Hello everyone!! It has been a while since my last post, but we haven't had to much to say. A few things have happen that are exciting but I have been a little bummed still. Of Course you all know that we lost our sweet Noah (we called him Chase on blog). Since then, our homestudy has been 100% completed. It now lays on my computer desk, waiting on someplace to go. I feel like I rushed, rushed, rushed, to now just wait. It being complete is a very big accomplishment that I am proud of.
I guess I should reassure everyone we are still going to adopt, and still from Ghana (unless our great god says otherwise). While our agency director was in Ghana at Noah's orphanage a few weeks ago, we were introduced to Independent adoption. Which is normally not common in international adoption but Ghana allows it. I have been holding out hope that while our agency director was there they would find that Noah was still there. I received an email from our agency confirming that Noah was not there and they were unable to get any additional details. With that information we told them that we have decided to pursue independent adoption. She however reassured me, if something happens that Noah goes back to the orphanage she will let us know.
WHAT'S THAT MEAN.......
Now we have chosen to do independent adoption. What does that mean? Independent adoption has a great deal of pros and cons. I am not going into all of them, but basically it means we find a POA that finds us a child (boy) that is available for adoption. We will work with him directly to file all our paperwork on the Ghana side and here on the US side the responsibility is 100% mine if something is done incorrectly it will be my fault (a lot of pressure). We have been blessed with a lady who has started a group called Hearts4 Ghana. She has a POA that she has put us in contact with that and she is here to help walk me through every step of the way. With her I am very confident I can do this. The fact that doing it independent will be close to $15,000 less in cost is a great motivator. The con to that is i am unaware of any grants that provide to independent adoptions. So that means i will also be fundraising like crazy. I will post a new cost sheet on a different blog. I still believe with all my heart that all of this is in Gods timing and is in his control. I know he funds what he favors.
SO NOW WHAT.....
Now what? Now we wait for a boy. Our homestudy states it has to be a boy 6 years of age or younger. With it being our first adoption we do not want to adopt older than our bio daughter. In the mean time while we are waiting we need to file our I-600a this is the last big step, this says we are approved for international adoption. This is the light at the end of tunnel, after this its safe to say you will will bring home a child. So we need to do this asap. Once this is done WHEN we are matched with a child our process should move extremely fast. So my goal is to earn the money to file the I-600a in the month of November COST $900. I don't know how, or what kind of fundraiser we will do yet but of course I will let everyone know. Also we need to finish gathering documents for our dossier. I only have a few other things I need for that since I have been gathering all of our "originals" from the beginning.
HOW CAN YOU HELP....
Pray!! Pray that God will guide us to the little boy, he wants to join our family. Pray that we will find the funds to file our I-600a, and I also ask that you will pray for me that I will be able to fill out the paperwork correctly so that our process moves smoothly and quickly as possible. If you want to donate to help us file our I-600a you can mail a check to:
Irwin
4705 Springlane Dr
Owensboro, Ky 42303
THANK YOU, some of you have prayed, praised, cried and questioned this process with us from the start. Adoption isn't easy or for everyone, you must have trust in God without fail. Adoption is emotional and a lot of hard work; I'm sure the pay off will be the most rewarding thing I will ever do in my life.
ROMANS 8:28
AND WE KNOW THAT FOR THOSE WHO LOVE GOD ALL THINGS WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD, FOR THOSE WHO ARE CALLED ACCORDING TO HIS PURPOSE.
