10 DAYS!!!

As of today, Sunday, March 10th, 2013, we only have....

10 DAYS TILL WE LEAVE FOR GHANA!!!!!!!!!

Aaaand the packing begins!!!

 Here's what just went down:

We'd been waiting aaaaaall week for our agency to contact us with our court dates. I was feeling extra patient, so I waited till Tuesday to call, but heard nothing. Nothing Wednesday either. On Thursday I got a text for our caseworker saying that she had a phone call scheduled with our attorney for Friday afternoon, and would hopefully have all the info needed then.

So Friday morning, we passed the time in celebration, getting me some new mugs with a World Market gift card from my friend Bekah, running to get some items off our packing list, generally having fun together. In the afternoon we waited, laptop open, phone ringer on high, waited. Nothing. I started to feel myself slip into the emotional place I had been in before we got referrals... ugh! Waiting is the WORST!!

Then finally, at 7:35pm Graham was watching a movie, and I was making dinner, and I just asked him to pause it and pray with me. As I walked over to where he was sitting I passed our computer... nothing. So we prayed that our caseworker would contact us that night, even though it was late in the day, and it didn't seem likely. The whole prayer was like a minute long. I glanced at the screen as I walked back to the kitchen, and BLAMMO!!! She had emailed us!!!!

So right now the boys' court dates are for next week. There's no way we'd make it there in time for that, so we just booked tickets for the next week, hoping we'll get our visas in time. We're looking into pushing their court dates back a week or so, so we can meet them before court (which would give them a different visa categorization, and make the whole rest of the process easier), but if that doesn't work out that's okay. All that matters at this point is that in 10 DAYS (pending visa approval) we'll be boarding some airplanes to finally meet our sweet little boys!!!! It doesn't feel real :)

Please continue to pray for us. We need God sooo much, because this whole thing is sooo much bigger than us!! And praise Him that He IS being so clear in our lives!!! Please pray for health and safety for all four of us, for God's provision, for the rest of the paperwork/court/visa process to go miraculously quickly and smoothly, and for our family as we begin the process of bonding with our boys, healing their hurts, and learning how to be a family!!! Thanks!!!

The Exciting Next Steps

Great news!!! We were just notified yesterday that our attorney in Ghana will be able to tell us next week exactly when our court dates will be - which means that next week we can start making solid travel plans to go and meet our boys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh happy day!!!

The way the process usually breaks down from here is this:

1. We go to Ghana, and meet our little dudes.
2. We go to court to ask for, and hopefully obtain, their custody, making us theirs and them ours (happy sigh).
3. Our attorney gathers several pieces paperwork for the boys, and we apply for visas for them to come to the US.
4. We (hopefully) gain preliminary approval of our visa application, then go to an interview at the US Embassy in Ghana.
5. Our boys' visas are printed, and we bring them home to the US of A, where they're granted citizenship as soon as they land :)

The whole thing can take about 3-6 months (steps 3 & 4 are a lot more complicated than they seem). So if we go in March, then barring any crazy delays or hang-ups we should have the boys home by sometime between June and September!!!

This is where the exciting/scary/amazing part comes in. Most people take two trips, one at the beginning for court, and then one at the end once visas are printed to bring their children home. However, since we don't have any kids at home, and I have a uniquely flexible and supportive job, and because we both feel God's calling and blessing in regards to this decision, we have decided that I will be staying in Ghana with the boys for the whooooole 3-6 month process!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!

I'm sooo excited/nervous/out of my mind pumped!!!! Both of us can't WAIT to meet our little guys, and even though Graham can't stay the whole time, we're both so thankful for the thought that I will be there, and Lord willing won't ever have to leave our babies again!! We're thankful too that I'll have some visitors along the way to keep me company; brave souls to keep me sane during those first few months as a mom of virtual twins :)

Please pray for us. I know we're gonna miss each other like crazy. This whole thing's soooo much bigger than us, we need God's provision, His protection, His wisdom, His blessing, guidance.... we need it all!!!

And here's a lil' peek into the nursery these days :)

 

How cute are baby dishes, right?!?!

