Friday, August 27, 2010

Obedience into our journeys of adoption has always come with surprises....


Sometimes when you follow the Lord's leading into His will for your life it changes. We first heard of a little girl in Ghana in April. We were not looking to adopt as we have sometimes in the past. She as many of our children have come to us by others in the adoption arena thru an email to see if we knew anything about her medical condition. We had and are very well connected to our doctors , surgeons , therapist and other medical providers and so we are asked happens often about a child. We actually have a daughter with something similiar to what the doctor in Ghana thought she might have.... We met her by email and prayed about her needs and the Lord gently wooed us to ask about adopting her. We were told she could be and so could her brother. We sent what little medical info. we had of her and pictures to our craniofacial team at Hopkins and they gave us their opinion of all the possiblities it could be and how to treat them. It was decided that she needed to get medical care quickly and so we expedited all of her paperwork and got everything done in record time including our 171 H approval to adopt from USCIS. Our dossier has been over in Ghana since May. They were to be relinquished , put in fostercare and have court and then the passport and I600 process and visas to bring them home. We thought we would be home in June with them ... but the Lord directed our path another way.....

We had prayed for them , given them names and had lots of pictures in our home and cars ( so it would feel like they were already with us). Even our medical team was ready to see her but the mother changed her mind and could not let them go.....Now most likely this little girl will die because of her condition not being treated. She already was sick when another adoptive family was there. Why this happens I do not know and we are very sad for this little girl but we have done all we can .

So after spending a good amount of money and time already what does a prospective adoptive family do ? We prayed and even worked thru our emotions of not being able to help this little one. We also waited for the process to begin again... We have been thru this a few times but none where in all reality the child will eventually die from this and there is nothing we can do but pray. Now it is all out of our hands and the village where she is at has changed so we spent the next months waiting for another referral and to see how the visas situation at our embassy was going in Ghana. During this time the embassy was not issuing visas for some reason. We were allowed information about some other children during our wait but none have worked out until now.....and visas are once again are being issued- praise God for that. We still pray for the little girl with the tumor.

We are once again in the process of adopting 2 children from Ghana. They will be in fostercare and court will happen and then we will go to pick them up. Our next 2 blessings are not related biologically. They are 2 girls- one is a 15 month old cutie and quite a spunky one it seems especially in the picture. The other girl is 2 to 3 yrs old and beautiful with very sad eyes. She has an issue with her tongue- one that should be easily repaired... and both are waiting in Ghana for us .
We have felt the Lord with us through out this journey and we look forward to bring our girls home. Please pray with us for the little girl with the tumor and for our adoptions.... I will share pictures of them soon :)

7 comments:

Kathleen said...

I am so sad for this little girl, but happy to hear about the two other blessings that will be joining your life. Can't wait for pictures!

Kelly said...

I am so sorry, and so very excited for you both at the same time!

Gods plans are not ours, but I love how you seek Him and continue to step out in faith!

the Kahler Family said...

Oh, you will have babies in your house! Congrats and I hope things move quickly and smoothly for you.

Mary B. said...

Oh so thrilled for those babies and for your family as there will be so much love to go around! Sharique is wondering about the pictures! As you know too well - it's never the end of the story with God's children so who knows...maybe your little girls mom will soon realize that her death is near and relinquish her...we also know God will not allow us to live one day longer than He has planned nor will He take us one day earlier.
It's such an encouragement for us to watch your families obedience to the Lord.
Love in Christ, Mary B.

Stacey said...

Amazing. Looking forward to meeting them. =) Prayerfully a miracle will happen in the life of this other young lady. God is good.

Unknown said...

Wouldn't it be possible to bring the little girl to the States for treatment on a medical visa? That way her mother would get her back, and she would be able to receive the treatment she needs. Is that possible at all?

mommajeane said...

I love your heart Hevel...we have looked into it and they are difficult to get. As well as you need money and most likely after her MRI scans ( which are not covered by our insurance because she would not be our child) she will require on going medical treatment. We actually brought our son, Abraham home from Mexico on a medical visas and then did his adoption after that..so we have done this before. I am not sure the elders of the village would even allow this if we could even do it. Hopkins does have some pro bono support but not all. We were asked a few yrs. ago to help a teen at Hopkins from Burkin Faso who needed a heart transplant..there was not enough time for him to adopt him... medicine was going to cost 10,000 a month ...he had been at another hospital and exhausted all of their pro bono support and was taken to Hopkins .... so we have tried to be a part of this type of help before. It is just not as easy or cheap as it should be...