Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Akosua Pokuaa! 

Yes today is her birthday!  Today she is 6!  I (Dad) made the comment sometime back, "If she's not here by her birthday then we'll be heartbroken."  Okay, today's that day. 

The heartbreak actually came two weeks ago as we still had and continue to have no information from the U.S. Embassy in Ghana.  We left Africa three months and that was the last time we were able to speak to her.  There is no electricty or mail route or forms of formal communication in the village where she lives.  The combination of not getting to talk to her and the waiting can be best described as "brutal". But through prayer and the surrounding of good friends and family our spirits are higher now and we are at peace.  God has got this!  Yes, my anxiety level flares up to record levels on occasion, but God has got this!  She is coming home soon and we will never miss another birthday!

A dear friend a couple weeks ago found these words by Jen Hatmaker adoptive mother of 2 concerning the waiting in adoption and sent them to us.  They were the catalyst that preached to our soul and pulled us up outta the funk.  Thanks T!

You cannot let every delay and snag derail your certainty about adoption.

When you say YES (to adoption), you are saying YES to enter the suffering of the orphan, and that suffering includes WAITING FOR YOU TO GET TO THEM. I promise you, their suffering is worse than yours.

When you say YES you are saying,

YES to the tears

YES to the longing

YES to the maddening process

YES to the money

YES to hope

YES to the screaming frustration of it all

YES to going the distance through every unforeseen discouragement and delay.

Do not imagine that something outside of "your perfect plan" means you heard God wrong.

There is NO perfect adoption. EVERY adoption has snags. We Americans invented the "show me a sign" or "this is a sign" or "this must mean God is closing a door" or "God must not be in this because it is hard," but all that is garbage.

You know what's hard? Being an orphan.

They need us to be champions and heroes for them, fighting like hell to get them home. So we will. We may cry and rage and scream and wail in the process, but get them home we will.