So, why Ghana then?

So, Why Ghana then?
Because God chose us too.

I'd like to just leave it at that and not confuse the mystery of it. "God chose us", what more is there to say?
Don't worry; I have plenty of supporting evidence.

Let's pick up where the last adoption sort of left off (http://www.beforeiknewyou.blogspot.com/).

There had been a couple flickers of conversation about adopting again. A lot of conversation about visiting Ethiopia again. We loved Ethiopia - we loved her and her people, we had to go back. So, a little conversation about adoption combined with a lot of conversation about travel resulted in wondering what it might look like to adopt again. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love to gather information. So it was nothing in my day to start finding out what it would look like to start the process again. I gathered the information I needed and did a review of the information. Discouraging at best. It would be one year before we could even apply again, and then at least a 12-18 month wait to bring another child home. The process could easily his 2 1/2 to 3 years. Angelisa would be nearing her teen years, it certainly didn't seem impossible, but I felt there had to be a better way.

I worked with the agency to help them understand that their own policies (oh yes I did!) which indicated that this was an unusually long wait between adoptions, and that they should support us in at least getting on the waiting list sooner than one year. And so we were approved to start the process as soon as our previous adoption was complete. As we were completing our last adoption, finalizing, going to court... we thought more about the fact that we would be able to start our next adoption soon. We were told we could start in March. So, in late February, I started looking at some websites that contain information about children that are waiting to be adopted. I signed up to get emails about children that were being added to the lists. I was getting a lot of emails. I had even considered turning it off, so that I could cut down on the number of emails I was getting. And emotionally it is hard to know that "delete" to me means a lost family to a child. So I ignored the emails for a few days. They were building up. Emotionally I couldn't delete them, nor could I open them. Eventually I realized I would need to stop these from coming - there were too many (this is a sad statement in itself). So before I would delete them and before I would stop more from coming, I would click on one. Just one, just to see, just because. Divine intervention in a click. For another post I'll tell you this is not the first time I have encountered divine intervention in a click. I'm going to tell you now that God can speak to you through Google (maybe a book that needs to be written).

So just a click. And there, on my screen, the most beautiful child I could have imagined. Well, that’s not so odd, many children are beautiful, but I am drawn to this child. Now I need to find out more about her. Wait – she has a sister! A sister? Hmmm, that must be the issue, the sibling, some times I have seen children waiting because they have an ill sibling, more than some families can handle. So, now my heart slows to a normal rate, ahhh, I can’t be drawn to this child, the situation is more complex. So I “click” on the sister. Wait a minute, what is going on here? Two beautiful children, waiting, waiting for a family, but why? Why would two perfectly healthy, absolutely beautiful children be waiting for a family? There should be a line a mile long for these girls.

Now, there are a couple of other points to note. Trent was dead set on another adoption from Ethiopia. He was not having it any other way. I sent him a pic of a cute, healthy little girl from the Caribbean, he agreed, cute, healthy, but not from Ethiopia. I sent him another picture of an Ethiopian child here in the US waiting for a family. Nope, just not the right feel. Yes, “picking” children is a very very complicated and complex issue. But what we were looking for were children that we felt would be a good fit for our family. I wasn’t set on these kids either; I was just testing the waters to see if Trent was going to be open to any other countries. No, he wasn’t.

2/19 at 5:26 I sent Trent an email. That email, the one I clicked on. And he called. No, not an email... a phone call. He said, “Are these our girls?” I replied that indeed I thought they were. That same night we received more information about the girls!

The story isn’t that easy either. After gathering more information about these children, we were concerned that the older child might be older than our “maximum” age. We were willing to bring in a child age 8 or younger. But a few more pictures showed that the older sibling might be more like 12 or possibly 13. So maybe it wasn’t mean to be. Just a line of coincidental items that appeared to be leading somewhere.

By this time (only about 1-2 days later), I already know that this is a great agency, they do have an Ethiopia program, and we weren’t sure about going with the same agency we used for the last adoption. Well, I am here now… what should I do? So I asked if there were other children in their waiting program for Ghana or Ethiopia. We gathered information about their wait and their policies. We checked with other families that had used the agency. We felt God was leading us to use this agency. Trent emailed me on 2/24 “Keep me posted on the Ethiopian program. I know that God is in charge, and so if he wants us to adopt any one particular family/sibling group, he will open the doors that need to be open, irregardless of the country.” There was another sibling group waiting in Ghana. We received their info along with access to numerous pictures of the waiting children in Ghana. I am searching for this new sibling group, but everywhere I look, there are those two beautiful sisters. Hmmm, that older one sure looks a lot younger in these pictures… more like 8. So I forward the pictures onto Trent… I didn’t add any comments. But he emailed me with questions about how to access the pictures so I knew he was looking at them. Then he called me. I knew it “You’re in love with those girls aren’t you!?” He said I should call back and get more information.

On 2/25 we gathered more information and decided to pursue these girls.

From 2/25 to 3/10 we managed to engage the adoption agency, a home study agency and get started on the process. On 3/12 an email indicates that we are just days away from receiving this referral. So still today, nothing is for sure. That’s the nature of international adoption; until your plane lands on US soil… nothing is for sure.