It Really Was That Fast!

Hi All,

I had a great conversation with Lois last night. I felt the questions piling up throughout the day yesterday so it was good to clear my list. =-) I guess the biggest tidbit is that the adoption really did happen super fast--after 4.5 months of waiting just to get the paperwork to the Director of Social Welfare, the whole process took a month and a day! Our paperwork was filed with the court system last Friday, the 9th. Our court date was on Tuesday, the 13th! I can only assume then, that Social Welfare completed the medical and social investigation sometime between January 12 (when they got our paperwork) and February 9th (when the paperwork was filed with the courts)! Of course, who knows how long this type of quick timeline will be common. Seems that when a program grows in popularity the time frames also slow down.

I asked Lois to check into whether or not we will be able to meet with Bright's birth father (and siblings) when we are in Ghana. She said she would check into it. I would really like to meet with him to give him a picture of our family and let him know we'll be sending yearly reports to Eugemot in case he wants to check in on how Bright is doing in America. I would also like to get pictures of him and Bright's siblings so that Bright can have them.

I talked to Lois about the possibility of adopting from Ghana again through LVI. Not sure what the fees would be (everything is in flux right now) but we'll see. She did say that if I were to identify a child from an orphanage when I am there to pick up Bright that she would certainly try to work with us to complete the adoption. So now I almost definitely want to schedule some trips to various orphanages around Accra when I'm in country. I'm hoping that getting Bright home will give me clarity about kiddo #4 and where he/she will come from (and what age). I keep saying *I* because Eric doesn't have strong feelings about how old, what country, or even IF we adopt #4! LOL! He's fine with whatever I decide on this one. =-)

Lastly, I found out that the email that said our adoption had been awarded came from the Director of Social Welfar, not Edward (LVI's employee). So--it really happened!!! We really do have a completed adoption and I'm not going to question whether or not there was a miscommunication anymore. I've got to let myself believe that God really did work all of this out in His (usual) miraculous way!!!!!

Love,

Anita