...but God has surely listened and has heard my prayer.

Verse from Psalm 66:19.

It is such a prevalent verse for our tribe today. 

Today, we received the following message from our POA in Ghana:

"Yes, the Lord has heard our prayers. You are now the legal parents of Francis."

Are you jumping up and down and crying tears of joy now?

Well, that was me earlier today when I received this message.

I knew court was today, although I didn't tell anyone.

Truthfully, because I knew of all the many things that can go wrong, so I opted to wait.

Bernard sent me a message very early saying he was at court waiting to be called.

My stomach was in knots, to say the least.

I messaged him back to let him know we were praying the case would be heard soon and that the Lord would grant us favor.

A few hours later, I heard the ding in my phone go off.

It was from Bernard, I knew that ring.

I was nervous to check it at first, but within a minute or so I turned my phone over and read the above message.

And standing there in my kitchen, I got a little weak. 

I leaned back against the cabinets and began to weep.

Tears of joy.

Thanking Jesus for this news.

And I called my husband to inform him that WE WERE LEGALLY FRANCIS' PARENTS NOW.

Adeline heard me and came in the kitchen with a very curious look on her face.

I got to share the wonderful news with her, that she IS Francis' sister!

Her face lit up so brightly, her smile so big and we just hugged as we both screamed words of thanks, words of joy.

Today is a day for rejoicing.

And a day for me trying to take in all this goodness.

There are a couple more hurdles to go before we can bring him home, but TODAY there is one GIANT mountain that is no longer in our way!

What's next you wonder???

We wait for all the necessary paperwork to be processed from the courts which can take weeks (remember, this is Africa). ;)

Then we file our I600 for the Ghanaian government to approve the case (today the region Francis is from declared him ours).

Afterwards, we apply for Visa and Passport to bring our son home.

And all the above for Jojo too. 

Adeline asked why not Jojo too right now and I had to explain that we are still waiting for Jojo's birth's mom death certificate. It is delaying his process, unfortunately. She said, "but I want Jojo too." To which I replied, "We are coming after him as well. It may take a little longer, but he will be coming home to us one day too (hopefully soon)."

Thank you to all of YOU for your wonderful prayers on our behalf. The Lord IS hearing us. Please, continue to pray with us that we might be able to bring our boys home soon!

Truth? I've been delaying a post.

Why? 

Because I feel a bit like a broken record.

Friends and family have been asking what is going on with the adoption.

And I love that they ask, that they show interest. I really do.

It's just I find myself hitting the "repeat" button over and over again.

"We're waiting on court dates."

For both boys.

To our knowledge, all paperwork has been submitted for Francis and a court date is all that remains in his region.

For Jojo, the courts asked for Jojo's bio mom's death certificate. So our POA has been focusing on getting that completed.

Our sweet POA's last comment to me in a recent string of texts on an amazing app called WhatsApp (allows me to text to Ghana for FREE) was this...

"Something positive will happen this month."

And that, my friends is what I have to hold on to. 

The Lord continues to make us wait.

And today, instead of my own voice on repeat, I opted to substitute this on repeat:

WAITING HERE FOR YOU

You see, I don't want to be weighted down by the wait.

I recently shared with some girls that now I can look back and see why the Lord would have me run a hand full of marathons in my lifetime.

He was preparing me for this even then.

The marathon...

It's mainly a mental game. Ask anyone who has completed one.

Sure, you have to be physically fit, but the mental part is what pulls you through.

In the beginning, it can be fun.

Yes, that may sound crazy to some of you, but it really can!

You embark on the big challenge and those first few miles are ran with excitement.

But then you get to that 13 mile marker when all the half-marathoners split off to finish their race and the streets become a little bare.

There aren't as many around to encourage you and pump you back up.

And that is when the mental must kick in.

Especially at mile marker 20.

There is just something about that number...

Only 6.2 to go.

But, one must reach deep inside to find that place to push thru til the end.

That is where we are at...

Somewhere in-between mile marker 13.1 and 20.

It is getting closer, although we cannot see that finish line just yet.

But we know it is up there somewhere.

And soon, hopefully soon, we will be able to cross it. 

Until then, we pace ourselves because we know we must in order to persevere.

We're headed towards that finish line just as fast as the Lord would allow us.

We would covet your prayers for court dates right now.

 Daddy on a personal walk with both of our boys...Francis & Jojo.

 Oh how I long to hold them again...

'Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.' ~Hebrews 11:1