We arrived last night and this morning we have our kids!! The flight went well, but soooo long. Did I mention that it's hot here?Lanae
4 years ago
Mar 31, 2009
We're Here!!
We arrived last night and this morning we have our kids!! The flight went well, but soooo long. Did I mention that it's hot here?Lanae
Mar 28, 2009
GUESS WHO'S GOING TO GHANA?
Yep, it's us!!!! Tomorrow we leave. Oh, and did I mention our ADOPTION IS FINAL????? Yep, it's official, we are now parents of EIGHT KIDS!!! Not quite caught up to the Big D family, but were holding our own! We are so excited that we will be meeting our new kids in about 36 hours. Please remember to pray for our trip to the embassy, we need our papers done quickly to make it back for Comfort's doctor's appointment. Also, please pray for safe travel. Thanks!!
Lanae
Lanae
Mar 18, 2009
Really leaving this time
I just got off the phone with our travel agent and our flight is reserved and payed for!!! I called Mark and he said "Were really going to Africa". Hmmmm, yep, I guess we really are.
Our new date is March 29th............YAY!!!! Prayerfully everything will come together quickly and we will get our kids home and get Comfort to Children's Hospital soon!
Lanae
Our new date is March 29th............YAY!!!! Prayerfully everything will come together quickly and we will get our kids home and get Comfort to Children's Hospital soon!
Lanae
Birthday month!
CASSIDY'S 4TH BIRTHDAY We are going to be gone for Cassidy's big birthday party so she had cake and presents at grandmas house last night. I can't believe she is getting so big. And did I mention that she is the smartest and cutest grandchild ever???
GRANDPA GARY'S 60TH What a fun day of bowling for Grandpa Gary's 60th birthday.
RYAN'S 24TH We had a nice birthday dinner on Ryan's birthday. Here he is trying out Tyler's new birthday present.
TYLER'S 15TH started out at 6 am on Saturday with an awesome snowboarding trip with his brother Ryan and Kelcey's boyfriend Ethan, arriving home in the evening for pizza, german chocolate cake, and an all night movie/video game party. Then Sunday it was off to Grandpa Gary's bowling party (Tyler had been up for 30 hours now) and then home and off to bed at 8 pm. Lanae
Mar 14, 2009
Still leaving???
Have you heard the saying 'No news is good news' ? How about 'Some news is not as bad as it could be'? Okay, I made that one up. But, that's how I'm feeling about the latest news. It's not great, not horrible, could be good.
The court day on Thursday went good, everything was in order, but the judge wants one more official, stamped paper filled out and returned to them before they finish the adoption. The case is still open (which is good) and we don't have to re-schedule. The orphanage director just has to spend an entire day chasing forms and copies and official stamps, then return to court with the form and we'll be finished. So...........maybe Tuesday??
We are thankful that this paper was requested while we are still here in the US and not when we were in Ghana waiting for Visas. They really are just trying to do everything legally required and make sure everything is covered.
We are now planning on leaving on the 25th, but are open to changes as they come.
In the end we will hug our kids and laugh about all the hoops we had to jump through. We are not laughing too much right now about them though. Just anxiously awaiting our travel and still trusting our Lord for His timing not ours.
Lanae
The court day on Thursday went good, everything was in order, but the judge wants one more official, stamped paper filled out and returned to them before they finish the adoption. The case is still open (which is good) and we don't have to re-schedule. The orphanage director just has to spend an entire day chasing forms and copies and official stamps, then return to court with the form and we'll be finished. So...........maybe Tuesday??
We are thankful that this paper was requested while we are still here in the US and not when we were in Ghana waiting for Visas. They really are just trying to do everything legally required and make sure everything is covered.
We are now planning on leaving on the 25th, but are open to changes as they come.
In the end we will hug our kids and laugh about all the hoops we had to jump through. We are not laughing too much right now about them though. Just anxiously awaiting our travel and still trusting our Lord for His timing not ours.
