In 5 hours...

It's 10:30pm here in Michigan. In Ghana it is 2:30am and our baby girl should be sleeping soundly. In 5 hours, the McIntyre's will be driving Juliana to her Visa Embassy Appointment. What does that mean? Well, basically, this is it! All of our adoption paperwork and court rulings are complete. The last and final step before we can go get Julie happens tomorrow. Debbie has to bring Juliana before a U.S. Embassy agent at 7:30am Ghana time with all of our adoption paperwork in order and Julie's passport. The end goal is to get a Visa stamp in Julie's passport which will allow her to enter the United States once we bring her through customs on U.S. soil. There are 3 possibilities of what can happen tomorrow:

1. The Embassy Agent can find all of the paperwork accurate and present and proceed with our case. He/she would at that point tell Debbie to return this coming Friday, July 15th, to pick up the passport with the Visa stamp in it. At that point we could book our flights to go get her!

2. There could be some sort of unforseen problem with one of the documents that needs to either be changed/corrected or redone. The Embassy agent would at that point reschedule our appointment for another time.

3. There could also be an investigation regarding our case if the agent finds that necessary to proceed.

I/we have gone through so many different scenarios in our minds as to how this could unfold in just a few hours. I believe without a doubt that God is going to bring sweet Juliana home. And in the past week, I have been learning a new way to pray that is changing me [thanks Paula!]! God always knows what we need when we need it. At church this morning, we were brought to the text Proverbs 20:24 "A person's steps are directed by the Lord. How then can anyone understand their own way?" Essentially, I can imagine 100 different ways in which this might go down tomorrow...but Juliana's steps home are directed by the Lord. She is his child first and he is giving us the privilige of being her family during our time here on earth. How could I possibly understand his way? He does everything in a mysterious and glorious way. If we had brought Julie home already, we would miss out on so much of the mystery.

So Miss Julie...no matter what happens at the Embassy tomorrow you're still our daughter. And God will allow us to be together whenever he sees fit. Be good for Debbie and Edward in the car! And make sure you shine that beautiful smile for the Embassy agent...it just might do wonders! :)