How We Found Them

I have a friend from high school whom I dearly love. We were so close as kids. Unfortunately we don't live in the same state anymore. We don't talk as often as either of us would like; life just gets in the way. But Facebook does help us stay current on each other's lives. Erin is the kind of friend that when you do talk it is like no time has passed. We pick up right where we left off. We seem to always understand each other's hearts.

At some point in mid-May, Erin saw a friend (whom I don't know) post on Facebook about a sibling group of 4 in need of a family. This friend of Erin's had adopted in the past and was in tune with the current goings on of her old adoption agency. Erin told me that when she saw this post she didn't think too much of it. She knew that we were waiting for a referral from our agency in their Ghana program.

On Friday May 27th, Erin's friend posted again that there was a sibling group of 4 in need of a forever family. This time she felt completely compelled to let me know about this. Now I have had multiple friends tell me about these kids or those kids available from here or there, trying to be helpful. So when I got her text, my first reaction was to brush this off. But very soon I was looking into this. I sent this new agency a request for more information and I got a call back very quickly.

Josh and I then spent the next 10 days thinking, praying, discussing, praying, fasting, praying and talking. These kids meant changing agencies, doing a bunch more paperwork, and doing another education plan (we had already completed WACAP and Hopscotch's education plan). This change involved leaving approximately $3,000 on the table with Hopscotch which was in accordance with their policies which we signed, but was painful none the less. Honestly, it was difficult to focus on God during all of this.

We have not chosen the easy route here. If we had not felt called to look for 4, we could easily have a referral for 2 by now and very possibly have had them home already. If we had just stuck with our first agency our process would have been easier and shorter and less stressful. It is so very difficult to be quiet and listen to God.

After those 10 days we said "yes". We are currently doing more paperwork. Completing an application, signing contracts, writing checks, putting together a dossier. I am hopeful that we will have this aspect done in the next week or two. Everyone says that the waiting at this point is the hardest. I am just looking forward to knowing that we have done everything that we can do on our end. I am hopeful that I can let go and trust God from that point. In the meantime we are preparing our home. Last weekend we bought a used Escalade which seats 7 passengers. Now I need to build more shelves in our garage in order to get all of our junk off the floor so that the Escalade fits in our garage. There are so many things left to do but it felt great to check this one off the list.

Please pray for:
- Our kids' health
- Our kids' safety
- Patience for us as we wait for the day that we first get to meet our children