Good News From Ghana & The Hard Earned Dollar

(Christen) For those of you who have followed our journey on the blog, you'll remember that we raised some money (while in Ghana) from generous friends and family back home. We have used small amounts of the donations to meet various needs at the orphange Manny came from. The majority of the money has been sitting in a fund waiting for an appropriate need. We decided last week to give a good portion of the money to the orphanage we visited in Tema. We recieved the following email from the orphange directors this week.

Dear Brady and Christen,

I just wanted to let you know that we did receive the transfer today. Thank you so much for your gift. You know, we do serve an amazing God...we are going to be moving the end of October and we have to rent a new house...in Ghana they make us pay rent 1 year in advance...we are renting two houses with rent due on both of the houses...the house that we are renting for the Freedom Center is 350GHC per month...this comes to exactly $3000 for the year...your gift is exactly what we need for the rent of the house...God is so good!!!
Thank you so much!
Stacy

God is good indeed!

Speaking of money...our little Ghanaian has been learning the value of the hard earned dollar (well not too hard in his case!) After about a week of being in America, he very quickly came to the conclusion that America was about getting gifts. WRONG! He has been asking for a bicycle since we met him, so we thought it a good idea to let him earn some money and buy it himself. He has earned stickers (which equates to money) by having a good attitude and working hard in school, keeping his room tidy and his things put away (which wasn't a chore for this neat freak!), telling what he learned in church (He is still working on this one-it's tough to remember! Ha!), behaving in a Christ-like manner, and scoring goals/touchdowns in his games (I couldn't refuse spurring on atheletic achievement!) This weekend he finally had enough to purchase his bike! He clearly has had some past experience on a bike and rides like a pro already!

School, Games, & Smelling like a 'White Lady'?

(Christen)The past week provided more opportunities learn and try new things for Manny. We had our first soccer and flag football games. Manny had a blast. He scored both a soccer goal and a touchdown!

We also had our second visit to the Doctor. Manny received 6 shots and had blood drawn. He was very brave and his eyes only watered a bit. While in the exam room waiting for the doctor, Manny, being a typical 7 year old was smelling my arm, and he informed me "Mommy you smell like white lady!" For those of you curious as to what a white lady smells like, I was told it is a combination of water, soap, and lotion!

Our schooling continues to go well. I talked with Manny about the possibility of going to a school next year and he seemed appalled by the thought! Although I'm quite confident he would love it. We've certainly not made any decisions on this yet, and plan to make our schooling decisions year by year.

A Few Pics as Promised!



Last week we introduced the projector to help with learning.
As you can see, Manny was quite happy about it!

Papa and Manny

Showboating as he scores his first touchdown :)

I love his face in this one- Pure Excitement!

Playing a little soccer

Catching his breath

Papa, Parker, and Manny

At the USM game!

Daddy and Manny:)

Adjusting Well

This is the picture that started it all. Manny's photo was posted on a website along with hundreds of other children waiting to be adopted. We were undecided on where to adopt from before we saw this picture; after, it became a question of 'how fast can we get to him?' Doesn't that sweet little face just melt your heart!

For those of you still interested, I plan on keeping the blog up for a little while. I didn't intend on doing this, however, our friends and family living elsewhere have requested I do, so that they may also stay"involved". So for all three of you out there still reading- Enjoy!:)

Manny update:

This kid loves America. He reminds me everyday! He also likes to remind that he doesn't want to live in Ghana anymore by stating, "No more Ghana for me!"

The adjustment has been great! Probably because we were with him for so long in Africa. Another fun fact about him is that he is a neat freak. He happily puts his toys away when done playing, and he even gets annoyed when others don't!

He has really taken a liking to sports- particularly tennis. If we are around a tv with tennis on he will totally zone out for like an hour! In light of his instant love for the sport, I have been taking him to group tennis lessons at the raquet club. We have also begun playing early in the morning before we start school.

Speaking of school, he continues to amaze me with his ability to absorb everything. He is very smart, can focus for long periods of time, and catches on very quickly. His vocabulary and speach continue to improve daily, and he has even begun reading basic words this week!

We had our first post placement meeting with our social worker last weekend. It went very well- as expected!

We are looking forward to the weekend. Manny has his first soccer game tomorrow. We will also be attending the local college football game! Fun! Pics to follow.

Giving God His due Glory!

(Christen) Now that we have been home a few weeks I've been reflecting on our time in Ghana. One of the things I feel I learned (or saw for that matter) was God displaying his awesome power. Allow me to elaborate.

As the weeks began to add up quickly, discouragement began to grow. Towards the end of the process we were very uncertain as to whether or not we would actually be allowed to bring Manny home to America. This didn't have anything to do with Manny's personal case per se, but rather, the many adoption cases from the same orphanage coming through the embassy at one time. There have been plenty of international adoption cases where families are awarded guardenship of a child through the foreign country's court, only to find that the US Embassy never allows the child to come home with the adoptive parents. What a perdicament that is! Our thought process was to cross each bridge as it came; and boy am I glad that one never did!

At some point, we began to question if God's plan for our lives was to even have Manny as our son. Essentially, we were mentally brought to the point where we knew nothing short of a miracle from God (seriously) would allow this adoption to happen. We didn't elaborate on all the details of the cases on the blog, but the picture that the Embassy painted was bleak.

Through it all, we were prayerful that God would bring about the outcome that would bring Him the most glory. Whether that be a two month time-frame, a two year time-frame, or never.

In the end, the Almighty (aka GOD) chose to display just how powerful and awesome He is by granting our adoption, against all odds, in a very short two month time frame (nine months total from our orginal decision date last November- how ironic:)!). He did all of this so that we might realize what a mighty God we serve and give Him His due glory.


More Pics from Home:)