New Pictures!!!!!!

2 weeks ago we sent a package to our kids in Ghana! It included photo albums, paper, crayons, visors, and lollipops! Here is a picture of Brian and Josephine looking at pictures of their new family (us!) in the photo album that we sent.

Our package was hand delivered by Jessica!! Thank you!!!

Brian and Josephine in the middle.
Isn't Josephine beautiful??

Here they are holding their package from us and wearing their new visors we sent.

As I look at these pictures (crying, of course) I am just overwhelmed with the urge to go get my kids. I want to protect them and be their mom up close, not from thousands of miles away. I look at the pictures closely and try to glean any little bit of information that I can. Are they happy? Are they afraid? What are they feeling? I can't imagine getting a photo album full of pictures of a family that I had never met and being told that this is your new family. How overwhelming and scary would that be?? Everything in the pictures looks foreign to them. Our family, our house, the green grass and trees, the mountains, the city. We will be praying that they are happy and excited about their new family and not afraid. We have been told that all of the orphans in Ghana dream of being adopted by an American family, but they never think that they will be lucky enough to be the ones that get picked and when they do get picked they are very happy.
We spent a day with a family near us who adopted 3 kids from Ghana and as we were looking at their pictures from Ghana and discussing our adoption, their little boy quietly asked his mom who we were adopting (I think he was hoping it would be someone he knew!). Then I asked him if he thought they would be happy for us to adopt them and bring them to America and he smiled and boldly said "YES!"

We also were able to get information about our kids from Lois who was in Ghana with Jessica. The report that she gave us about our kids was great! Lois said that both of them are very healthy, do not seem to have any learning or physical disabilities, and they socialize and play well with the other kids. They also seem to be very bonded and depend on each other. Josephine is quiet and shy and Brian is more outgoing. We are very happy with this report!

Patiently waiting.................sometimes not so patiently.............

Lanae

Wish I were there!

Yesterday Jessica and Lois left for Ghana. Jessica is picking up her daughter and Lois went along to check out things at the orphanage. They have both promised to get lots of pictures and even video of our kids!!! Today I realized that they have probably arrived and are actually at the orphanage where our kids are waiting for us. I can't believe that while we just have pictures of our kids, they are there, able to talk to our kids and even hug them! Lucky! I can hardly wait to get the pictures and video. And I can hardly wait to get to Ghana!!
Lanae

Our God Is an Awesome God!

Does it ever just blow you away how awesome God is? I was thinking about it today, and I am just amazed at how amazing He is. So, this weekend we had our fundraiser garage sale. Our goal was to make $800 because that, along with our other donations, would pay for the next step in our adoption. We had asked all of our friends and family to donate items, but as of last Monday we did not have much of anything to sell at our garage sale. I started to get a little nervous and I cried out to God asking did he really want us to adopt?? Because if so we needed some donations. Wow!! Did God move, and our friends and family pull through!! By Friday we were buried in good stuff to sell! As we looked around we realized that very little of it was our stuff and the huge majority was donated by people who are almost as excited as we are to see our kids come home. Not only did friends donate, but they actually delivered items to our house, came and helped set up, made up awesome fundraiser signs with pictures of Brian and Josephine, advertised, and even helped sell!! Even our neighbors got involved and donated items. We even had a cash donation from Cali (11) and Kenna (8) who opted to give money to our adoption that they had personally saved rather than spend it on themselves. Together they gave $100!!!! Thank you girls!! I will say it once again, it is amazing and humbling to see God move the heart of a child and to watch them follow Him in obedience.

At the end of our garage sale we tallied our earnings and amazingly we had made $845! Plus we still have some great stuff that we are selling online. Just today I sold a bed that did not sell at the garage sale. When the people came to pick it up I told them about our adoption and how I wanted them to know that they are part of something bigger as this money was going towards our adoption and they said "Praise the Lord!"......... My thoughts exactly!!

So this goal was met, now on to our next goal. Half of the country/orphanage fee is due when we send in our Dossier (about a month from now) which is $3500. It looks big, but I know that our God is amazing. We are excited to watch Him work!!

Thank you to all my friends and family who donated and helped with this fundraiser. We feel truly blessed to have such awesome support.

Lanae