Pray please

Our visa interview is early tomorrow morning our time. Please pray for it to be God-ordained, for the children to be reminded how much we love them and for them to know we are coming soon. We will update once we have info. :)

Exodus 14:14

So a lot has happened in the last few days. We have a visa exit interview scheduled for next Monday, November 1. Please, please pray with us as we wait for visas. We will not be attending, but will wait for visas to be issued. We are very excited about this! Another step, another step!

I woke up this morning feeling very nervous and anxious about our kids. This is very strange for me, but I couldn't shake it. We couldn't decide whether to attend the interview or not, so this became our focus. A sweet friend prayed with me and mentioned the verse Exodus 14:14. I didn't read it once we got off the phone, but stored it away. Tonight I was chatting with a dear friend and all of a sudden I see Exodus 14:14 on the screen. Coincidence? No way. There are none. God gave this verse to me. I didn't heed him the first time so I got a 2nd gentle reminder. I opened my Bible and read:

The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.

He will fight for His children. It is not for me or for us. He has chosen our family to adopt our two children. He will place them in our arms in due time. Thank you, Jesus, for the gentle reminders.

No news yet

We have been waiting for an email from the Embassy saying we can pick up our "packet" to move forward with our case. The other two families with us got theirs Monday. Us? Nothing. I woke up all night every 15 minutes checking my email since they are 4 hours ahead of us. If we don't hear today, it will be next Wednesday. Do you think God is teaching me something yet again??? Yes, patience and trust. Some days are better than others. To be honest, the thought of waiting another week to begin this next step makes me nauseous. As I was talking with Righ this morning he said, "I need to read this verse to you. God just gave it to me."

Lift up your eyes all around, and see; they all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be carried on the hip. - Isaiah 60:4

Amazed once again! He will bring them home. I just need to trust my Father.

I600 is APPROVED

I woke up this morning with a true peace about our African babies. No uneasiness about when they will be here, just very confident in God's perfect timing. I sat down to read my Bible and God led me straight to Jeremiah 30:10 - Then fear not, O Jacob my servant, declares the lord, nor be dismayed, o Israel; for behold, I will save you from far away, and YOUR OFFSPRING FROM THE LAND OF THEIR CAPTIVITY.

Peace came even stronger. God is in control. He has a perfect plan. I do not understand it, but it is not for me to understand. I am to seek and obey anyways. Now, I don't think my African children are being held in captivity. They are being loved in Ghana, but God was telling me they WILL COME HOME.

As the day wore on, a friend received her approval (we filed the exact same day). Peace still. No uneasiness, just pure joy for my friend. Later in the afternoon while chatting with a friend, she got her approval. Still peace. Seconds later, I got an email. I had no words, only tears. My kids ran over to see what was wrong. They read the email and everyone started yelling! This is a huge step for our family and for us to be reunited. We give God all the glory and honor. He is AWESOME and ALL POWERFUL.

What now? We wait for visas to be issued. Almost there, little ones, almost there!

Update on the adoption front

Day 46. That's where we are. We filed our I600 46 days ago and still nothing. Frustrated? Yes. Trusting in God? Yes. We are trusting, but it is hard. Our arms seems so empty without our children. We remember their smiles, their hugs, and their laughter. We also remember their sadness when we left. We remember the way our son felt abandoned. Over and over we have prayed for God to remind him of how much we love him. We pray God is reassuring both of them every day of our love and that we will be back. And that we are doing everything in our power to get back to them. We leave them in their Heavenly Father's gentle hands, trusting Him in all He is doing for our sweet African angels.

The last picture taken before we left Ghana. He is such a joy, always smiling!

She walked over and hugger her daddy's leg. Priceless. She stood there for a long time, both of them relishing in the love they have for one another even though they just 'met'.

Another God story from Africa

As most of you know, our trip to Ghana was twofold. Mainly, to meet our sweet kids and bond with me. Secondly, to minister to the least of these. One day we were tired and just didn't know what to do. We felt like our African children could not handle running around Accra all day so we took a short trip to the mall. Very American mall! We were going to get lunch at the food court (with pizza!!) and get some groceries. Well, after finishing eating and it had been a very trying lunch, to say the least, everyone needed to use the bathroom. I took Helen and Sydney with me. Now, this is a really big mall, keep that in mind. When we were finished, Sydney and Helen walked out before me. As I came out the door, an American woman was standing in the hall. I noticed her, obviously, we stick out! She says, "Kristie?" Can you say CAUGHT OFF GUARD? I am in a foreign country and someone calls me by name? I said, "Yes?" She says to me, "I recognized your daughter, Sydney, as she came out of the bathroom." God has broken Sydney's heart for the orphans continuously and my new friend had seen her on FB raising funds to feed the children of Ghana. So we talk and hug and hug and talk! By this time, our husbands both arrive and her sweet friend that is spending a year with them. As we talked, all I could think of was how God had arranged our meeting. We were both in the same place at the same time. Coincidence? NO, ONLY GOD!

