Chapter Eleven: Another Miracle

Friday we talked with L.M., who tells us she was talking with the orphanage director, who told her that he felt strongly impressed we needed to pick up the pace in our adoption process. I too, had been feeling this way, but discounted it, thinking that I was just being overly-anxious to bring Sufi home. We have been trying to pace ourselves in this process, because we are still students, and have so much already going on. But this was like a fire being lit under us. We decided to call the director ourselves to talk with him about what he would like us to do; plus we had questions of our own about our little boy.

 So we make the call. Our questions about Sufi could not be answered because the director was not near the files on the children (he does deal with over 300 children). So we asked what it was he would like us to do to pick up the pace. He of course said to get our homestudy completed. Then he did say, if we sent part of our fees, he could get a jump start on tracking down the birth certificates and all the documents needed for his side of the work. He wasn't sure what the costs might be, but said to call back and he could give more specific details.

The next morning we call, our hearts anxious. We had been discussing how it was we would be able to come up with the fees right away. We also were anxious to find out more information about Sufi. The first part of our conversation, we discussed where Sufi had been born. What he did know was that Sufi had been born in the Central Region of Ghana. He gave some specific names we couldn't quite catch (we will be reciveing this information written down for out benefit). We found out that Sufi speaks a language similar to Fante (we think he said it was Gomoa...our brains still can't wrap around all of it, especially by phone). This may not seem like alot of information, but every little ounce we recieve feels like such a blessing. More could not be said until the director is able to track down the documents.

Our conversation soon turned to fees. Due to happenings in the adoption realm of Ghana, it is now very important to hire an attorney in addition to a social worker over in Ghana. Certain countries were becoming unhappy with Ghana for not demanding interim adoptions, as the law states a judge might require. Judges in Accra are now expected to be making most adoptions interim adoptions (meaning we would have to return in two years before the adoption was final). This has scared many prospective adoptive families.

So to be on the safe side of things, the director and L.M. decided we better have an attorney helping, and that we should start going to the judge in the Central Region (where the orphanage is located) instead of going into Accra. This caused some of the fees to increase (though I was surprised at how little it was...but it was still a moderate increase). We don't mind, it was jsut an unexpected amount to have so suddenly and on such short notice.

Side note: L.M. decided to go to Ghana. She is leaving on the 9th of September. We will be sending our fees with her.

We figured we would find a way to come up with the money. We hoped and prayed the Lord knew what was needed. We had raised some money, but we also have the homestudy, and documents required on the 11th. We decided to take out a short term small loan and hope we could pay it off later when we had done some serious fundraising.

After our phone call, we headed out to run some errands, and dropped by our mailbox. In the mailbox, was a letter from a dear dear friend. In this letter was a check with a large donation. I was shocked and so grateful. This friend, has a large family of her own, and I was surprised they could make such a wonderful and blessed sacrifice to help us out. This donation definately will help keep us from having to borrow so much money at one shot.

We want to give public thanks to her, her husband, and family; they had mentioned they wished to be anonymous - in fact, she did not even want to let us know they had donated the money, but did not know a 'safe' way to ensure we recieved the money (we now have Paypal up and running to aid those who wish to stay anonymous).

So Thank You so much for being a miracle in the Lord's hand!!!!
We are so grateful to you and your generosity. We feel so blessed and so grateful, words can not express how we feel.