Adoption Update

Kofi dropped off Samuel’s passport at the Embassy this morning as requested. They said they would call by the end of the week when it is ready to be picked up!

Esi told Samuel the awesome news yesterday, and she said he was running around the house in raw excitement. When Jake talked to him yesterday he was screaming “Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!” into the phone. I could just picture them all jumping up and down in Esi’s living room, hugging and yelling and going crazy! LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kofi also mentioned in a note today that Jake’s letter to the Embassy is all over the news in Ghana. Since the publication of the letter, numerous outstanding visas have been said to be issued this week. One adoption agent that Kofi had run into at the Embassy had 10 families whose visas had been delayed, and just this week all 10 were going to be issued. It’s so cool how God works through his people. The night that Jake wrote that letter, I just remember him saying that he felt so strongly that God was giving him the words to speak up for these kids, and that he just had to write out what was in his heart. From scripture we know that the Holy Spirit will give us the words we need when it is time to speak up (Luke 21:14-15). I believe God really planted those words into Jake’s heart, and has used that letter to get some things moving.

All in all, the timing of this has been incredible. First of all Jake’s birthday is this coming Friday, September 17th. What a personal touch from God for the culmination of all this to be on Jake’s birthday. So awesome. Also, I’ve shared before that I’ve been trucking through the Psalms all summer. To date I have 4 Psalms left and this morning when I opened up to read my Psalm for the day, I saw that the page I turned to had been doggy eared. And I remembered that earlier this summer I had skimmed through the last few Psalms to see how they all ended (yes, I am one of those who reads the last sentence in the last chapter of a new book before I start it!)…..and when I was skimming them I came across some verses in Psalm 146 that were a beautiful display of God’s faithfulness. I read the Psalm and thought to myself that the day this adoption journey is over, I will shout this Psalm from the mountaintops! So, earlier this summer, I had doggy eared that page so I could easily find it when the adoption was over. And then, today I just happened to be at this exact Psalm for my reading time. How perfect. Read it and love it with me:

Psalm 146

Praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord, O my soul.
I will praise the LORD all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.

Do not put your trust in princes,
in mortal men, who cannot save.
When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come to nothing.

Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord his God,
the Maker of heaven and earth,
the sea, and everything in them—
the Lord, who remains faithful forever.

He upholds the cause of the oppressed
and gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets prisoners free,
the Lord gives sight to the blind,
the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down,
the Lord loves the righteous.

The Lord watches over the alien
and sustains the fatherless and the widow,
but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.
The Lord reigns forever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations.

Praise the Lord.