Saturday, August 14, 2010

New.... News for our Family

We have some exciting news to share. It feels a little weird to share, but at the same time exciting! We are beginning the process to adopt Rita and Racheal's sister. This is her biological sister. She is 12 years old and living in a foster home right now. R and R have talked about D for such a long time. We feel like we know her already. The story on how this came about is so amazing.

This is how the story goes:

Back in March we were forwarded an email from a gentlemen from Ghana. He was writing about how R and R's sisters (yes there are two of them) were placed in a foster home. The foster home they are in, is what we would call an orphanage. In the email, it stated their great grandmother had passed away. She was the caregiver for all the girls. A question was asked at the end of the email about adopting them. Jarett and I read the email a couple of times but did not feel the moved to do anything. So we closed that door.

Five months later, I get an email from a friend (Jennine) asking me what R and R's older sister's name was. I emailed her back with the name....D. She emailed right back and said "call me". I knew something was up so I called her. After playing phone tag, she told me that she knew of a mother who was trying to find D's twin sisters. This mother went to Ghana and has a picture of her. I remember Jennine asking me "Would you ever consider adopting her". My immediate response was "No".

Later that night, Jennine emailed the picture of D. My first thought was "OMW she is gorgeous!" She looked just like the twins but had a different beauty to her. I showed Jarett the picture of her and told him what had happened with the emails and etc. We both still felt like we couldn't adopt her.

A couple of days passed and I got in contact with the mother who shared the picture. I asked her questions about D. She told me the story of when she was in Ghana in March and the last two days of her trip, she went to this orphanage/foster home to check on a child that was being adopted by someone else. She remembers D walking through the door and just standing in the door way. She remembers thinking how gorgeous she was. Well, this mother went back about a month ago, and D was still there. She was asking this mother about the twins and if she knew who adopted them. There was a sadness to her when she talked about missing them.

I shared the story with Jarett. We still thought there was no way we could do this. We are just getting to where we are paying things in cash and working really hard to get our debt paid off (Thanks to Dave Ramsey).

The more I spoke with the mother about D the more I felt the need to pray about it. So I began to pray. I prayed if this was His will then our hearts need to be changed so we could love her. Slowing both of our hearts were being changed. I remember telling my mom about this and telling her how scared I felt about it. It wasn't the type of scared feeling like I didn't want to do it but it was the "God" type of fear. The fear I felt was like ...just trust me and it will work out.

A couple of days passed by and Jarett and I were still talking about it. We didn't know how this was going to work and how we were going to pay for it. I showed the picture of D to R and R. I gave them their own copy of the picture. It was so amazing to watch their expression and happiness to see the picture. I told them that someone had met their sister and wanted to share a picture of her. The next day, the girls asked us if we were going to adopt her. We told them we were praying about it so we didn't know yet if this is what God wants our family to do.

Well, about a week ago, both of our hearts changed and we felt it heavy on our hearts to go forward with it.

Now, remember I said there were 2 sisters in Ghana. They have a half sister. Her name is A and she is 6 years old. We have a picture of both D and A standing together. A doesn't look like the girls at all. She does look very sweet and beautiful but if you saw D - you could tell she was their sister. We did pray about both of them but we just don't feel the pull toward A. We feel it very strongly towards D. I talked to R and R but they didn't know about A and they don't know her at all. They do know and remember D. I do pray for some family to adopt A and then we can keep in contact with them. I don't feel like A and D are that close with a relationship. I maybe wrong but that's just what I feel.

So this amazing God story has begun and now it's time to begin this process. We have contacted our social worker to update our home study and begin to get our dossie (not sure if I spelled that correctly) ready. This part is going to take a while because we need to redo our fingerprints and go to court here in our county.

This is our unplanned pregnancy! We were shocked at first, but now we are excited and ready to begin to prepare. I do have to stay - I hope I don't gain weight with this pregnancy!!!

On a side note, I probably need to change our blog title. Any suggestions...??? I was thinking....Eight is Enough. LOL

5 comments:

Robin Dodd Photography said...

Eight is enough..LOL OH how wonderful Chalene!! I know you all and the girls are so excited!!

Amanda said...

What an amazing story, Chalene. I am so happy for you and your family, esp. R&R. They hold such a special place in my heart still. I look forward to learning more. What a big heart you have.

Amanda

Grateful said...

What great news! I saw your email saying 5 going on 6 and did a double-take. Congrats. I pray everything goes really smooth for "D" to get home.
Blessings,
Tami

Nikki said...

So excited for you!!!

Kristin said...

Chalene-what wonderful news! I will be praying for you guys as you raise money and open up your hearts and home to R & R's sister!