Our Puzzle is Complete - Thank You!!!

Dear friends, it's our joy to announce that our "Puzzle Them Home" fundraiser is complete!!!

Thank you sooo much to all the incredible folks who decided to be an integral part of our adoption by contributing puzzle pieces; we couldn't do this without you!!!

 

This amazing gift of a puzzle will now hang in our boys' nursery as a daily reminder of the generosity of friends and the faithfulness of God. 

Thanks!!!!

Prayer is What We Need

Thanks to the loads of you who have been so supportive this past week and a half! Many of you have asked if there's anything you can do to help, and the truth is, there totally is:

 

We need a ton of prayer! We need a team of prayers!

This whole thing is FAR from said and done, as much as I wish otherwise. Below I'm listing several things we've been praying for, and if you'd like to support our family/adoption by praying regularly with us, we'd welcome it!!

• Please pray for our boys. Pray that they would be fed and changed, healthy and safe, held and loved, and warm and dry every day, and that God would touch their hearts and implant in them an ability to love and be loved by Him as well as by us.

• Please pray that we would get court dates soon (the next step), that everything would be perfectly in order, that we'd get a favorable ruling, and that after that we would sail seamlessly through the visa processes with the US Embassy.

• Please pray that God would provide and that we would be able to raise all the money we need to complete the travel portion of the process.

• Please pray that God would give us wisdom in planning and endurance in waiting. I have to admit, I didn't think waiting would be harder after referrals, but it totally is, we feel like our hearts are broken every day, we miss them so much. 

• Please pray for Him to bless and protect us throughout the rest of the process (waiting, planning, going, staying, and coming home).

There's much more to pray over, like starting a new family and all that that entails, but these are the main things on our hearts right now. Thanks so much for being a part of God's work in our lives! Please let us know how we can pray for you too!!

REFERRAL DAY IS HERE AT LAST

We have finally received our referraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaal!!!!!!!!!!

Today is a magical, beautiful, momentous, heart-breaking, and craaaazy day! We now have pictures, faces, names, and stories to go with the love that just keeps growing in our hearts. Today we were officially give the opportunity to say YES! We want them! We can't WAIT to adopt them and have them in our arms, in our family and in our lives forever!!! We can't WAIT to be the parents of two little...

BOYS!!!!

We're naming them Desmond and Quincy (we love their current names too and will keep them as their middle names) and let me tell ya, they are, hands-down, the two cutest little boys in this UNIVERSE!!! We can't post pictures until we pass court and have custody, but just picture some seriously, heart-meltingly cute little dudes!! And they're both about the same age; just over a year old. That's right, two baby boys!!! As I said, we can't WAIT!!!

What now, right? Well, we've officially requested court dates for custody. Usually it takes about 3 months from referral to court date, but it can sometimes be faster or slower. We will be traveling for court, so obviously we're PRAYING that day comes soooooo soon!!!

Referral day also had some unexpected sadness to it. On a day like this you can't pretend your kids are doing great on the other side of the world. There's a sobering realization that there are tough reasons for why they need to be adopted, and that life without a loving family is so hard, I don't think most grown folks I know could take it. All we can do now is pray that we can hold them in our arms soooo soon, and then bring them home shortly after.

Thanks so much for your love and support. Please continue to pray with us for our boys, and that they would come home soon. Praise God! He knows what He's doing!!!!
 
2 years, 11 months, 1 week and 6 days since we started the process of adoption.

3 months

In April, when our paperwork was approved and we were placed on our new agency's wait list, they estimated that it would take about 4-6 months or less before we would receive a referral. Today marks 3 months waiting. We presumably are very near the end of this long long long journey (although I probably won't fully allow myself to believe that 'till it's here).

We are sooooo ready to see those little faces; so ready to finally have our family together!!! We are praying every day that today will be the day we get that call... Please join us :)

See??? Ready!

Thank You!!

A big THANKS goes out to everyone who came by our Chick-fil-a Spirit Night last night!!! Y'all are awesome!!! We feel super loved and supported :) 

And thank you to Chick-fil-a for inviting us and making it all possible!!