We got approval!!!!

This has been a GREAT day! This morning I was blessed with this amazing picture of my two sweeties!

 And then....I received an email from our Immigration Officer....

"Yes I did mail the approval letters a few weeks ago. Have you received the approvals yet? If you have not received the letters let me know and I will print them out again."

SO WE HAVE BEEN APPROVED!!!!!  Praise the Lord! 

I am "virtually" holding these two faces in my hands, pulling their faces close to mine, looking into their big brown eyes and saying, "We are coming for you!!"

Bummer that we didn't get the letters like we should have but thrilled that we have been approved. 

A few prayer requests:

1) That we will be issued a visa packet pick-up date quickly.

2) That the team in Ghana will be able to get the kids to their medicals easily and that the children will tolerate all their vaccinations and medical tests well.

3) That we will be given a visa interview date quickly and that they will both pass the interview. 

4) That we can get good travel arrangements (flight, lodging, care back home).

Typically, from this point it takes about 3-5 weeks until travel. Woo Hoo!!  

They are still yours God but THANK YOU SO MUCH for letting me be their mom!!!!!!!!! So grateful!

By the way, here are a few more photos we have taken in the past few weeks. My parents came for a great visit. Liz had Homecoming. Cael is loving baseball and guitar. 

Punctuation gone wild!

Well....
Every day I consider writing a new blog post and every day I think, "Maybe today I will get some news that I can share. Maybe today I will run to the mailbox and there will actually be something from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Maybe I will open an email from our Immigration Officer. Maybe we will get a phone call. Maybe we will get some news that will move our adoption forward. Any.News.Would.Be.Nice!

I got nothing people.  (I know that is not perfect grammar, but somehow it feels more rebellious and serious and criminal-ish to just use poor grammar and make up words and add a lot of periods to sentences.)

So....seriously...I got nothing!

It has been 16 weeks since we originally submitted paperwork for our children to get approved for their visas. It has been 12 weeks since we got pink slips in the mail saying they needed more information. It has been 8 weeks since we resubmitted the paperwork they requested. In the past 8 weeks we have heard..."your cases are still under review" "your officer is out of the office this week" and "your cases will be completed by the end of this week." That last response came on September 10th. So...even with snail mail (sorry dad!) you would think that something would have arrived in the mail last week. Right!?!?! or Saturday? or Today?

Nope! Nothing! Blah!

OK....now that I have had a little pity party let me tell you how I really feel. Yes! I am frustrated. Yes! I feel sad for my sweet kids who are eager to be a family (the ones here and in Ghana). Yes! I am tired of having two beds perfectly made when there should be kids messing them up every night and kicking the covers on the ground. But.....AMAZINGLY....we really have great peace! Truly! I trust God's perfect timing and know that He is in control of this whole thing. I also know that these children are not my children. They are and always will be God's children and He doesn't need me to care for them quite yet. He has asked me to care for two right now and I'm trying to do my best each day. He has asked me to pray for and trust Him with all four of my kids. He is trustworthy. I know this. So....we continue to wait.

Thanks for asking. I'm so sorry that I haven't been doing a very good job keeping you updated.

P.S.  Today is Adam's birthday. Happy birthday to the most amazing man I know! I am so thankful to walk through life with you and share these kids with you and wake up next to you each day!

Waiting is Hard

When I start getting more then the usual texts, emails and questions about the adoption I guess it is time for another blog post.

Let me start with the good news. Liz and Cael have had an awesome start to a new school year. My 6th grade girl and 4th grade boy have wonderful teachers and classmates. They are doing great!

Regarding the adoption...I was just kinda hoping that the next post would be some good news. Some real information. I got nothing for you. :-(

We are still waiting! It is a drag. We just got word that both of our kids were sick last week...vomiting, typhoid fever and bladder infections. UGH!

We got the papers we needed for the USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) and we emailed and overnighted them on last Monday. Hopefully we will get an approval this time and hopefully it will come soon.

After we get the approval we will request a visa packet pickup for our kids.  Our POA in Ghana will pick it up for them and then they will get a visa medical done. That takes about a week to complete. Following that we will request a visa interview appointment.  Hopefully we will get a quick response. If they pass the interview (which always happens on Monday but doesn't always happen on the first try) then their visas will be printed (which always happens on a Friday).  Hopefully, the visas will print the same week but that is not always guaranteed.

