A Parent's Love ...

So I write this post out of a complete fascination in how a parent's love builds. We have two children. We simply know their names and their ages. We don't know their voice. We don't know their laugh. We don't know their favorite color or food. We don't know what makes them scared or cry or happy or sad. We don't know their personality. But we can honestly say, we love them.

Their picture makes me smile. I cry contemplating their arrival and doing our best to give them the best chance at life. Their eyes speak volumes. We think our children are beautiful, cute and precious. How does this happen? How do we love two little bodies with individual personality's and we've never met them?

Is this what happens during pregnancy?
It's pregnancy ... without a belly! It's a parent's love.
It's God's amazing grace at giving us two beautiful gifts.

Medicals

We anxiously awaited for any info on "Anna" and "Max." Upon our retainer agreement being signed and payment received by PfA, the Ghana agency would be notified and little "Anna" and "Max" would get complete physicals and their social work would be requested. We would hear back ... and we did!
The first joy of international communication ... our little ones were not 4 and 2, they are actually 5 1/2 and 3! Did this change our mind? Um, NO. They still need a home. They still need a chance. They had already become a part of our hearts.
"Anna's" given name is Anita. She is 5 1/2. Long legs, shy eyes, and a smile that often is hidden in her pictures but comes out every now and then. Anita loves singing and dancing.
"Max's" given name is Maxwell. He is 3. With a smile that radiates mischievousness and laughter, his social work states he enjoys playing with toys and football.
They are healthy and passed their physicals with flying colors. We would find out their Grandmother has been their guardian and she has relinquished her rights due to not being able to provide for them. This truly breaks our hearts. The loss she must feel. And the confusion Anita and Maxwell don't even know how to process ... we have our work cut out for us. And we gladly accept the challenge. And once again ... we want to hug them, we want to hear their voices, we want to meet our little ones ... in due time.

A New Chapter ...

As we close the chapter to our house fire and rebuild ... we are anxiously awaiting the opening of our new chapter ... bringing our little ones home from Ghana!!!

They have sweet smiles and button noses. Their eyes captured our hearts. For security reasons, they would be presented to us as Anna, age 4 and Max, age 2. (... more to follow on that ...)

"Were we interested?" "Would we want to be their mom and dad?" We couldn't and didn't say no.

On May 21, 2009 we officially submitted our retainer agreement with PfA for a sister and brother from Ghana. We were ecstatic ... we still are ecstatic. We can't wait to meet them! We look forward to visiting their country. Hugging them. Kissing them. Praying with them. Sharing our family and friends with them. We look forward to providing them with an opportunity at life they might not have within their own country. Are we scared? Yes. Are we nervous? Yes. We're going to be parents ... there is no manual for parenthood ... thus, we move forward in love and faith. God has given us two beautiful gifts!

We have classes to complete, a homestudy to present, documents to put together, passports to apply for, fingerprinting to be done, a Dossier to put together, letters to be written, autobiography's to write ... so many items to complete ... and money to raise.

We move forward in faith ... faith God will provide us the time, knowledge, and funds to bring our children home!

Conception

It started a year ago, or should I say ... "it was alway there." "It" being the desire to adopt. Our bodies weren't granting us pregnancy. The journey of life was throwing curveballs. Nothing we couldn't and wouldn't handle but definitely large speed bumps in the road. A 60 minutes special opened our eyes to children abroad who were in need of loving, caring homes. On August 19th, 2008 Adam and I signed and sent off our application to adopt through "Partners for Adoption." It would begin an unknown journey to being parents. Parents to who or whom? We were not sure. One child? Two children? Siblings? Boy? Girl? Boys and Girls? Baby? Toddler? Elementary? Haiti? Ghana? Africa? Mexico? China? Could we afford it? How do you put a price on a child? How are we going to afford it? Will I be a good mom? Am I ready for this? The questions flooded upon us. The thoughts which crossed our mind were many. The questions we asked ourselves and our agency seemed so trivial ... yet, we had no idea where to start. As our journey started and as time passed, our hearts were not settled with a country. During the months which passed PfA told us about their new partner program with Ghana. The children would be older. They wouldn't be babies. Perhaps it was something we would consider. And consider we did. As much as adopting an older child or children unnerved us, our hearts were captured by a little a girl and boy.

And so ... conception has taken place ... not physcially ... but within our hearts and within our minds ... we are going to be parents!!!