From now on we will get to celebrate "Family Day" every year on April 4!  We started out the day like every other day for the last two weeks - waking up around 7:30 and heading downstairs for breakfast. We then spent an hour or so back up in the apartment playing before heading up to the roof to play outside with bubbles.  As we were coming down from the roof, we met our hardworking lawyer Marta and her son, who is also our driver, translator, tour guide, and so much more (thanks Ricardo!) who had frantically come to look for us because our signing, which was originally scheduled for 3:00 and then rescheduled for 2:00, had apparently now been moved to 11:00.  Now, that was fine except for the fact that it was 11:12 and none of us were dressed for the day.  In fact, one of us was still in pajamas!  We raced back to the apartment and in 12.35 minutes, all three of us were dressed to impress.  When we arrived to DINAF, we dropped Noah off at the play area, and Ricardo stayed with him. Then, we went into a room with six other participants/observers, where the notary read the entire 10 legal-sized page document of the official adoption decree aloud. We didn't understand much, but we heard our names and Noah's name several times and felt very grateful that this was the moment that we would be officially recognized as a family of three.  We proceeded to sign off and place our fingerprints on the document and in just under an hour, we were returning to the play area to be reunited with Noah. Ricardo said he cried a lot and Called for Mama and Daddy - that was the first time we had been apart in two weeks.  Noah was so glad to see us, which totally warmed our hearts 😍.  Next, we were on our way as three Hatches!

Now...although we had the official signing today, we still have a long way to go before we can come home. The official papers from today will be turned in to the courts tomorrow. Then, there is a mandatory law that requires a 10-business day waiting period (but in Honduras, the country pretty much shuts down from work for Semana Santa, which is their celebration of Easter during the week leading up to Easter; so we will now have a 15-business day waiting period because of this) before we are able to obtain Noah's new birth certificate which has his new name and our names as his parents.  Because of this, we are expecting the get his new birth certificate on April 25, so lots more waiting. Once we have his new birth certificate, we will be dealing with the  immigration department here and the US embassy for passports and visas. We anticipate that those aspects will take around two weeks. It appears that we won't be coming home for around five more weeks. It's really hard to let this part sink in, but as some special people reminded us recently: God's has had His hand on this adoption since the beginning and He's got this too. "For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may received what was promised."  - Hebrews 10:36

The waiting has always been and will continue to be hard, but what an incredible thing God is doing in our hearts and lives!  We greatly appreciate each and every prayer to our good Father in heaven on our behalf. They're being answered!

Thanks to everyone for sharing in our exciting day through all of your encouraging and kind comments on our post and pictures today!!

Hola from Tegucigalpa, Honduras!

This past week, we received great news - that our signing date to make the adoption official will be this Tuesday! When we found out, we were high fivin' and fist bumpin'!  We're so glad that the date has been set, and that we will be able to move forward with the rest of our paperwork here. The next step after signing is to take the paperwork to the registrar, who will make a new birth certificate for Noah. That will take about ten working days, so we'll be playing the waiting game again until we get the new birth certificate...but we've gotten pretty good at that over the years.

Since our last update, we've been to the zoo, a national park, and the mall where there is an awesome play area that Noah loves. The zoo was really nice and his favorite animal was the peacock! We also got to see a big lion, some monkeys, and some scary snakes. Well, everyone got to see the snakes except for Mama. She didn't want any part of that! Haha. The national park was nice and we got to take a walk through it, play on the swings and slides, watch some kids play a game with balloons, and dance to some of the local music! Noah can really break it down. He must be quick learner from his Dad! ;) The mall play area was fun because he got to play in a ball pit with some other kids. He stayed in there for an hour and didn't want to leave.  So, right then and there he pitched a nice little fit; but by the time we had turned the corner, he was back to his normal, happy self!

Overall, we're doing well here and slowly learning about being parents for the first time, which is kinda hard (LOL), especially when we're in a foreign country for an undetermined number of weeks and we've been given our two year old son who doesn't speak our language and we are living in a 900 square foot apartment. It's...awesomely interesting!  The good news is that Noah is a normal two year old little boy. The bad news is that Noah is a normal two year old little boy. Haha! We're so grateful that the good far outweighs the bad!  He is continuing to pick up on English quickly as he understands most of what we say and is ever increasing his vocabulary.  With God's help we're learning how to be a family of 3, and by His grace alone we are doing really well!

Thanks so much to everyone who has participated in the Noah's Home t-shirt fundraiser -what a blessing!  We can't wait for you all to meet Noah!!  (Pictures coming Tuesday)

Also, please keep us in your prayers as we move closer to finishing this part of our journey!

Just wanted to give everyone an update...Most everyone knows that we arrived in Honduras last Monday on our second official visit in the adoption of our SON, Noah! We thought we would be given a signing date (day where the court declares that we are officially a forever family and we will post pics on this day) on Monday when we arrived, but that was not the case.  We continued to wait all week in hopes of a date with no word. Please pray that we will receive word on this date very soon so that we can begin the official legal process of finalizing the adoption.

