Still Waiting- Quick Update

"The Lord longs to be gracious to you, He rises to show you compassion.  For the Lord is a God of justice.  Blessed are all who wait for Him!"  Isaiah 30:18 

Jay and I have been waiting to update our blog. Waiting for some news to share. After all- we have been expecting to hear word "any day" about progress in our case. However, I have realized it has been way too long since we connected with you all! As Thanksgiving approaches, I am reminded of the many things the Lord has blessed me with and I can't adequately express how thankful we are! We are so thankful for the Lord and His plans and ways, for our kiddos (all 6 sweeties) and for our families and friends!  We are so thankful for your prayers and your kind words and encouragement to help us get through this time of waiting!!  

Quick Update:  We are still waiting for our "permission to leave the country with child" paper to be completed and signed.  This must be completed before we can finally move on the Embassy stage of the process.  We thought this paper would take about a week to have completed- that was back in August. Delays have been a result of  mistakes found and corrected, a change of social services director in the area, waiting for them to get used to job etc., and now a high profile adoption case in the media.  We are praying that we will be able to have our form completed and signed soon. 

Major Blessing- we love Skype!We are able to call and talk with Joy each week (we are headed to church about the time she has gotten home from church).  Some days the conversations are a bit disheartening (picture making your kids stop playing with their toys to come talk on the phone with their grandma- whining ensues!). Of course we are quick to just tell her we love her and let her keep on playing. But most of the time they are short but very sweet.  It is a blessing to be able to maintain our contact with her and hear about her week.  She is very happy and giggly when she gets to talk with the kiddos.  (And they love it too of course!)  She loves to say hi to each one.  Recently when asked what she learned in school she said "ABCs...DEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ!" so cute!  We are thankful for the care and love she receives in our absence.  As the days come and go and our finish line/starting line keeps moving- we are extra thankful for her foster family!!  

   

Extra Blessing!We were given an extra blessing recently.  One of our friends (Jay and Andrew met the family at Flapdoodles- and we discovered they had recently adopted 2 kiddos from Ghana) emailed us to say they were headed to Ghana and would be happy to bring some pictures/stuff for Joy. We didn't think they would be able to see Joy and our POA was to give the stuff to her- but look what showed up on my FB.  A precious peek into Joy's life. Thank you so much Danielle!!  I can't wait to hear the rest of the story and see more pictures.  

Joy Headed to School

We were so thankful for a peek into Joy's life.

Thanks for keeping us in your prayers!!  Please pray that we would indeed get our required paperwork soon and that through it all we can rest in the knowledge that the Lord has it all under control.