Almost Close

On our most recent trip to Ghana, we had to take a l-o-n-g bus ride. On top of that, it was a long bus ride that had immediately followed about 25 hours of air travel and layovers. I remember thinking it was taking us FOREVER to get to the little villages where we would be ministering for the week. Of course, we had no idea where we were going and were completely relying on our hosts and translators to get us there. All we could do was sit there for the ride, enjoy the scenery, and wonder how long it would take. One of our favorite quotes from that trip was when we had been riding for quite a long time and one of our sweet Ghanaian friends turned to Luke and I and said: "We ah almost close!"

We have felt "almost close" to this adoption being finalized for several weeks now. We had the first court date that wasn't. We had the second court date that was actually the first court date. We had the "stop-by-the-court-on-Monday" date yesterday, at which time they were given an appointment for Wednesday. Tomorrow (Wednesday, July 30) is the court appointment in which the judge will (we hope) finally render his decision! M could finally, officially be our son!!!!!! And I can post pictures of him!!!! And, most importantly, we can make plans to travel to bring him home!!!!!!!! (Sorry, I've had all those exclamation points in me for a few days and haven't let them all out yet. I feel better now...)

To be honest, this has been harder on me emotionally than I thought it would be. I remember when I had my first baby thinking how miserable it would be to go to the hospital thinking you were in labor only to be sent home due to false labor. I knew people that had happened to, and I remember praying that that wouldn't happen to me. Well, now I feel like I've been to the hospital and sent home three times!

Last Friday while I was feeling particularly discouraged, I happened to catch a glimpse of the ginormous 4-inch binders which hold the duplicates of ALL the paperwork we've compiled during this adoption. As I looked at those binders my mind went back to before Christmas when we were a 4+ inch stack of papers and many months away. As of last Friday we were finally 1 piece of paper and two days away. Now that the paper was deemed satisfactory on Monday we are no pieces of paper and potentially just a few hours away.

God's timing is perfect.

We are almost close!