Coffee Anyone?

Are you a coffee drinker? If yes, or you know someone who is, please pass this info on to them. Just Love Coffee Roasters has an awesome fund-raising program for adopting famlies. For every bag of coffee bought from Just Love Coffee, $5 will be donated to Adam and I's store. These funds will get directly contributed to our adoption efforts. Drink delicious coffee and Bring our little ones home!!! http://www.justlovecoffee.com/GhanaTurners

Another gift ...

Two families currently in Ghana, waiting to bring their children home, sent us a gift today! We were informed the foster children, which include ours, have moved into a new Foster Home! The home now has running water, a toilet, shower, and beds. No electricity as of yet, but all of these items are cherished beyond our American measures. The two families took rice, chicken, soap, toilet paper, and slippers (flip flops) to all the children as a New Year's gift. Needless to say, the foster home had an amazing New Year's and the children were very excited to have a solid meal and new slippers on their feet. We also got to see more pictures of the little ones and all I can say is ... the children are beautiful!
I'm off to plan the Benefit! We hope you can attend, it's sure to be a great night, and we are on a mission to bring them home!

New Year's Eve!

Adam checked the mail and we received our I-171h today! So excited. So nervous. These are normal feelings, right? Our Dossier will now be mailed off to Ghana and we will wait for a court date. We continue to pray for our hearts to be molded and the hearts of our children to be prepared for their parents waiting to come see them. Another step closer ... to bringing them home!

USCIS

Well, the adoption won't be complete by the end of the year. Guess Ghana's end of the year is not much different than the states ... things seem to shut down or processes seem to slow in the last two weeks of the year. Either way, this didn't stop Adam. We had submitted our I-600a paperwork back in November, received a letter stating receipt but getting status was becoming difficult. So, my proactive husband decided to make an appointment with our local USCIS. This led us to fingerprinting last week and a possible I-171h this week. Really?!?! Such a big deal. Since policies changed within our agency, our Dossier will be held until the I-171h is received, another hold up, seems to be normal these days ... we continue to press forward.
My spirits are low, I'm doing what I can to be positive. Not only are so many emotions involved but then you have paperwork, invoices, and personalities. It's all taking its toll. How do questions and protecting oneself deem you as an appropriate or inappropriate parent ... if I was pregnant, would anyone be questioning our abilites as parents? No matter what ... we push forward with the ultimate goal ... bring the children home!

Dossier Complete!

Our Dossier is complete ... I can't believe it! It's really complete and ready to be sent to Ghana! We now just have to come up with the remaining amount of funds so it can be mailed. We were told that if we could possibly come up with all the remaining funds, we could possibly finalize by the end of this year! Oh my!!! We pray for this avenue to be opened. Excitement and nervous are just tiny bits of the emotions felt. Ahhh ... how real this is all becoming. Adam and I still sit quietly, ok, maybe more in shock ... um, really? Parents!!! We're going to be parents ... LOL. Truly another blessing and gift in life.

A Big Step ... for US!

We received the last item needed to mail off our Dossier today! Our Dossier will get mailed off to our placement agency and will in turn get mailed to Ghana to be presented to the courts for approval. We are on our way!!! As I copied each document and document and document ... excitement just continues to grow. We are looking forward to meeting them.
We also mailed off our I-600a. This is our petition to bring an orphan into the US. This packet of paperwork will get mailed to Texas, be processed, and then mailed to the USCIS office here in San Diego. Please pray for this all to run smoothly. This is a brand new way of handling this paperwork and there are no time frames.
There are days I'm overjoyed with excitement and then there are days I'm completely floored with anxiety. We are going to be parents??? oh wait, We're going to be parents!!! The emotions are tough to decipher, to process, but we continue in faith and continue to pray for avenues to bring them home!

Orphan Sunday

We were given the opportunity to share our story with our congregation today! What an amazing experience to have our entire church so excited for us and on board to support us in so many ways. We are blessed ... we continue to be blessed. As I started to share our story, I passed the microphone to Adam, and God has done amazing things in his heart. He completely lost it and tears started streaming down his face. Completely choked up, he shared his story and his journey and our desire to bring the kiddos home! We continue to wait for a couple pieces of paperwork and then we can apply for adoptions loans and more grants. The paperwork can sometimes be daunting ... but it's all worth it, worth those little smiles.
We continue our journey ... and now with an amazing church family on board to support us in so many ways.