Justice is something I had to learn about in context of how God sees Justice. And trust was something I was learning to reserve for God and not man. I was desperate for His righteousness to prevail. I knew an injustice had been served to us by a judge that had felt injustice done to him in his past and tainted his own ability to judge with proper discretion. From what we were told, the judgement was unlawful and unique, yet everyone we spoke with knew exactly the kind of terror this judge had brought about in other families. We wanted justice. We wanted to fight him. We wanted to blame him. But we wanted our daughter more. And fighting him would not help us in that battle. Thankfully our spirit-filled agency and attorney had helped us see this. I had to keep trusting them; they were with us all along, even though they were not profiting from our adoption at this point, and they had gone out of their way over and over to get all our paperwork and legal obligations transitioned to another agency and attorney.

While we waited yet again, I sought the Lord’s vision of justice. I read the book of Job. You know the story right, he loses everything but his faith.  Somewhere in the midst of his loss and pain, Job focuses on the wisdom and power of God and forgets his complaints. And then God redeems his life with even more. And so I keep my attention on the goodness and power through Christ, my redeemer. Worship was key. This probably deserves a whole post. But others say it better than me. I sound so cliché. I have just had to practice what I have read–gratitude brings joy.

My prayer warrior Debbie had messaged her friend/college roommate, our adoption attorney, on our behalf. I think it may have prompted the attorney to call us. We had not spoken directly to her in a year, only to her office. What she told us completely caught me off guard. All along I thought we had a chance to end this waiting once and for all at this upcoming hearing, but now the story was different. She insisted we were in good hands with her colleague because she wouldn’t be able to attend the upcoming hearing, but that it didn’t matter too much because it was just a logistical hearing at this point and it would drag on much longer because the opposing family member would “get their day in court”. I rebutted, “[x] has had their day in court and done nothing except show up. How could they be given more time…to do nothing except delay this longer and keep our family in hiatus?” She seemed pretty knowledgeable and insisted that they would have the opportunity to get an attorney and then we would go through months of gathering evidence before more hearings. I think she looked forward to the fight. She had written many of the state’s adoption laws and loved standing up for them. And she believed we were legally in the right. However, I was in dismay about what she was telling me. We had waited so long already. Normally, adoptions are finalized around 90days after placement. We had waited 90days plus one year already and were looking at another grueling, expensive year. But once again I had no control over any of this. We were still not considered a party and therefore could not be in the courtroom to make our plea. I was depending on the adoption attorney and I expressed this to her. I pleaded with her to make the case that this had gone on long enough. She said she would do what she could. I wanted to trust her but I felt so failed by the law at this point and skeptical that her colleague would care as much as I needed him to. I cried and shook and panicked.  But after that, came God’s calm assurance that He would take care of us.

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On August 28, 2015, we got a call we did not expect. The attorney, who had just told us not to expect a miracle, was indeed delivering a message of this very miracle. She did go to court that morning, even though she said she could not. She did plead with the new judge that we had been through enough. And the judge ruled in our favor. Hallelujah! It was the justice we had been praying for. I was shaking uncontrollably and could barely take notes so that I could remember the details. She was excited and talking quickly too. She told me that there was drama that played out like a soap opera in the courtroom. I will likely never know the details, but they don’t matter. A huge mountain had been moved. And we all know the only One who could move that mountain.

We were told that an appeal could occur. And in the forefront of my mind I really expected an appeal. But we couldn’t focus on that now. As the day went on and we shared our news with our family and friends… But it was difficult to celebrate. I can only explain that the devil was again trying to steal our joyous moments and taint Christ-honoring victories with his lies. Less than 24 hours earlier, Moriah’s doctors had spent so much time with us going over her possible diagnosis. The enemy was working hard to distract us from the amazing Win for our family.

But justice. Yeah, that abstract notion that God had been teaching us about through faith. Justice was tangible now. Justice had come. Joy was ours.