Until approval comes we wait....and pray....and cry....and wait...blah! It could be as early as 4 weeks from now or it could be longer.

In the meantime, here are a few sweet photos I found on facebook of our cuties.

 Thanks for praying for us.  We can tell that you are and that God cares so much. We trust His perfect timing and we know He loves and cares for Gabe and Debo more than we do. Until we are entrusted with their care we will trust their perfect Father to take care of them.  After they are entrusted to our care we will trust their perfect Father to continue to take care of them.

Prayers. Peace. POWERFUL!

Thank you so much for all your prayers and encouragement! This week has been a great testimony to the power of prayer and the peace that can come even when the circumstances aren't great. It has been a great week!

Yesterday we got some great news.  The Bethany team in Ghana thinks they will have the paperwork that we need by next week.  That was not at all what I was expecting and I feel very hopeful and thankful. We will still have to wait for the approval and request a visa interview (currently scheduling about 2-3 weeks out).  After that, we can go get them and bring them home. Yaya!!!!!

Today we got the most amazing gift through a wonderful volunteer at the orphanage where are children are living right now. She sent these lovely photos and we are soaking them in! Until we get to pick them up we will regularly look at these photos and pray for our sweet kiddos! Thanks for coming along side us in prayer and life. We are so blessed!

Feeling sad and frustrated

After waiting patiently (OK, not always patiently) to hear from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for 4 weeks we finally get THREE letters in the mail today. They are all red. Red is not good.

We have to provide some more information before they will grant citizenship for our sweeties. I will not go into details but let's just say these documents will not be so easy to acquire. The Bethany team in Ghana already works such long hard hours and now we will be asking (begging) them to work longer and harder to try and come up with documents that don't currently exist. Blah!

Please pray for us. Pray for the team in Ghana as they work so hard on our behalf. Pray for our sweet kids who are very eager for us to come and get them. They call once a week and in their very limited English they only ask us to "Come!" Breaks my heart. every.time.

Meanwhile their beds are ready, their siblings are ready, their mom and dad are more than ready.

God please grant us the peace to walk this path a bit longer. Please be with Naa, Solomon, and Ebe as they work hard to help get the proof that has been demanded. Please help everything to go quickly and smoothly. Please hold Debo and Gabriel close and let them feel your love and comfort and care. Put in their hearts a knowledge that they have a family who loves them deeply and a Maker who loves them even more. Please put people in their lives to cuddle them and hold them. Please be with the orphanage staff and volunteers and give them strength to love our kids and the others. Please bless this process and sustain us in the days and weeks ahead. Amen.

Enjoying Summer

Well, our summer kicked off with quite a bang with a trip to Ghana to meet our precious additions. It's hard to believe we have been home almost 6 weeks!  We are so anxious to return and bring our babes home. For those who haven't seen it yet here is the video of our favorite moments from the first trip.  The songs are particularly special to us so turn up the volume and enjoy!

When we left for Ghana, Liz and Cael were still in school and when we returned summer was in full swing.  So naturally day #1 back in country consisted of a trip to Whitewater. ;-) I love watching the kids ride all their favorite water slides for the first time each summer and I enjoy relaxing in the pool chair as they hurry to the next adventure.  This time we were all quick to say things like, "Gabe will probably love this slide" and "Debo Grace will probably love this play area". We enjoyed pointing out how our family will fit on the big raft all together for the Bahama Bobslide and how we might pair off for some of the other tube slides. There is no question our sweet Ghanaian kiddos will be amazed and overjoyed at the sight of Whitewater. (perhaps a little over stimulated?!?!) We hope and pray they will be home to enjoy it this summer but if not we have a lot to look forward to next summer.

Following vacation bible school and a relaxing week at home and Whitewater each day we loaded up the car and made the drive to Rochester to visit old friends and neighbors. Highlights included visiting and playing with great friends, going to the Viola Gopher Parade, eating at favorite restaurants, playing a favorite parks and celebrating our new kids with a family adoption party.  We felt VERY loved and blessed by our sweet friends in Minnesota. It was surreal to consider this was likely our last family vacation as a family of four. We are so excited to fill the mini van with two more sweeties and start making memories as a family of six. 



