"My God is so big, so strong and so mighty, there's nothing my God cannot do" :)

I have had this song in my head all day. Probably because the lyrics are speaking directly to my heart. My God is so big that only HE can move mountains. My God is so big that only HE can answer prayers in ways we never imagine. My God is big and HE can do everything. Today is April 20. Our little girl is 10 weeks old today. Very hard to believe it's been that long since the day our lives changed. It has been 9 weeks since we went to court and gained legal custody. Today was the court date set back in Feb. for the final dependency and neglect hearing. I feel like I blinked and it was here. I have spent the last few days dreading this day. Not because it couldn't possibly bring us good news, but because I was so worried it wouldn't. First I was worried the birth parents would show up. Now they haven't done anything so far that would make me think they would come, but I always had that thought in the back of my mind....what if they do? What if the boyfriend comes to make it difficult? I worried. Let's be honest...we all would. Every night when I was up at 2 am for Delaney's feeding, I prayed. I asked God to protect us. I asked Him to let the court hearing go smoothly without them there. I prayed for them not to come. For one, I do not want to see him. I don't care as much about the birth mom as I do the horrible man who calls himself the birth father. He has a criminal history and he is abusive to her. I cannot imagine anyone ever seeing him fit to be a father. I may sound judgmental, but if you had heard the things I heard about him today, you would probably feel the same way. So I prayed all the time about this day.

We also had A TON of people praying for this day. I prayed that the judge would see the evidence presented and charge them with extreme child abuse. If they were charged with this, we knew we were one step closer to terminating their rights, which meant we were one step closer to adoption. As far as I'm concerned she has been ours all along. She is Delaney Jane Goins and we are her mommy and daddy. But having her name legally changed and seeing it official on paper will be a great plus :) So, as this day approached I had mixed emotions. For one, I was extremely nervous knowing there was a chance I would have to get up and testify. I love to talk and I don't mind too much speaking in front of people, but this just made me a nervous wreck. I love this little girl with all of my heart and I just felt like I would be so emotional. But thanks to the prayers, I was able to hold my composure and speak effectively. God works that way, ya know :) Remarkably I slept pretty well last night. I prayed again at 2 am the same prayer I have been praying for weeks. We got up around 6 and began to get ready. Allen's mom was watching Delaney for us, but I was not looking forward to leaving her either. When you spend all day every day with your little one, leaving them for even a few hours is very hard to do!! We headed over to Allen's parents house around 7:30. I took this picture on the way there. I feel like she was trying to tell me, "No worries Mom! All smiles this morning. Everything will work out!!"

We dropped her off and headed to the courthouse. Once we were there we spoke with our attorney for a bit and then were called back. It was definitely different this time. Everyone seemed more serious and we were sworn in. First our attorney questioned the DCS worker who spoke with the birth parents the day the baby was born. She was able to testify about a lot of information that would show they were unfit and had caused harm to the baby while pregnant. She also was able to testify that they had not made any contact since birth to try and see the baby or obtain any sort of visitation or rights. Next the birth mother's mom was questioned. She did us a huge favor by speaking and testifying about things the birth mom had told her. These things were vital in the charges against them. Next Allen took the stand. She questioned him about how we came to know about the birth mother, our adoption plans, and information about Delaney's stay in the NICU. I took the stand last and just added information about how she is adjusting at home and what type of baby she has been. Overall, I think the case was presented well.

In the end, the judge found that they both were unfit and should be charged with extreme child abuse. They no longer have any rights to try to obtain visitation. If they wanted to see her, they would have to file a petition first, then go through the process to try and reestablish visitation. We were told that we can file to terminate rights on the grounds of extreme abuse in 30 days! As we were leaving I asked our attorney if that meant we would still have a 6 month period after the rights were terminated before we could adopt. She said "Nope! You can file to adopt 30 days after the termination." We were floored. We did not expect this at all! So in other words, Delaney could officially be ours this summer, maybe in just a few short months, where before we were expecting it to be October-December. As I said before "Our God is so strong and mighty!" When we left there we made phone calls and sent text messages, then headed to see our perfect little miracle! Can you tell I was happy to see her??

We celebrated by going out to lunch with the Dew family, taking a family nap, going on a walk on this beautiful day, and then going to dinner with Allen's parents! I think we made a day of it! Shew...

Nana & Papa love Delaney :)

I just want to thank everyone who has been praying for us during this process. Please continue to pray that everything goes smoothly throughout the rest of the coming months and that the Lord's will be done. We firmly believe this little girl was picked out to be ours and we can't wait to see how God is going to continue writing this story :)

I know I'm back tracking but I do have a few other pictures to share from this week! First I wanted to share a picture of our incredible attorney, Nikki Cantrell with Delaney :)

She has been absolutely amazing and we couldn't have asked for a better person to help us and advise us during this exciting time. She is a remarkable woman!!

On Wednesday I met my friend Jessica and her little girl Gabby for lunch at Chick-fila. Apparently it's a popular place on Wednesday's during lunch!! It was super crowded but we had a nice time :)

Sweet Gabby playing!!

Me & my girl

After that I headed to my doctor's office to surprise a few of the people over there. They saw me through years of infertility and I wanted them to meet this little miracle. God may have not answered our prayers the way we thought, but He sure did more than we ever could have imagined. I was so excited to show her off. They were just amazed at how beautiful and adorable she was. They were so excited for us and wanted to hear everything about how we came to hear about her situation. Denise, more than anyone has been praying for us for years! She was so helpful while we were trying to get pregnant, and when she saw me with Delaney she said "Now it all makes sense!! The years of you not being able to conceive. Now I see why :)"

She is convinced that I will now get pregnant! HA :) We shall see!!

Last night we went to dinner with Joel& Kendra, and the Woods family. They are like our second family and we love being with them. We eat at this one Mexican place so much that the waiters know what we want before we sit down!! That's bad, isn't it?? It's also funny because every time Isabella eats there she asks her parents if "All of my friends" are coming? We may have a problem :) But boy, do we LOVE some Mexican food!!

Me & Sweet Izzy

"Memaw" feeding Delaney Jane

We have had a great week and a blessed day. I feel so relieved that this hurdle is done and that we can move on to the next one. I know one thing, this little girl is worth every bit of it!!