Adoption Update!!!

I know it's been some time since we updated the blog.  It seems we where at a slow moving stand still...if that is even possible.  BUT I am happy to announce that we are not just creeping along anymore. The one thing (of many) that adoption has taught me is that time is something I have no control over.  I have heard the expression "it's all in God's time" and have even said it to others...but I don't know if I really understood what it meant till we started this process.  At times during this process, it has felt like this adoption wasn't even real...like we were just in a foggy dream.  It takes so much faith...and I love God and His patience with me.  He is so incredibly amazing!!!  So with all that being said...I want to catch you up to date.  Today I'll start with a post that Ty wrote for his blog, Ordinary Man, this summer.  Enjoy, and I will post soon because we have more to share!

Man, man, man...

Monday’s email read, “Wanted to let you know that I received your application 2 and everything looks great! Waiting on one more document and then moving you on to the home study! Sincerely, J” This was from the awesome Program Director for Ghana at our adoption agency!

Not that it wasn’t real before but with that email it all became very validating or maybe it’s better to say “she feels closer.” Honestly, I got teary eyed when I read it.

I know this isn’t the “manly” thing to admit, but really I’m past trying to be manly at this stage in my life (come on, I’m 35 years old, 6’2” & 156lbs soaking wet, and if I didn’t shave for a week you wouldn’t notice), I get a lot more emotional the farther Jesus leads down his path. I mean we all cry when Hickory wins the state championship in the movie Hoosiers, but this is ridiculous! You all do cry during that part right?

Seriously I was sharing with a friend last night what a big baby I’ve turned into. We started reading through the Bible at the same time and I was telling him how I was finishing up Genesis and I got really moved when Joseph finally revealed himself to his brothers who sold him into slavery so many years before.

Genesis 45:1-5

Joseph could stand it no longer. There were many people in the room, and he said to his attendants, “Out, all of you!” So he was alone with his brothers when he told them who he was. ² Then he broke down and wept. He wept so loudly the Egyptians could hear him, and word of it quickly carried to Pharaoh’s palace.

³ “I am Joseph!” he said to his brothers. “Is my father still alive?” But his brothers were speechless! They were stunned to realize that Joseph was standing there in front of them. ⁴ “Please, come closer,” he said to them. So they came closer. And he said again, “I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into slavery in Egypt. ⁵ But don’t be upset, and don’t be angry with yourselves for selling me to this place. It was God who sent me here ahead of you to preserve your lives.


That was really powerful for me! Then I thought about this adoption and our little girl I’ve yet to lay eyes on and a slew of things crossed my mind that I know are gonna tear me up!

I’m gonna cry…at the first sight of her face.

when we have to leave without her on our first visit.

at the sight of Christy seeing her face for the first time.

at the sight of my boys seeing her face for the first time.

at her living conditions.

when she cries.

when we get to share our first bowl of Ramen noodles together.

if she doesn’t want me at first b/c I’m still a strange man to her.

when she misses her friends.

when she makes new ones.

at hearing her story of abandonment.

when she is very confused by our culture.

because I can’t take them all home.

when she freaks over a dog in the house.

when I can’t get her hair right even though I’ve been practicing.

when she gets excited about flushing toilets and bathtubs full of water.

when she asks about going back.

when she falls asleep in our bed.

I’m starting to think that maybe this has nothing to do with being "manly" at all. Maybe this has to do with I’m finally seeing the world through His eyes and it either breaks my heart or gives me great joy.