Lanae
Mar 10, 2009
Leaving for Ghana
Is it really here???? Can we really go get our kids??? Well, our court date is scheduled for this Thursday March 12th (Happy anniversary Jen!) and if it goes as planned (all paperwork in order, no snags, judge shows up at court, adoption completed) we will leave for Ghana on the 21st. We have an appointment at Seattle Children's Hospital scheduled for March 31st for Comfort that we made back in February before our first court date was postponed. We are hoping to keep that appointment, but that would mean God would need to provide some miracles in Ghana with our I600 filing and the kids visas. He is a mover of mountains.........
We are praying that we will be able to go and get all of our paperwork done in record time and be back here for Comfort's appointment. If not, there is a possibility we would go and file paperwork and have a long wait, so we would have to come home without our kids and one of us would go back to get them when everything is done. That does not sound like a good option to me. I can't imagine leaving my sick child in Ghana, or my two healthy ones.
Here are our prayer needs: (or however you feel led to pray!!)
That our court date would go smoothly and be done correctly.
That we would receive our adoption decree in a week or less. This is the paper that says our kids are ours. It needs to be processed after the court date.
That all of the packing and traveling plans would go smoothly.
When we get to Ghana we will file for our I600 paperwork at the embassy, usually takes a few weeks to process, but has been done in 2 days with special medical need cases. That is our prayer.....2 days.
As soon as we get the I600 back, we will apply for their visas. Once the application is completed, it usually only takes a couple days to get them back, however they are now trying to have a waiting time between the I600 approval and the visa application. Once again, we are praying for favor for Comfort's medical needs. 2 days time would be great!
For our safety and travel mercies. Mark, Kelcey, Maggie and I are all going. Please pray for our safety, protection from illness, protection while traveling, and that all the details would be taken care of.
On a personal note, please pray for my girls that this would be a life changing trip for them. That they would come to know the Lord on a deeper level and that their compassionate hearts would be touched for the people in Ghana. You can add Mark and I to that prayer also :)
Thank you for your prayers!
Lanae
We are praying that we will be able to go and get all of our paperwork done in record time and be back here for Comfort's appointment. If not, there is a possibility we would go and file paperwork and have a long wait, so we would have to come home without our kids and one of us would go back to get them when everything is done. That does not sound like a good option to me. I can't imagine leaving my sick child in Ghana, or my two healthy ones.
Here are our prayer needs: (or however you feel led to pray!!)
That our court date would go smoothly and be done correctly.
That we would receive our adoption decree in a week or less. This is the paper that says our kids are ours. It needs to be processed after the court date.
That all of the packing and traveling plans would go smoothly.
When we get to Ghana we will file for our I600 paperwork at the embassy, usually takes a few weeks to process, but has been done in 2 days with special medical need cases. That is our prayer.....2 days.
As soon as we get the I600 back, we will apply for their visas. Once the application is completed, it usually only takes a couple days to get them back, however they are now trying to have a waiting time between the I600 approval and the visa application. Once again, we are praying for favor for Comfort's medical needs. 2 days time would be great!
For our safety and travel mercies. Mark, Kelcey, Maggie and I are all going. Please pray for our safety, protection from illness, protection while traveling, and that all the details would be taken care of.
On a personal note, please pray for my girls that this would be a life changing trip for them. That they would come to know the Lord on a deeper level and that their compassionate hearts would be touched for the people in Ghana. You can add Mark and I to that prayer also :)
Thank you for your prayers!
Lanae
Mar 4, 2009
Adoption update
Our court date has been postponed until March 12th. Bummer!!! So we now plan on traveling sometime after the 17th. We have word from the Consulate in Ghana that they are going to do everything possible to expedite our paperwork if all our documents are in order. Hopefully that means we can get out of Ghana in time to make it to Comforts doctors appointment on the 31st of March.
I know this is not my child, but I had to post this picture that Steve took. What a precious baby!!
Lanae
I know this is not my child, but I had to post this picture that Steve took. What a precious baby!!
Lanae
Building at Luckyhill
Here are a couple of pictures of Luckyhill's building projects. They are building on to the school and the orphanage.
This picture is scary!! It looks really dangerous to me. Do you think they are OSHA Approved?
This picture is scary!! It looks really dangerous to me. Do you think they are OSHA Approved?
