Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Waiting...

Well, I haven't written in a week and a half because there's really nothing new that is going on. We did hand in ALL our final paperwork to our homestudy agency with a lovely $2000 check. As soon as the check went out in the mail - we went, AHHH! Why didn't we pay with credit card to earn $2000 worth of airline miles?? Jes called and of course they were super understanding and sent back the check and took our cc! Yay! I think $2000 in airline miles can get us like 10 miles, well maybe a little further, but every bit helps!

So here's where we are: We are waiting to be assigned a social worker to come and "invade" our home making sure we'll be able to be good parents. Man, I hope they find us suitable, or otherwise Adalee's in trouble. =) We still have to pay our placement agency, who works with our orphanage and Ghana $3000, to move to the next step. Here's the deal... we can't move on with our placement agency until that $3000 is paid, but we can't pay it now, especially since we just paid another $2000 to our homestudy agency. Once our homestudy is complete though, then we can start applying for grants that will hopefully help with the cost. Our total cost is estimated around $20,000!! I know that God is going to provide, but sometimes it is SO hard to completely trust. I just want to bring my little boy home, like yesterday!! All prayers for our $3000 would be so appreciated. Also, it's around7:15pm in Ghana, so prayers that our little guy is having a great day today and feeling loved, is even more appreciated. "Mommy and Daddy hope you are having a great day our little guy, and know that God will bring us to you soon!" xoxo, Mommy

Friday, April 17, 2009

Paperwork, Paperwork, How I LOVE thee Paperwork!

Do know that when you decide to adopt, your other full time job besides being a mom, and working, is filling out paperwork! I feel like I have been filling out paperwork for 4 months straight. And, I have so much left to do. Jes is great at doing his fair share, however, he can't do my 4 page essay, single spaced, on who I am and why I want to adopt. He has to do his though. I'm glad that our state and Ghana make people fill this stuff out so they can weed out the crazy people, but WE'RE NOT CRAZY!! Well, some would have to think about that. =) I have been doing paperwork today, on my last day of spring break before I go back to teaching, for 3 hours! WOW! I am a professional now. Although, I feel like I'm losing it - I'm eating ice cream and having a glass of wine while finishing - but I'm determined - IT WILL GET DONE!!

Okay, enough ranting on paperwork! Little boy, mommy wants you to come home terribly!! We went to have Adalee's pictures made today and I saw an adorable picture of 2 girls with their arms around each other, one white and one black, and I thought of Adalee and her brother and how I can't wait to get their pictures taken together! It's almost midnight there in Ghana, I hope my little guy is sleeping well. Hugs and kisses little man.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Ghana, so you say...

Yes, Ghana! It's quite the God story - as all of this is really. After we knew that we had to find our son, is was mere days before we knew that he was from Ghana. I started doing research. Little did we know that to adopt you have to fit into this pretty, little box that each country has determined to be best suited for a child. Well... many of these boxes, US included, had stipulations such as: the adoptive parents had to be 30 years old, (which we clearly have a couple good years before we hit 30) your child at home must be 2 years old before you start the process (Adalee's only 7 months), and you had to be married for at least 5 years. (Well, we're at 4 years). So clearly we were not "suited" by many countries to bring home another child - but we had a friend who recently adopted from Liberia and she didn't fit into this typical box either, so I gave her a call.

It turns out that most of Africa is happy to adopt a child to you if you promise to love the child (well, not quite so easy - but their box is MUCH bigger than most). I contacted her agency, in January, and seriously that week the president had just shut down international adoption to make it safer for their children to be adopted, which is understandable, but we weren't willing to wait the 3-5 years before it reopened. This agency had told us that they had orphanages in the Congo (but advised us against adopting from there because of their current political situation - very dangerous) and then their other in Ghana. (however, they suggested us NOT to use them because Ghana adoption was fairly new and they were having difficulties getting children into their adoptive home and didn't want us to become frustrated) So I then went to the great resource - GOOGLE!

When I googled GHANA ADOPTION one main site came up and it had me enter our information and then they sent that info to all the agencies that were working with Ghana adoption. The next day I received about 15 emails from different agencies with about 30 attachments! VERY OVERWHELMING!! I started sifting through them to learn that I had NO idea what they were talking about. And then the ONE came. It was a simple email from an agency - very personal, but short. It said, "Brandi and Jesse, I am so glad that you are interested in Ghana adoption. I know it can be very overwhelming, but don't let that scare you. I have one attachment, an overview, for you to look at. Please call me after you look at it with any questions. And her phone number began with a 918!! Could it be, that all the way in Orange County, CA, I found an agency from my hometown of Tulsa, OK?! It was true my friends, and not only is this agency great - but the woman, our placement agent who helps us find our son - is a BELIEVER!! And, she has not only walked in our shoes - they brought home a son a year or so ago, but they are currently walking in our shoes - they are getting ready to bring home a little girl from there. God is SO good and we know that our little man is in Accra, Ghana waiting for his mommy and daddy with his new sister to come and get him. "Hold on baby boy. Mommy, Daddy, and little Ads are coming for you! We love you." We don't know his name yet, but we do know that he will be between the ages of 0-4 years. So, please pray for our little guy and that God uses our placement agency to match us up with him SOON!

Until the next blog... xoxo, B

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

We're having a BOY!

No, I'm not pregers! But, just as exciting - we're adopting a little boy from Ghana, Africa. What a journey it has been - and we have just begun. I'm excited to invite you all to be a part of our journey. I know we could use your prayers and support as this is a very lengthy process over which I really can't control, and I like to control things - did you know that?

Well - I thought I'd answer the obvious questions up front to save you the wondering... (No, we're neither Madonna or Angelina Jolie - so DON'T ASK!)

About 4 months ago, we were at church and during the response time I felt God whisper, "bring up adoption to Jesse," and "get ready." "Ready for what?" I thought. But, after church I asked Jes if he had ever thought about adopting and he replied, "not really, why?" And much to his and my surprise, I told him I thought God was asking us to - but I didn't even know what that meant. He said he would pray about it daily to see if God had anything to reveal to him - that's why I LOVE my husband, he so quickly goes to God about the unexpected stuff instead of a knee jerk reaction of "You're Crazy, Bran."

About 2 weeks after the initial conversation, when Jes and I were doing a devotional, God gave me a vision (no - this NEVER happens to me). The vision was of a little boy running towards me and knocking me down with his powerful hug and us just laughing and laughing. At that moment - it became a necessity to find this boy, our son, that God had shown me. I looked over at Jes with tears in my eyes and said, honey - we HAVE to find our son - he's out there and waiting for us to bring him home. Later on, Jes told me that during his quiet time devotion, he had asked God to reveal to him the meaning of adoption and of course God did. He showed Jes that even though adoption is not the norm these days, we are all adopted children of God and we're called to take care of the orphans of this world. The fears that might come along with adopting a child were not legitimate enough to even consider, because if God is for us, then who can be against us? - so instantly Jesse knew then too that we were meant to bring in a child and make him ours. SO THERE YOU HAVE IT!

WHY GHANA? Well, that's another story for a different day. Stay tuned...