Road to Mercy: Hail Mary

I sort of have an update on our situation. I’m kind of scared to mention it to all of you. I hate getting everyone’s hopes up and then having them dashed time and again. But I also feel like I owe it to each of you that’s been following along and praying for us. There is a chance that the judge will hear our case this week. He said previously that he would not hear any adoption cases until at least January, but due to our circumstances, he said he’d try to fit us in his schedule this week. We, hopefully, will know more tomorrow. Again, I’m trying to not get my hopes up and be realistic, but there is a chance… a glimmer of hope. So pray for our glimmer. Pray for the judge to see us and give us a ruling very quickly. This is our “Hail Mary” pass at the end of the 4th quarter on a 4th down. It’s a long shot, but it’s possible. And also please pray for our hearts in case this does not work out. Pray for us to take whatever news comes with dignity and grace, to always respond in love and patience, and to give God glory no matter the circumstances.
I also wanted to again thank everyone for their love and support. So many of you have changed profile pictures on Facebook to our t-shirt designs. You’ve written blogs about us, posted status updates about us, sent us cards and emails, and called. If we have not responded to an email or call, it’s nothing personal, we’ve just been overwhelmed and not had time to respond to everyone, but thank you so very much! We do read each message and listen to each voicemail and they mean the world to us. A few other Uganda Mamas have offered to publicize our t-shirts on their blogs. It’s a way to help make up some of the extra costs of staying here 4 months. So if any of you missed the chance before to get a shirt and you want one, send me an email to melissabusby@hotmail.com. I’ll place the order around the 20th.

A bit of fun for you… today Mercy and I went with some friends to “Wonder World”, which is Uganda’s amusement park. It’s not far from us at all and we’ve been wanting to check it out. Today they had a special “Family Christmas” celebration. The park has about 10 rides, a playground, and some water slides. Today they also had inflatables and face painting. It reminded me a lot of a small town carnival minus the food. I had the best time on the bumper cars. We laughed and laughed. Mercy and I rode the Monorail. This was the shortest and slowest ride ever, but we had fun. We watched the other kids go on rides and look like they were going to puke. So funny! This park also has a movie theater. The price of admission today also covered a movie. It was the new Harry Potter movie. I was not planning on going to the movie, but everyone else was and I knew Mercy was sleepy. The hope was that she’d fall asleep and I could watch the film. No luck, she lasted about 30 minutes and then I had to leave. That was ok with me. The movie was out of focus and driving me crazy! But it was John Mary’s first time to see a film in the theater. I didn’t realize this until we sat down. So fun to be a part of such a moment for him. This was also his first time in an amusement park, first time to do bumper cars or ride a ride. I loved watching his reactions to everything. In the advertisements for today they kept mentioning “Father Christmas” was going to be there. We looked and looked for him. We asked a few people and they said that he was getting ready and would be around later. When I left the movie, we found him! I wasn’t sure what their “Father Christmas” would look like, but I never pictured this. Apparently, he is not taken too seriously in Uganda. He was walking around passing out balloons to kids. Mercy was not so sure about him, but she loved the balloon. That was her favorite part of the day. This is not exactly what I pictured for her first photo with Santa, but I love it. Too bad she wasn’t looking at the camera.