Jim in Ghana (Day 9)

Day 9

Today it was back to the Embassy for the visa interviews.

Now before you all would get excited about this process, let me say it has been a little interesting at least. You should contact your local adoption representative for further information regarding your case. All inquiries are subject to management discretion, and the call may be monitored for quality and training purposes (How’s that for being politically correct).

No matter what the outcome, now that I have seen the process first hand, in my opinion, we all should proceed with caution. I personally feel that if things continue in the positive direction, this trip should take at least 2-3 weeks to be safe, and there are no guarantees that the children will come home the first visit.

Believe me, my goal here has not only to bring our kids home, but to lay a small foundation for the future traveling families. I like guinea pigs more when I am not the guinea pig. With what we have to work with, and having gone through this process before, unless you can afford several trips , I would wait the extra 2 or so months to go through the I-600 filing through the central processing center. Just my opinion after going through this process. It is tough.

That way, the only focus is on the visas, and that appointment was a lot less stressful of any so far. Keep in mind that if these kids were in a place that was not good for the children, then that would be another story. I would feel totally confident that I could leave my kids here for another 2-3 months and know they would have love, attention, 3 meals a day (at the same time every day mind you), baths every day, school, and a safe place to sleep.

I also know that our adoption agency wants our kids to be with us at our home just as much as we do. They are not here to drag the process down, only to help. I can also say the support here in Ghana at the orphanage is great too. All of this is not bad news, it is just realistic. In a perfect world, things would not be so up and down. Then again, in a perfect world, we wouldn’t need to be going through the adoption process.

It is a delicate balance between hurry up and wait, and the roller coaster ride called life. Since I am a Christian, I am not in charge of this process. I know that God’s will is best and I can rest in the fact that Jesus is alive and in control of all things. I finally have another shot at getting the last part of my life right. One of my favorite proverbs states, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” How good it is to trust God whatever the outcome or circumstances, knowing He is there all of the way to lead and to guide. I never knew that you can know Jesus and that He is still alive to make intercession for His children today, right now.

Only God can get glory for all that has happened so far. Whether the boys come home now or later, He still gets the glory. Trust is a hard thing with people. I am skeptical of people who ask for money, or want to make a business partnership. I have never trusted God, and then He took me in the wrong direction. It is great to have the peace with God that I never had before. On a side note, if you ever knew me before I was 30 years old, I would have NEVER said anything like that. I can’t help it now because the truth has set me free. I will proclaim that truth wherever God gives me the opportunity. This isn’t about religion or being a Baptist. In fact, if you try to throw that card out there, it is just an excuse. This is all about a relationship with a loving God, and His name is Jesus.

I am supposed to be telling about this next phase of the adoption process, but it is appropriate to thank the One who made it possible for us to be here so far. With that said, we got to the halfway mark for the visas.

Both Zack and I have appointments for Friday at 11:00 a.m. Ghana time. In this last leg, if we get the visas, all 6 of us will be going home over the weekend. We are not out of the woods as of today. There are still many things that could go wrong, so we are not celebrating just yet. This is just the way to look at the situation and not make yourself go insane with unrealistic expectations.

The trip was pretty uneventful. . I saw the crew digging the ditches again on the way to the embassy. I took pictures as we were driving by Hardly anyone would survive that kind of work in America.

Cort is also here and is waiting to bring his twin girls home very soon too. We all went out with one of Zack’s friends at an expensive 4 star restaurant. I got wild tonight and drank a Coke right out of the bottle (with no straw). I ordered the traditional Ghanian food that I had before, a cheese pizza. Zack has his traditional whole, entire fish, with gills and eyeballs. He doesn’t eat the bones, as all Ghanian people do, but he ate the eyeballs and the brains! I have pictures to prove it. I believe there is an old saying in Ghana that if you eat the eyeballs and brains, they say, “El loco!” Maybe that was Mexico. . I’ll stick with the pizza. Really expensive for the pizza was $8 for a large.

Cort lives in a neighboring country and he shared with me that Ghana is a middle class country compared with others in Africa. I can kind of see what he is talking about, but I can’t imagine how much worse it could get, but I know that it is worse.

What I am seeing hardly scratches the surface of real poverty. If you even have a feel for how little these people have here, how awful it must be for the millions that are starving and dying. I am not trying to sound like a commercial looking for sponsors, but if you can ignore this kind of stuff once you see it, I would question if you are alive. Have to get ready for the last leg of Embassy visit for Friday. I will let you know the outcome….