A life lived close to Me is not complicated or cluttered. When your focus is on My Presence, many things that once troubled you lose their power over you. Though the world around you is messy and confusing, remember that I have overcome the world. I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have Peace.
I have told you these things, so that in me you may peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.
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I never would have thought we would not have our children home from Ghana by now. We started with our adoption in April ( when we heard about this little girl with a tumor in her cheek). We shared about her to our medical team at the craniofacial team at Johns Hopkins to be able to first give some advice to people who were trying to help this little girl get some medical care. We were not even looking to adopt so soon after bringing home our very special needs son, Andrew, and Gracie from Bulgaria...but we felt called to her as we have many of the children the Lord has given to us.....Our in country coordinator checked with the authorities to see about adoption and he approached her mom who was very interested in getting care for her daughter even if it meant giving her up...( Many doctors felt she had Burkitts lymphoma , a common cancer in Africa ). It would require on going medical care for her to maybe be given life even. Well after being deep in the process for months and having all of our dossier over in Ghana the mom changed her mind....and we accept that fact painfully knowing the little girl's prognosis is not good. We moved on to other children who needed a loving family...and we were given a total of 15 in reality but more firmly 13 referrals that we made a decision to adopt or not to adopt...only one sibling group did we decide not to adopt and the last 3 we chose are the ones that finally we were able to...Now emotionally when I am shared a child's picture and some information I can't help but to begin the bonding process...I will not lie this experience in Ghana has been the hardest to accept emotionally. It is for several reasons some of which I will share in more detail later....after our children finally make it home. We have struggled with working in a program that is a pioneer program for our agency, as well as getting caught in a very busy person's life. We fianlly traveled in Oct. and honestly that helped to get our process more firmed up in Ghana....We have had an amazing USCIS officer who communicated with us and approved us quickly for both our I600a and our I600...We have always gotten our US documents in record time to Kofi in Ghana ( our in country coordinator). We even were able to get our USCIS docs to Kofi and the embassy in record time ( early Jan.). Since Jan. our process has slowed to a snails pace for many reasons...some because of a supposed passport change that required more money from us ( first time in all of our adoptions this has ever happened- being asked for addtional money) to get the process done...we were told in weeks time and in reality that has not happened. Kofi has not even been able to get our all of our passports submitted so they can even begin to process them...and we need the kid's passport for the embassy to issue the visas . Then we wait for that appointment to be "granted" by the embassy which is known for not being supportive of adoptions in the first place...so the process that in other countries took a week at most, has delayed by mnohts our ability to bring home our children who are legally our kids...crazy place to find myself in and one I can not control...so when I read my devotions this am I smile. I have a peace that has come over me with this adoption. He is in control and eventually we will bring Stella, Stephen and Annabel ( Selah, Isaiah, and Lila Joy ) home.....
1 comment:
What faith and strength this must build for you and your family! I will be praying for your family and the three blessings your are waiting for!
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