For anyone that doesn't know... we've been matched with a precious little girl. She is probably 7 months old now and absolutely adorable. There are alot of questions regarding when to make an adoption 'public', but as I'm learning... international adoption is never certain at any point and I'd rather people know why we are disappearing to Africa three times this year:)
Our little girl is in the very Northern part of Ghana and we will be one of if not the first International adoptions out of this region. This makes me nervous for several reasons but one look at her and you'd know she's worth it. We can't share her picture until we pass court which we hope to do sometime around the end of February. Then she's officially a Carlberg! After that there is a 4 to 6 month process of paperwork and Immigration approval and such and then she can (hopefully) get her approval from the US govt to come home to America with us.
As I understand it in the past this last part of the process used to be fairly smooth and court was the big hurdle. Now, it seems families are being given an extremely hard time getting their Visa, even potentially being denied.
I thought alot about this worst case scenerio last night. What if after all this - tens of thousands of dollars, months waiting, hearts broken... she ends up never being allowed to come home with us?
Then, I was reminded that in the end, opening your heart up to loving someone more than yourself and doing everything you can to give them the best life possible is what parenting is all about. Worst case scenerio is that we fall in love with this beautiful girl, are unable to bring her home and have to find some way to support her though partnerships in Ghana for the rest of her life. Is this something I EVER would have signed up for? No. But if that is the plan the Lord has for this precious child and has called Chris and I to love and support her from afar, then perhaps we need to be prepared for that possibility.
We hope and pray that we will be able to bring our beautiful daughter home with us sometime this year. But in adoption, just as in carrying a child inside, you have little control of the outcome of the situation. The Lord has a divine plan for our family. Now, we feel called to open our hearts to adoption and to this little child. And if in the end, our hearts are open to her, but our home is not - then we will love her from afar and one day in heaven, all live happily ever after.
I'm putting this in writing now because in two months after I've held her it will be even harder to believe.
In God We Trust.
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