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!

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?!

        

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!

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.

Cutest guy EVER!

We woke up today to find an email from Mary, our adoption coordinator at Beacon House. No news on a court date yet (we won't hear anything on that until after May 9th), but we did get this absolutely ADORABLE new picture of Elijah. He just got this new walker...I think he approves! 

I mean seriously, do they make them any cuter than this guy?!  

She told us that he is a FABULOUS sleeper, an excellent eater, and is REALLY close to figuring out the whole crawling thing. Go baby go!

That's enough to make any mama happy! Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!

TIMELINE

So I've had numerous people ask me that one penetrating question: "When will you get to bring Elijah home?????" If only we had an actual date that I could put on my calendar and circle it a thousand times with a red marker.

Yeah, not so much.

But, we do have somewhat of an idea of how the next few months should play out. So, without further ado (um, is that a real word?), I present to you a very rough look at a 'typical' timeline when it comes to Ghanaian adoptions. (I say 'typical' because if you know anything about international adoption, you know that NOTHING is typical.)

Once you are 'matched' with a child there is a mandatory three month waiting period. Nothing happens. Everything stands still. You. Literally. Just. Wait. It's awesome.

Our three month wait is over on MAY 9th...YIPPPEEEEE!! (OK, I do have that date circled on our calendar.)

Once May 9th rolls around the Ghanaian Social Welfare will set a court date for us, which should be within 2-4 weeks. We don't travel to Ghana for that court date, but about a week or two after court we will be notified that the papers from court were processed and we'll get our little selves to Ghana ASAP to file our I600A (adoption lingo, just bear with me).

This will be the first of two trips that we'll make to Ghana. We'll probably stay for about a week, and Mr. Eli (praying, praying, praying) should get to hang with us for most of our time there.

But then we have to get back on a plane and come home. Without him. I know, it's just cruel.

So then we get to wait. And wait. And wait some more until the US Embassy and some really important people decide that we're all good and we do, in fact, want to make Elijah part of our family (um, too late; he was part of our family a LOOOOONG time ago).

OK, some other things have to happen too, but basically it'll be another 6-8 weeks before we get THE CALL (or email) telling us to book our tickets because everything is DONE.

Oh happy day!!!

So, if you're still confused, here's the short version: Hoping to be going to Ghana to file our I600A within the next 4-6 weeks. Then about 2 months after that we should be able to fly back and bring our baby home with us!

His first birthday is July 26th. Our prayer (and yours too, right?!) is that we are with him on his birthday, celebrating the first year of his amazing little life.

Thanks for taking this journey with us! Hopefully I'll be back on here with some new pics soon!!!!

Intorducing Elijah Samuel

"For this child I prayed." (1 Samuel 1:27)




About a year ago, Tobin and I started getting the 'urge' to begin the process for a second adoption. After spending much time in prayer, we felt convicted to sell our home and move to more modest accommodations. We believe that we should live debt free and we are committed to my continued ability to stay at home working with our child(ren). 

We sold our home IN ONE DAY (more on that later!)...we definitely felt like that was God confirming our decision to adopt! We knew we would be able to use the money we made from the sell of our house to finance our next adoption.  After visiting with the orphanage in Taiwan, we followed their advice and took the next steps by spending nearly $2,000 to complete a home study and I-600A (international adoption paperwork). 

Shortly after completing the necessary paperwork and sending it to Taiwan, we received a letter stating that the orphanage would no longer be offering second adoptions, as they are choosing to focus solely on childless couples.  This fogged our vision.  We believed ourselves to be working within the framework of God’s plan for our lives and started down the path to another adoption through significant life changes and financial commitments. We were devastated. We prayed together that God would show us the direction He wanted us to take.

The very next day, we received an email about a little baby in Ghana, who at the time was named Samuel. 

At this point I must back-track a bit and tell you a short story. While we were in the process of getting our home study complete (that would put us in November of 2011), I received information about a little baby in Taiwan who was up for adoption, and had been born with Amniotic Band Syndrome. I had never heard of this syndrome before, but felt very strongly that I needed to research it heavily. So, I spent the next month studying this syndrome. I spent hours on the phone with various pediatricians, specialists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, neurosurgeons, ect. until I became somewhat of an expert on ABS. We prayed and prayed about this sweet little baby in Taiwan who was waiting to find his forever family. It is hard to explain, but we just didn't get a peace in our hearts about this baby. It was actually a horrible thing to have to come to terms with...saying 'no' to a sweet baby because you just don't think he's yours. I didn't understand what was happening. I prayed that God would give us a peace about this little guy. The disability didn't phase us a bit, but something just wasn't right. So we continued on with our home study and prayed that God would find a family for the sweet baby that they nicknamed "Rocky". (Side note - two days later he was matched with a family!!)

OK, flash-forward again to the email we received about the baby boy in Ghana (this was about mid-January). Well, guess what...he, too, had Amniotic Band Syndrome!!! I can't even begin to tell you the feelings that rushed over me as I read about this baby. Within minutes it was absolutely evident to us that God had this baby in mind for our family all along, and this was all part of his plan. I didn't have to take time to research this syndrome, I knew exactly what it was and exactly what we would be dealing with. We immediately contacted the orphanage and asked them (ok, begged them) to consider us as his forever family.  The rest is history. We are now adopting him, and have named him Elijah Samuel. Elijah has stolen our hearts, and we so desperately feel that he is part of our family already.

Insert cool info here...remember how I told you that we sold our house in ONE DAY?! Well, that day just so happened to be the day that Elijah was born! HOW COOL IS THAT?! 

The cost to adopt from Ghana is much higher than in Taiwan, and though we planned to have enough money to fund an entire adoption from the sell of our house, we do not have near enough at this point. We will continue to do fundraising, but we must send a large upfront payment within the next few weeks.  If we do not have the money to send we cannot move forward in the adoption process. 

Here's where it gets tricky. We are humbly asking for prayer and financial support to help us make our family complete. We never thought we would be the family asking others for help in bringing their baby home, but it appears that that is where God has led us. We know that Eli is our baby, and we know that our God is a HUGE God, and He is capable of moving mountains. So, we are taking a gigantic leap of faith and asking those who feel led to do so to help us out in any way possible. 

Because Eli was born with Amniotic Band Syndrome, he needs to be home as soon as possible in order to have doctors attend to his medical needs. (He does not have a left foot, and was born without the middle three fingers on each hand.) See attached pic...HE'S BEAUTIFUL!!!

We have set up a paypal link where people can make donations, which is below. We understand and respect that not everyone will feel called to support our adoption financially, but we beg each of you please keep us in your prayers as we continue on this journey. We are excited to see what God has in store for us as a family of four!!!!

Eli & His Beautiful Nanny

Thank you for taking the time to read this! We'd love to keep you updated if you so choose for us to do so. 

God bless!!

Shannon