We stood in the mall and talked as God unfolded a beautiful plan. Stacey already knew Sydney had a heart for the street kids and wanted to feed them. Suddenly, she knew of the perfect place. And Stacey and Johnbull were offering to cook for the kids. They were going to help us make this happen. Before we met them, we knew we were going to feed the street kids, but we had no idea how. We needed a way to cook massive amounts of food. God made a way, He showed us His plan.

We arranged to meet them on Friday so Sydney could purchase the supplies to feed 600 children. On Saturday, we drove to the Freedom Center (their children's home) to package the food. The big day was here. The street children were expecting us to arrive at 4 pm. The food wasn't ready yet, so we didn't get there until 5 pm. Most of the children had gone home, but as we pulled up we saw a group of children dressed in their best clothes waiting for us. As we got out of the car, we saw children running down the streets. Running back to get food.

These children were waiting to be fed. Hungry children. Children waiting for God's people to help. It took about 30 minutes to pass out over 550 meals. (Part of the food was left at the Freedom Center for their children. Sydney insisted upon this.) Over 100 children left with nothing. However, these children didn't complain. They just walked away with empty hands. Very hard to watch. How we longed to have more food to pass out. Next time we will. A huge thank you to everyone at City of Refuge Ministries who were Jesus' hands and feet that day.

The plan now? Sydney has a dream, a vision, to set up a weekly feeding program for these kids. In order to do this, she needs financial partners. People willing to support this. For 70 cents, one child will have a meal. Will you help?

I'll leave you with more pics. If you want to see the entire album, go to FB - Kristie Clements O'Leary and click on Ghana Day 7. It is worth your time to see these precious faces. :)

I think her face says it all. The reality of so many children around the world.

Our team

The group waiting as we pulled up.

I'll leave you with one last pic. This young boy carrying my blonde-headed son was just rescued. His story is incredible. There are many children waiting to be saved just like him. Our friends, Johnbull and Stacey, run a ministry - City of Refuge Ministries- to the children of Ghana. Click here for their website. Powerful!

We love our agency!

Our POA delivered our new court decree yesterday. He is fast and we adore him! Then, today we received an email from the Embassy saying they received our CLEAR court decree. They think they have everything they need and we should have an approval by mid-month. Can you hear me praising God from here? Closer and closer to bringing our babies home. Thank you for praying with us. We appreciate you so much!

On another note, our sweet Sydney made her goal! For those of you who do not know, she has a tremendous heart for the orphan. God has called upon her to take care of the fatherless and she is doing just that. She wants so badly to travel back to Africa to bring her brother and sister home when I go. We cannot afford that so she decided to raise the money herself. She had a birthday in August and asked for money to put in her PLANE TICKET jar. She dogsat, made bottle cap magnets and chokers, and put every penny she could find in that jar. God has blessed her tremendously! This morning she needed $200. A dear friend texted today and wanted to know what she needed still. I texted back the answer. Her response, "Done. I'll bring a check to her." WOW!! I cried as I read it. So many have given up for her to go back to minister to the orphans. As I told Sydney, she cried, too. She was so stinkin' excited I thought she would choke on her drink! Thank you, dear friends, for helping her live out God's plan for her life. She will continue to sell those bottle caps for the orphans. All money from them will now go into feeding the children and drilling wells. Clean water, food, medical supplies. These are her goals. And her biggest goal: a new orphanage with schools and lots of God's love. She prayed today for God to give her a new t-shirt design and He did. We are working on it and it will be out soon! I think you'll like it!

Update from earlier

If you haven't read our post (below) from earlier today, do that, but since then we received word from our in country rep that he will deliver a new adoption decree tomorrow at 2 pm to the Embassy. Please pray it will meet the Embassy's requirements. We stand in awe of God and His provisions for our family. Once again, we are reminded of Proverbs 3:5 - Do not lean on your own understanding.

Where are we?

We filed our I600 with USCIS in Ghana 35 days ago. Their "usual" approval timeframe is 30 days or less. You can imagine the anticipation every day to see if they will email us back. Well, this morning I woke up, opened my email and there it was. An email from USCIS, ACCRA. I opened the email and this is what I read, "The adoption decree you submitted with your petition is not legible. Please submit a new one so we can process your petition." Tears came! What, are you kidding me? I felt like someone had just punched me in the stomach. I was expecting an approval and I got this. I cried for over an hour. As my family woke one by one, this is how they found me. Not a good start to our morning! However, I have been gently reminded by my Heavenly Father this morning of His love for me, for us, for my family. I was reminded of the day He told me He had sent HIS ANGELS to watch over my African babies. I was reminded that we will not always understand His purpose, but it is His. (Thank you, Robin!) And God's word for Righ this morning? PEACE. He will grant us peace.

Proverbs 3:5 - Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. This is where we have to trust this morning because we sure don't understand this.

Romans 8:28 - And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.

I'll leave you with this video we made of our time in Ghana. It was finished last week, but I waited for Aaron Ivey's permission to publicize it. His song AMOS STORY has spoken volumes to me through the months. I think you will see why.

I cannot make it work so click here to watch.