Mar 2, 2009
New Pictures
Here are some new pictures taken at Luckyhill by Steve last week. The bottom one is Comfort on the left. I just want to squeeze their little cheeks!!
Patiently waiting
Yesterday was an amazing day. It started off with a phone call to Steve Emmett who just returned home from Luckyhill. He and his wife are adopting Comfort's friend Saviour. It was great to hear all of the stories about our kids, but it makes it really hard to wait to meet them.
As far as our adoption goes, we think our court date is tomorrow (Tuesday 3/3) and if all goes well and we get the adoption decree in record time, we could be traveling as soon as Saturday the 7th.
After that wonderful phone call, we headed out the door to visit a church near our house. The pastor had invited us to come and introduce ourselves and be prayed for, but the story is much more interesting than that..........A couple months ago Maggie and I were in Costco and we ran into a friend of ours, actually Mark's best friend, Joey, from high school who he lived with during his teen years. With Joey was his friend Mike who's pastor (Brett) happened to be going to Africa soon. Where in Africa? Accra, Ghana, of course! We ended up emailing Brett and we all thought it was interesting that he was going to Ghana and we were adopting from Ghana and we just happened to meet, so we agreed to keep in touch. Last week I contacted Brett and he is going to be in Ghana at the same time we are!! And, Mike is now going to Ghana with him. So, Brett invited us to his church, Riverview Community Church, http://www.rcckent.org/ and we have plans to meet in Ghana to pray over Comfort before we travel.
After the service a man walked up to us and said "Hello, my name is Peter and I am from Ghana" Of course you are!! We have invited Peter to our home for dinner, and we are planning on visiting Peter's family who has a church in Accra.
What is it about Ghana??
A couple more updates:
Due to Comfort's medical issues we have a letter from our Congressman asking for our I600 paperwork to be done quickly (Thank you Andrea!)
Our Congressman also contacted Ghana directly and asked them to process the papers quickly.
We have a letter confirming that Comfort has an appointment at children's hospital at the end of March.
We are praying that these documents will speed things along.
Thank you for your prayers, also please be praying for Pastor Brett and Mike, they leave Wed for Ghana and will spend the time teaching, preaching, and praying for a week in Ho and then a week in Accra. We are believing that many people will come to know Jesus through Pastor Brett's teachings.
Lanae
As far as our adoption goes, we think our court date is tomorrow (Tuesday 3/3) and if all goes well and we get the adoption decree in record time, we could be traveling as soon as Saturday the 7th.
After that wonderful phone call, we headed out the door to visit a church near our house. The pastor had invited us to come and introduce ourselves and be prayed for, but the story is much more interesting than that..........A couple months ago Maggie and I were in Costco and we ran into a friend of ours, actually Mark's best friend, Joey, from high school who he lived with during his teen years. With Joey was his friend Mike who's pastor (Brett) happened to be going to Africa soon. Where in Africa? Accra, Ghana, of course! We ended up emailing Brett and we all thought it was interesting that he was going to Ghana and we were adopting from Ghana and we just happened to meet, so we agreed to keep in touch. Last week I contacted Brett and he is going to be in Ghana at the same time we are!! And, Mike is now going to Ghana with him. So, Brett invited us to his church, Riverview Community Church, http://www.rcckent.org/ and we have plans to meet in Ghana to pray over Comfort before we travel.
After the service a man walked up to us and said "Hello, my name is Peter and I am from Ghana" Of course you are!! We have invited Peter to our home for dinner, and we are planning on visiting Peter's family who has a church in Accra.
What is it about Ghana??
A couple more updates:
Due to Comfort's medical issues we have a letter from our Congressman asking for our I600 paperwork to be done quickly (Thank you Andrea!)
Our Congressman also contacted Ghana directly and asked them to process the papers quickly.
We have a letter confirming that Comfort has an appointment at children's hospital at the end of March.
We are praying that these documents will speed things along.
Thank you for your prayers, also please be praying for Pastor Brett and Mike, they leave Wed for Ghana and will spend the time teaching, preaching, and praying for a week in Ho and then a week in Accra. We are believing that many people will come to know Jesus through Pastor Brett's teachings.
Lanae
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