Bethany Christian Services has always been clear that the
Ghana adoption program is a pilot program so it is difficult to predict any
sort of timeline for referrals . That
being said, for the last several months both Adam and I have been asked daily,
“What’s going on with the adoption?” My
standard reply is, “We are just waiting for the call…it could be today or it
could be a year from today.” Most people would just look at me a little
flabbergasted by the unknown-ness. I had
made this same comment on Wednesday morning, April 17th while having
breakfast with my friend, Tamara. Then I went to the car wash and then to the
grocery store. I was driving home when
my cell phone rang with a call from Michigan. “Hello?” It was Kim Batts, the
International Adoption Director calling with our referrals. Oh my goodness! Today was the day!!! I was overwhelmed. As she talked I cried,
shook a little, and somehow kept driving home.
I was almost desperate to see the pictures that she was emailing me. She
told me about 2 kids, biological cousins that were raised as siblings. The
little boy was born without a father and raised by his single mom for a little
while. When mom got remarried her new husband wanted nothing to do with this
young boy so mom asked her brother to take in her son. I have a deep admiration for a mom who found
a safe family member who she trusted to raise her son properly. She chose a male
figure in her life that she loved and respected. Her brother also had a
daughter and a son. So…here is a single father who makes VERY little money
trying to raise three kids. (They were all abandoned by the mom when the son
was a baby). Clearly, their lives were not easy or fun. Big boy/nephew had a
lot of responsibility for his young age. Dad determined he could only afford to
raise one child and relinquished his rights to his daughter and nephew. These
are our new children. They are beautiful and perfect! God truly hand-picked them to be Thompsons.
Boy was listed with a birthdate that indicated he was 6 years old but upon evaluation and observation the social workers and professionals have deemed him to be 8 years old. We are very excited that Cael will have a brother so close to his age. This little boy is described as very outgoing, social, active, athletic, smiles a lot. Cael’s comment…”That’s my little bro!” Really they sound so much a like! And according to the new birthdate he was given the two of them will be the same age for about a month every year. FUN!
Girl just turned 5 years old. Based on her medicals we can
see that she is a very tiny little girl. She is absolutely precious. Big beautiful brown eyes and a sweet little
face. She is described as shy and quiet.
She feels secure around her big brother and relies on him to protect her
and look out for her. He refuses to eat
a meal until she has been served. LOVE!
Both of them are extremely healthy. Neither of them speak
English very well but have reached almost all of their developmental
milestones. They are absolutely wonderful and we can’t wait to get them home.
We are praying intently for littlest brother that was kept
at home. We pray for his safety, health and well-being. We deeply desire to
keep these kids together and pray that if that is God’s will He will make that
happen somehow. It is totally out of our hands.
We have been clearly called to raise this boy and girl as our own and we
are thrilled and blessed that God has given us this opportunity.
We will be traveling to country for court sometime this
summer and hopefully bringing them home this fall. In the meantime, we
recognize God’s calling to raise the two He has already given us at home as
best as we can so we will continue in that busy calling while praying fervently for our other two
across the ocean.
On a side note….we feel incredibly blessed that our children
are in a VERY loving, intimate orphanage with great people and great community.
They are experiencing family for the first time in this children’s home. We
were fortunate to see several additional pictures of them as this loving
children’s home posts blog updates and lovely pictures of the kids
frequently. For those of you in our
shoes, you know how desperate you become for more information and pictures.
This find was a HUGE gift and you can bet I will be checking that site VERY
often for more glimpses of our babes! They have only been in this home for 2 months
and it is clear their friendships already run deep. It will be difficult for
them to leave! This is a hard reality for us and yet it demonstrates their
great adaptability and aptitude for attachment.
For those in the adoption world you know that those things are
priceless. Their sadness in leaving all of their new friends/family will be
very difficult and we will already begin praying for that transition. We also
know that the love and “family” they have right now is only a taste of what is
to come and for that we give great thanks!
