One In a Million Blessings

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Ah-MAZING!

We are here! We landed in Ghana Monday evening after a very eventful day of flying. I'm not gonna lie, there were some tears shed when we realized we were most likely going to miss our connecting flight to Ghana. But, God is awesome, the connection was dealyed, and we were able to catch the flight!


We spent Monday evening eating with a wonderful new friend, Elaine, who has worked with Elijah at the orphanage since he came from the hospital. We are so grateful she took the time to meet us.


We were exhausted by about 8 pm so we decided to hit the sack, excited for our big day on Tuesday (meeting Elijah!!). We both fell asleep right away, and woke up about the same time. We were SURE it was morning and were excited about getting to see Elijah...until we looked at our watches. It was MIDNIGHT! {Picture kids on Christmas morning}

 Poor Tobin had to watch a movie before he fell back asleep. Needless to say, it was a pretty restless night; we were just so excited!


This morning FINALLY got here and we are delighted to say that our son is everything we could've imagined and so much more. He truly is amazing.


When we arrived he was napping, but we were given permission to wake him up. He was pretty groggy for the first hour or so, but was a joy just the same. No tears, though he was definitely cautious and spent lots of time checking us out.


We are SOOOOOO in love!


We go to The Embassy tomorrow, so please pray all goes well there. Then the rest of the trip is ELI TIME!!!! Enjoy the photos below! (The internet here is pretty slow, so uploading takes FOREVER).



Meeting Daddy for the first time.



Meeting Mommy for the first time.


 The three of us...one sleepy boy and two ecstatic parents!

Words cannot express our gratitude we have for you all. You have prayed with us, cried with us, and walked with us through this journey. We would not be here with out you. Thank you so much!

Thursday, June 14, 2012

LEAVING ON A JET PLANE...




WE HAD OUR COURT DATE THIS MORNING AND WE PASSED!!!! 
 
 
Elijah was just told that he is officially a 'Schultz'.
Big thumbs up!!



So now we get the beautiful task of scrambling around to get everything ready because, God willing, we will be with our son in LESS THAN A WEEK!!!!! 
 

 But look at this face. Do you think I'm complaining?!





        

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

COURT DATE!!!

****I WARNED THAT THIS POST MAY BE IN ALL CAPS AND IT IS!!!!!

JUST GOT HOME FROM AN AMAZING AFTERNOON HORSEBACK RIDING WITH MY SWEET FAMILY TO FIND AN EMAIL TELLING US THAT OUR COURT DATE IS TOMORROW AT 11:00 AM. (GHANA IS 6 HOURS AHEAD OF US.)

Ok, enough CAPS, I feel like I'm yelling.

Any whoooo, after we pass court we will be notified immediately. (Please pray that we pass court!!) We then email the embassy and ask for a date to file our I-600 (the filing of our I-600 is the portion we do in person in Ghana). We can request the week that we wish to have our appointment, so we will be requesting next week. I've been told that they usually grant those requests, so we are hoping to get an appointment scheduled for, and there for meeting our son...NEXT WEEK!!!

Not sure how quickly we will know, but I promise we will let you know what happens in court and when we get to go hold our sweet baby boy ASAP!

Please pray that:
1. Our court appointment actually happens tomorrow at 11 AM (in Ghana things just don't always roll as smoothly as they do here).
2. We pass court (we've been given every indication that things will go great, but still, prayers are appreciated).
3. We are able to get a hold of the embassy quickly.
4. We are approved for an appointment next week.

Thank you, friends!

Friday, June 1, 2012

It's been a while since I've posted....

In all honesty I was waiting until I had some good news to post.

OK, ANY news to post.

So, I've been waiting. And waiting. And waiting. Have I mentioned how much I dislike waiting?

But, if I just posted when things were going great and according to {my} plan, I wouldn't be painting a very realistic picture of international adoption.

Or life.
When do things EVER go as smoothly as we want them to?

So I've been trying to say all the right things:
'It's all in God's timing.'
'I know Elijah is getting such great care where he is.'
'This will just make it that much sweeter when he DOES come home.'
Etc.
Etc.
Etc.

But inside I'm wanting to scream. I'm wanting to stomp my feet and bang my fists. I'm wanting to cry and throw a fit that could easily rival that of my precious four year old daughter.

I want to know why we can't get a court date already.
I want to know what is happening over there that is SO important that, while 'they' get their stuff organized, my son is sitting half way across the world not having a clue who is mommy and daddy and big sister are.
I want to hold him and love him and play with his freaking awesome fro-hawk.
I want to watch my sweet baby girl hold his hands and 'help teach him how to walk', as she says on a regular basis.

My insides are raging for answers. Dates. SOMETHING that I can put my hope in.

But, that's when I have to remind myself (albeit reluctantly) that answers through email, dates circled on calendars, even purchased plane tickets, won't give me the peace I am wanting.

Only God can do that.

And when I try and figure things out on my own, I end up back at the tantrum throwing stage.
It's not pretty. No one needs to see it.

So I am posting with no news.
And it sucks.
But, it is what it is.

Hopefully we will get word of a court date very soon. And then I MIGHT JUST HAVE TO POST IN ALL CAPS or something to show my excitement.

So in the meantime, if you don't mind, will you please commit to praying for a court date to happen for our sweet angel in the very near future?

I would be ever so grateful.