Yes, Lord.

That night, after we got the girls to bed, I snuggled up on the couch and listened as Brian shared about his trip. It was amazing to think about the reality of what had just taken place. We were informed about a little girl in need of a Mom and Dad in Ghana. We prayed, sought counsel and made a decision to send Brian to Africa to spend a few days with this little girl. He boarded a plane on Wednesday afternoon and then 96 hours later he was back in our living room. Okay!

Now I know I mentioned in an earlier post that one of Brian's gifts is that of networking. He's so good at hearing about a need of some sort and knowing someone, somewhere that can meet that need. During Brian's long flight home, he had many hours to think about Juliana and what he had experienced with her. First thing first-he was in love with her! No doubt! But, he did notice and observe some physical things about Juliana that were a bit "off". Again, Julie was severely malnourished and estimated to be about 9 months developmentally behind her physical age. But what did that mean? Could she gain it all back? Would it just be a matter of nutrition and some physical therapy and we could get her caught up? We realized that there were no certain yes or no answers. But Brian's gifting, another reason why I love this man, stepped up. When he was in the Ohare Airport, waiting for his connection to Grand Rapids, he thought about an old friend of his who does early childhood developmental assesments. He wasted no time as he found Diane's phone number and gave her a call from Ohare. Brian gave her a quick update about the decision he and I were trying to make. He asked Diane if she would be willing to come over for dinner and watch some of the videos he took of Juliana in Ghana and to give us her feedback about some of the observations he made. Diane agreed and in fact she and her husband came over 2 nights later for dinner.

Diane and her husband, Fred, came over for a bite to eat on Tuesday night. After catching up, we showed Diane 15 videos of Brian and Julie together. Like Brian, Diane was in love with Julie! But, she also noticed a couple things that Julie did with her hands and her eyes that were different. At first, she thought she may have shown some signs of cerebal palsy, but then later dismissed that concern. Her overall assessment was that Julie was indeed behind, but that getting her here to the United States would do wonders. She affirmed that because of how young Julie is, she believed a significant amount of Julie's delays could be caught up with intervention.

After Diane and her husband left for the evening, Brian and I started cleaning up the dishes together. I didn't know if it was too soon to ask Brian what he was thinking. I kind of kept quiet for a bit and waited on him. I think we both knew in our hearts that this was never a matter of "is God calling us to do this or not", but rather Brian and Jen "will you be obedient?" Finally, after a few long minutes, Brian asked "are we on the same page regarding Juliana?" I knew where I was at...I was in! But I didn't know how to respond just in case I was way off as to where he was at. So I just went for it "umm, we're doing this, aren't we?" He looked right at me and I could see it in his eyes. Brian nodded his head yes and told me to email the McIntyre's in Ghana right away to let them know that we were going to pursue adopting Juliana!

In the days to come, we would begin one of the wildest rides we've been on. This whole idea of God's, that he would allow and entrust us to care for the orphan, has been beyond our comprehension. Sometimes we sit back and think we're nuts! And then, we're reminded again, that He has given us a choice to be a part of giving of ourselves now...loving others now...being uncomfortable now so that we would become more dependant on Him OR we could sit in our little corner of the earth in East Grand Rapids, Michigan and say "this is it"!

I can't wait to share what God's done in the past couple months to show us and remind us that He will provide and bless our obedience!