Judges hours.....

I think I need a new profession..... If I didn't love my job so much I would strongly consider moving to Ghana to become a judge - the hours seem great.   I guess I am just being cheeky as a defense mechanism because of our disappointment as to how the morning at court went.

We arrived at the time we were told to be there (8am) but some other folks were not there yet, including the judge.   We waited around and then the judge showed up a little before 9am but still the lawyer and director for social welfare had not arrived.

This led to approximately 3 hours of waiting in a warm car attempting to keep a 3 year old occupied followed by another approximately 1 hour waiting inside trying to keep an unhappy 3 year old distracted and occupied.   We were then told that the judge had gone home and so our case would not be heard today.  We are not sure when he left or why he left just that he left.

I am sorry that this sounds like straight up complaining.   I was given some very good advice before coming by another family that adopted from Ghana, "Remember to be patient, it is their country and their rules."  I have been trying to remind myself of this repeatedly but both Becky and I can't help feeling disappointed.   We now know that we won't be able to be present for the actual court date because we are heading home tomorrow.  There is still a chance that the judge will rule on our case on Friday morning (our adoption power of attorney will be there to represent us) so we will be praying that we get a call from him tomorrow with good news (please pray with us).

Joy has now gone back to be with her foster family.   It was sad handing her over to our adoption worker and she got a lot of kisses from Daddy (that's me in case you were wondering) and Momma (Becky) before we would let her go.   We know that she'll be happy tonight but we will miss her none-the-less.

After a 3 hour, mostly silent, car ride back to the capital city we are checked into our hotel for one more night in Ghana.  We will be heading to the U.S. embassy tomorrow morning to let them know we were here and that our power of attorney will be bringing all our documents when they are ready.

Please pray for success at court, a good meeting with the embassy, and safe travel home.  Also, please join us in our continual prayers for our dear, sweet, little (skinny) Joy until we can be together again and hopefully introduce her face to face to so many of you.

God is in charge and we trust in His loving plans for our lives!

With gratitude,
-Jay and Becky (and Joy in absentia)