When we returned from Minnesota the kids enjoyed a week at Creative Arts Camp, a day camp at our local church. The week capped off with a musical performance and Liz nailed her solo. It also happened to be our 15th wedding anniversary and we are so thankful for all the blessings of the past 15 years.

The kids and I made a drive down to Jacksonville last week and had a great time with friends and family.  We greatly enjoyed Christ's Church Freedom Fest complete with musical performances from Francesca Battestelli, Luminate, Sanctus Real, Matthew West and Michael W. Smith. The 2-day event was so much fun and ended with some great fireworks. Our  4 days in Florida ended with an AMAZING adoption shower thrown by my twin sister and two of my sister-in-laws.  It was such a wonderful night.  We celebrated Gabe and Debo Grace and were overwhelmed with thoughtful gifts, food and decorations. So blessed!!

 

 

We returned home just in time to celebrate a VERY rainy July Fourth with Adam. I got the bunk beds painted and the new quilts on the bed so now we are TOTALLY ready for these two to come home!!!

UPDATE on the paperwork: We got an email Monday that our officer will be processing our paperwork next week.  Please pray with us that everything is in order and there are no delays. Two of our fellow adoptive families have been asked for more evidence. It is so hard to wait and be patient! IF WE GET APPROVAL NEXT WEEK we will request a visa packet pickup for our children.  They will have a visa medical done and get passport pictures taken.  When that is complete we will request a visa interview for our children and when that is completed then we can go pick them up. So excited!!

We are home!

Wow! The last 24 hours are a bit of a blur.  I just took the most wonderful long hot shower of my life! ;-)

Yesterday morning we checked out of our hotel and went to see our children at the social worker's home.  It was a Ghanaian holiday and yet our sweet social worker was caring for our children in her own home and hosting us all day long. She is one of the most selfless, sacrificial and genuine people I have ever met. She works very long hours and cares for the "least of these" everyday. There is no doubt her reward in heaven will be so great because that is where she has stored up her treasure. Our lives are SO MUCH RICHER for the week we spent with her and we will always be grateful for the love she shows to our children and so many others.

She has prepared the kids for the day ahead and they knew that when we arrived they would be leaving her home and heading back to the orphanage to stay for awhile until Mommy and Daddy could return for them. This discussion had taken place several times over the week.  We all tried our very best to explain that the paperwork takes some time and we would be working very hard to come back as quickly as possible.  Our son is very smart and he has tried every way possible to negotiate a better way. He has told the social worker that she should make the papers now and let them go to America. Oh, if only it were that easy! He has asked, "what will happen if we just go without papers?" His little mind is trying so hard to come up with a better solution and unfortunately there isn't one. Needless to say when it was time to leave the social worker's home both of our children had pretty major meltdowns. The day did not start out well.  They wanted nothing to do with Adam or I and they really just wanted to cry and yell, so that is what they did. They were both forcibly put in the car and we started our long drive with a car full of tears.

About halfway to the orphanage we stopped to eat and finally had a pleasant time together. I was able to dance with our little girl and twirl her around. We shared lots of smiles and giggles. Our son loosened up and began playing and being silly. Thank goodness we had this time on our last day! I was  beginning to think our final day would be all tears and gloom.

When we got to the orphanage the kids were happy to show their photo books to all their friends and pass out some treats that we had brought. We enjoyed visiting with the pastor and his wife who run the home and then we left with some more tears. It was not great. Thank you for your prayers! I feel certain they have carried us home. We traveled all night and landed in NY very early this morning and then continued on to Atlanta.

We have enjoyed showing Liz and Cael all the photos and videos. It was so amazing to see the videos and photos from yesterday and I looked down as I was still wearing the same clothes. It seems like a week ago already and it was only yesterday. Clearly, that shower was needed and those clothes needed to be shed. ;-)

I am not allowed to post pictures and videos on any sort of public forum until we receive our official adoption order which will hopefully be next week. However, I am going to try and send a private message with all the footage before then. I'll let you know when I send it and then if you didn't receive it you can let me know. I know everyone is anxious for pictures and I am anxious to show off my babies!!!!! I hope it will be soon!!

We are so grateful!