Journey to Abree

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11 In September of 2007 we submitted our dossier to China for China princess #2. We knew the wait for China was very long, but we felt God was not finished growing our family. China requires families to wait one year from the date you return home before you can submit the paperwork to adopt another child. We waited that year almost to the day. We were so excited to be in the process again!! On January 16, 2008, I had a patient who had recently returned from a mission trip to Africa. She worked with an orphanage and several schools while there, and she began to explain to me the needs of the children she worked with. She was very burdened for these children and she said, “I know you want to adopt another child from China, but I sure wish you would consider adopting from Africa.” I immediately responded by saying to her, “I would love to adopt from Africa if I only knew how.” I then proceeded to finish her exam and the statement I made kept running through my mind…did you really mean that? What about China? Did you REALLY mean that? She was my last patient of the day, so I finished charts and returned home not thinking much more of my encounter. Shortly after returning home, James was checking our email and he said, “Come look at these pictures. Kathy and Mike (our friends who adopted from China at the same time we did) are adopting from Africa. They want us to consider it, too. “ He proceeded to read the email that told the entire process of HOW TO ADOPT FROM AFRICA. I could not believe my ears!!! Just 1 ½ hours earlier I stated that I would love to adopt from Africa if I only knew how…..and here was the HOW. God works in such amazing ways!!! I kept repeating, “Oh my goodness—you’ve got to be kidding…” James said, “What is wrong with you?” I told him the story and he said, “Wow, we really need to pray about this.” I think we both knew what amazing path God was leading us down. How exciting!!! When I was 15 years old, my parents adopted my little brother who is African American. From the day we adopted him, I knew in my heart that adoption was in my future. Looking back, it is amazing to see the omniscience of our amazing God! He began to prepare my heart 18 years ago for this child…even this country. After talking and praying, James and I both felt God strongly leading our hearts towards Africa. We began working on the paperwork needed to submit our dossier to an orphanage in Ghana, Africa named Beacon House. This orphanage is a Christian orphanage ran by an American lady, Romana Testa, who has dedicated her life and talents to serving the Lord by saving the lives and caring for precious orphans in Ghana. In early June of 2008, we received a call from Carrie, a wonderful volunteer for Beacon House. She asked us how our paper chase was coming and told us that Beacon House had just received seven new babies. This put us in “high gear” and we finished the paperwork and had it submitted by mid June. The wait began! In Ghana, children cannot be referred for adoption until they have been in the orphanage for at least three months. On August 30, 2008, I was browsing the website available to families in the process of adopting through Beacon House. I was looking at the many pictures on the website of waiting children that I had looked at hundreds of times before. BUT, this time at the very bottom of the page there was a new picture of a beautiful girl named Mina who was listed as one year old. I yelled at James to come look at this beautiful little girl who had just been added to the website. We both fell immediately in love with her big beautiful eyes that seemed to speak right to our hearts and her chubby cheeks that were waiting for kisses! I quickly sent an email to Carrie (the Beacon House volunteer) asking for more information on Mina. After laying eyes on this sweet baby girl I could not get her out of my mind or heart. I emailed Carrie again on September 1st asking more questions about sweet Mina. I made the statement in that email that I could not get Mina out of my mind, thoughts and prayers and I could not keep from wondering if she could be my next daughter. On September 8, 2008, we received a call from Carrie…one of the best phone calls of our lives. MINA WAS GOING TO BE OUR DAUGHTER!!!! Wow!!! We were overjoyed with excitement and love! Another precious amazing gift from God…a beautiful daughter! In mid October, Kathy and Mike (our friends we traveled to China with for our first adoption and who introduced us to adoption through Ghana) called to inform us they were approved to travel to complete the final step of their adoption through Beacon House. They were going to pick up their beautiful daughter, Kiana. Mike was not able to travel with Kathy, so they asked if I would travel with her to pick up Kiana and to MEET our sweet Mina (Abree)…. I was so excited I could hardly sleep for days!! On October 30, 2008 Kathy and I boarded a plane to GHANA!! The hours in the air seemed to fly by and the excitement was overwhelming. I was going to meet my baby girl!! We arrived in Ghana at 7:00am on October 31st . We went to Kiana’s foster family’s house where we were staying and cleaned up a bit and then headed to BEACON HOUSE. My heart was racing the entire ride there. I couldn’t believe this was actually happening. As we drove up to Beacon House and went through the gate, we were led to the baby room. Abree was not there, so one of the house mom’s, Lydia, went to get her. I saw them coming from the window of the baby room and I immediately started crying tears of joy. My heart was SO filled with love for this sweet, precious girl walking my way. When she walked in the room, again those eyes melted my heart! I was able to spend two short but wonderful days with our new daughter and we bonded so quickly. I knew it would be terribly hard to leave her, but I truly had no idea how hard it would be until the time came. My heart was broken… The process of international adoption in Ghana is new and ever changing. The next few months brought about much heartache and anxious waiting. The Ghanaian government had decided they were not going to process any international adoptions of children under the age of three. Thankfully, Romana, the director of Beacon House, is a strong lady of faith who does not give up easily! She continued to fight for our sweet Abree and was finally able to get us a court date of February 5, 2009. On the evening of February 5th we received another life-changing phone call from Carrie. I answered the phone and Carrie said, “Is this Abree’s mommy?” It still makes me cry just to write those words. SHE WAS OFFICIALLY OURS!!!!!!! The court had granted us the adoption and she was ours!! What an amazing day! God is SO good! The next steps of the process were focused on getting her HOME! After receiving the official adoption decree, we had to update some paperwork on the US side before traveling over to file the last piece of paperwork in Ghana at the US Embassy. On March 30th we received an email from Ghana inviting us to file this paperwork on April 6th. WOW! We were getting so close to the end of this amazing journey! On April 4th (James’ birthday) he boarded a plane to Ghana—what an amazing birthday present to get to meet your new daughter!! He was able to spend five amazing and productive days at Beacon House with sweet Abree. He filed the last piece of paperwork and then spent the rest of the time bonding with her. They bonded so quickly!! They both fell in love with each other and had an amazing five days together. Then, Daddy had to do one of the hardest things he has ever done…board a plane back to America leaving his precious girl behind. On May 7th we received an exciting email…the paperwork James filed had been APPROVED and we could proceed with her Visa paperwork. Romana picked up Abree’s Visa packet on May 12th, completed the packet and returned to the Embassy on May 18th for her Visa interview. We have received the official travel invitation, and we will leave on May 30th to bring our precious girl HOME!!!!! We will land in Ghana Sunday evening and will head to Beacon House Monday morning to reunite with our Sweet Abree! We will spend Monday and Tuesday in Accra at Beacon House. On Wednesday we will fly to Tamale (Northern Ghana), travel to her family’s village in Bolgatanga, and meet Abree’s biological family. We will return Thursday morning and spend the rest of Thursday in Accra. We leave Ghana Friday morning, stay the night in New York Friday night and return to Oklahoma Saturday, June 6th. We cannot explain how excited we are to be at this stage of the journey. Soooo soon our baby girl will be home!!!!! We thank our Heavenly Father for blessing our family again through the amazing miracle of adoption!!

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