Still Alive. Bright, and other things...

Hello friends.

Yes, I'm still alive. I've received several emails from those of you who I correspond with regularly asking if I'm okay. Am I that transparent? Anita disappears from cyber world for 5 days so something MUST be wrong, right? Well....right. But not really. Something is only "wrong" in my heart. I'm very down about the lack of progress or information with Bright's adoption. I come and check my email a thousand times a day and whenever the messages do NOT include some form of update I leave the office without the gumption (is this an "Okie" word???) to respond to anything.

I talked to Lois on Friday where I got my "there is nothing to update" update. That is okay. I just needed to hear her voice. I needed her to remind me that this is all still real. It starts to feel like a foggy dream sometimes when no information comes. Man--I am one spoiled adoptive parent! It's only been like 3 weeks since I got an update on Bright and I'm going crazy. I tell myself (but don't know if it's true) that I'm only going crazy because I'm worried about his health. Mostly, I think I'm just a mommy who wants to know more about her kid. You know...the little things like a full name, an estimated birthdate, and maybe a medical report. Such luxuries in Africa.

I would so appreciate your prayers this week for our sweet baby boy's adoption.

1. Please pray that Ernest (the orphanage administrator) feels a heart-connection to the work that he is doing. I NEVER would have picked Ernest as a person who wouldn't communicate regularly with Lois about things, but it seems that is exactly what is happening. I just pray that the Lord would put it into his heart to love these kids enough to stay up late and send pictures and emails and information even when he's tired from a long day of other work. I pray that Ernest would wake up with the children on his mind...with a desire to make the long (3.5 hour) drive up to Ho Hoe to check on the children.

2. I have the opportunity this week to send Ernest a message. This wouldn't normally be appropriate, but since I know him personally from our trip to Ghana Lois said it would be okay to send him a message saying "thank you" and "it was nice to meet you," etc. Of course you KNOW I'm going to put something in there that will hopefully let him know how much we are counting on him to advocate for Bright and the other children. Please pray that my message can impact Ernest positively. He is a GREAT guy. I just don't think he knows how much we truly care about these children.

3. Pray that the Director of Social Welfare in Ho, Ghana receives our "Letter of Interest" and quickly sends the formal application for adoption so that we can formally get this adoption started.

4. Pray that Bright remains bright. Pray that every calorie he receives nourishes him and catches him up on weight gain in a supernatural way. Pray that the Lord would protect his little body from long term damage due to his malnutrition.

Thank you friends. Promise to catch up with everybody individually in the next few days. Sorry to be distant.

Love,
Anita