Meanwhile, we have really enjoyed our time with Noah. After arriving Monday around noon, we picked up a few groceries, unpacked our suitcases, settled in to the apartment, and rested up for our reunion with Noah on Tuesday. When the time came, we were so ecstatic to see him and he definitely was glad to see us, but he was hesitant to leave the place and people who were so familiar to him. We are so very grateful for their taking care of him. Seeing Noah be unsure and hesitant when we were leaving the orphanage made us think about our relationship with our Heavenly Father. So many times God shows up in our life wanting to take us to a better place. Yes, change is hard and it may not be an easy road; but God does it for our good. Even though Noah recognized us he still wanted to stay in a familiar place. How often is God trying to deepen our relationship with him and others and make us useful in His Kingdom, but we just want to stay in a comfortable place?

During the past week, we have played around the hotel, had several outings to the mall and children's museum, and pretty much established a daily/weekly schedule. We get up in the morning around 7:00/7:30 to eat breakfast in the hotel restaurant, then play at the hotel or go out until lunch. After lunch is nap time for 2-3 hours. We take turns working out upstairs in the fitness room during Noah's nap. When he wakes up, we have a snack and watch a cartoon, then play or go out until dinner. We eat dinner in the apartment or the hotel restaurant. Next is bath time, which Noah loves!  Finally, we play until bed time around 8:30/9:00.

We try to get out of the apartment every other day because days in the apartment are very long. Noah loves the children's museum, and on our first visit there on Saturday, there were several school buses full of kids, which was great because he really enjoyed playing with them. Today we were able to watch our church service online. Noah loves music and seeing him raise his hands and dance while worshipping his Heavenly Father was so touching. I know God was smiling this morning watching His little boy!

Overall, our first week has been great.  Noah speaks really good toddler Spanglish, and we understand it very well.  Haha!  He is talking a lot and learning much English very quickly.  He says please, thank you, hello, bye bye, fish, water, big truck, and our favorites mama and daddy.  He loves to play with blocks, balls, puzzles, and toys that make music or other sounds. Noah is very particular about picking up his toys and organizing them in certain ways.  He loves to play outside and we have so much fun! We are so blessed with this wonderful little boy 😍

We do want to say thanks to everyone who is helping us at work and home. Without you, we couldn't be here doing this right now. How do you leave work and home for 4-6 weeks!?!?  With people you love and trust to cover for you, that's how! And we certainly have many of those people in our lives, so thank y'all very much for your help.

Home from Trip 1

Friday, we had to say “hasta luego” (see you later) not “adios” (goodbye) to our little one.   Don’t think we've ever had to do anything harder.  Who knew that in 72 hours, there could be such a connection formed among three people.  As we walked into the DINAF building to drop off Little H to be returned to the home, tears began streaming down my face.  We waited a while for some paperwork to be done, then took Little H to the doctor for a checkup.  The doctor brought Little H to tears with all of the new and uncomfortable examinations, but healthwise, all was good.  At this time, we were informed that we could actually ride to the home, which thrilled us because it meant a couple more hours that we could spend together as a family of three.  Upon arrival, we gave some final kisses and hugs before shedding more tears.  Painfully, we then had to ride back to our hotel without Little H…so incredibly difficult.

While we are so excited about being able to bring Little H home in a few months, we are extremely heartbroken to have left our sweet one in Honduras.  The next few months will be without having 3 chairs at the table, without hearing “mommy” and “daddy” in that sweet little voice, without those precious hugs and kisses, without just playing for hours at a time, without being woken up too early in the morning, without those precious smiles/laughs, without seeing the joy of playing in the hotel water fountain and trying to catch the fish, and without being able to share the love of Jesus personally with our child; however, the next few months will be filled with more waiting on the next email or phone call from our agency, with God continuing to grow  our trust and patience, with making preparations for Little H’s room, with occasional Skype calls/emails, and with many, many more prayers for our little angel.  We appreciate your continued prayers; and even though we don’t understand this delay in the process, we know that since God has called us to this, He will get us through it.

Last Full Day Together...For Now

Since we had one good night’s sleep (and bragged about it), it only makes sense that Little H would wake up at 3:00 am ready to start the day…So, after laying around and trying to go back to sleep for about an hour, we actually got out of bed and had a little desayudo (breakfast).  Then, we played really hard until “real” breakfast was ready downstairs at our hotel.  We had delicious fresh fruit, toast, bagels, breakfast quesadillas, coffee, and orange juice.  By 8:00, guess who was ready for a nap?!?! Yeah, we all slept from 8:00 until 10:45, through some really loud construction work going on in the lobby!  Got up, and played some more.  Ate pizza for lunch, and got dressed.  Then, we were ready to take on the Hatch batch family outing #2, at the Chiminike children’s museum.  We spent a couple of hours hanging out there - so many fun things to do!  We arrived back at the hotel for dinner of pb and j, hamburger, and chicken sandwich with papas fritas (french fries).  After a couple of rounds of playing dress up and taking a bath, Little H was down for the count!  

We have begun packing up Little H’s things because tomorrow, we will will drop off our precious little one to be returned to the Honduran home for the next several months while we must wait for court documents and passport to be finalized.  We can only imagine how hard tomorrow will be and have no idea how we will leave without our sweet angel.  Please pray for our temporary departure from and our quick return to Little H.