to do what God asked of him. And that is exactly how I feel right now. I am begging the Lord to let me go somewhere closer, safer, easier... anywhere but the mountains.

Please, Lord. I'm too weak for that journey. You can spare us from it and make miracles happen. Nothing is too difficult for you. Thank you for sparing us from the fire and keeping us safe in your arms... but Lord don't make us go to the mountains.

The judge is back.

The judge is back from her vacation. I hope she's thinking about us as much as we are thinking about her today.

Letter to the judge

We hope this isn't even necessary, but we have sent a letter to the judge who will be deciding whether to accept our petition by confirming CEJA's referral of our four children. If she confirms it, we will finally be invited to Brazil to meet and receive custody of Maynara, Abraao Lucas, Luana and Brayan... and then become their mommy and daddy.

Our friends Marcelo and Rose helped translated it to Portuguese for us and we emailed it to Luciana who will send it to Lino who will take it to CEJA who will hopefully get it to join up with the rest of our dossier before the judge returns from her vacation (which we hope will be in only a week or so).

We can feel all the prayers of our friends and family in the peace that has filled us during these last couple weeks. Though we are certainly anxious to get approval and go to meet our children, we are not stressing out about the timeline, for we know it is in God's hands. I'm sure we will marvel at how well-orchestrated this event has been in all of its details.

A+ for the translator

Ines is our Brazilian translator based in Oregon.  USPS got our express-mail package to her (containing our homestudy addendum) on Tuesday before noon.  I'm told Ines got it translated in record time and express-mailed it to Brazil TODAY!  It should be in Brazil in less than a week!

In Luciana's words:  "All is looking good."  Her goal is for us to travel in mid-June or early July.  

So soon!!  

My mind is already trying to figure out details like car seats (in CT the law is 6 years and 60 pounds), bedtime routines (I've got a plan), household jobs (thank you Supernanny!), plane fare (Delta's right at $500 right now and James may have enough miles to upgrade our seats for the way home!!!), getting from place to place (we have a couple options), clothes (saw some sweet deals at H&M today!), quilts (thank you grandmas!), bedroom furniture (found the sweetest little set of twin beds at English Market on Chapel St.; for the rest, IKEA here we come!) and what I will say to my children the first time I look into their eyes (I still have no idea.  I'll probably be sobbing or giggling or something else that is very unprofessional-looking like that).

Here is the cute bed we found.  We may indulge in 99% 

bliss and go buy it this weekend while James' parents 

are visiting!

99%

We got an email from Luciana today.  I talked with her for while too.  Seems CEJA (Brazil's State Judiciary Commission on Adoption) looked at our paperwork on Friday and requested the translated homestudy addendum.  Luciana seems to think that this request means that CEJA wants to place the kids with us and just needs to make it all official.  She said they wouldn't have asked for it if they weren't serious.  (WAHOO!)  I expressed the legalized addendum (which arrived at our home on Saturday morning) to the translator in Oregon.  We figure she can translate it in a couple days and express it to Brazil before the end of the week.  Hopefully it will be in CEJA's hands in a week and a half or so.  After CEJA has it, we can be more like 99.9% sure.  The 1% uncertainty right now is the possibility of someone who is fully approved and ready to go submitting a petition for the same children between now and next week when CEJA receives our addendum.  Once they have our addendum, if someone else petitions, they will probably say, "we are already reviewing a family for those children."  I do not think we will get anything "official" granting our petition until after we're fully approved and we receive our invitation of invitation from Brazil.  But Luciana will let us know what she finds out.

She thinks we might be able to travel in mid-June!!

We have plans to go out to a super-nice restaurant tonight.  It's "restaurant week" in New Haven and lots of very nice eateries offer a prix-fixe menu at better-than-usual prices.  I've wanted to go to Ibiza forever and it's three weeks before our 7th wedding anniversary and we'd planned to celebrate early.  Now that we have this news, we're also going to celebrate our family--I promise we'll only celebrate 99%.

HOLY SMOKES!

We have sought council from 2 social workers, our family coordinator, both sets of parents, two adoptive moms, a mother of 6, our pastor, our closest friends and our Lord who has put us in this moment with great purpose.  We have not thought lightly about the possibility of adopting four children--and these four in particular.  We have received many wise words, many questions, and much prayer.  

Today we submit a document petitioning the court in Brazil for permission to adopt the four children we think God chose for us long before we began this process.  

When we told our dear friend Jay about this yesterday, his response was a good summary of everyone's words to us over the past couple weeks:

HOLY SMOKES!!!!  I am so happy for you guys!  What a big step, but if anyone can do it, you two can in the grace of Christ.  We will keep praying.

So, we take one more step today.  One more step in faith.  One more step without exhaling until we hear back from the court--hopefully in a week or two.

Requesting Prayer

I know it's been over a week since I wrote, and that usually means nothing is going on in the adoption process.  This time, it means that SO MUCH has been going on that we've really been unable to post--so much time spent talking, processing, praying and hoping.  

Last Friday we got a referral.  We got information about two boys (7 years old and 3 years old) whom we are both very interested in adopting.  On Tuesday, we submitted a petition to the court of minors in the state of Parana, but it turns out that we're not yet sure whether it's the big news we've been waiting for.  The referral was not sent just to us.  It was sent by CEJA to several different agencies (probably).  That means that there could be several different families reviewing the same information we reviewed and submitting petitions just as we did.  In all likelihood, most other families have had their paperwork waiting in Brazil longer than us, and would therefore receive preference over us.  We are told by LIMIAR that we should know in a couple weeks whether the court grants our petition or not.  

First things first:  if you're reading this, PRAY!  Please pray our documents to find favor in the eyes of the courts so that these two little boys might be our sons.  Pray for whoever is reading and approving our dossier and our petition that they will see Jesus on every page and between every line and just know that they need to place these boys with our family.  Pray that God will be glorified through this step of the process and that the boys will be placed very soon in the home that God has chosen for them.

Second things second.  I may be stating the obvious here, but we're a wreck.  Though we're trying our hardest to guard our hearts to keep them from being broken, we are already falling in love with these two sweethearts.  There is so much about them and their story that makes us feel like we could and should be their parents.  Though we've reviewed a few other kids' files (see this post that I wrote back then but didn't post until now), and had our hearts broken by what we've read, this is the only time that we've both been smitten and felt strongly about wanting to adopt them.  We are hoping that this tug on our hearts for these two boys is God's voice revealing to us who our children are.  We are distracted all the time and praying harder than we've ever prayed before.  

We submit to His will for our family--and we hope it's these boys.