Home.

For those of you who haven't followed every detail of our adoption journey (mostly on Facebook), let me just tell you, it's been quite the ride!!

If you would have laid out every twist and turn for us back on May 25th, 2012 (the day we "officially started the process" & 2 years, 4 months and 23 days before Kwe came home), I'm thinking we wouldn't have been brave enough or strong enough to submit the application. That's the funny thing about not seeing all the way around the mountain (or challenge) in front of us. It's actually not that helpful! It's a strange concept because I've prayed many a prayer asking to see the future or to make the future hurry up and come. But sometimes I realize that seeing into the future would just scare the $&#% so far out of me that I would just freeze (or run into a dark room and hide. It's true).

Anyway. So here we are. At the end of this part of the journey. Kwe is home. 

KWE IS HOME!!!

Oh, how I thought I would never type that!!! The sting in my eyes as I hit the 3rd exclamation point still surprises me. He's home. My sweet boy is home. 

We've waited, we've put the personal details of our lives on paper (actually, several trees worth of paper), we've cried, we've been angry (REALLY angry), everything we thought we knew has been challenged and stretched, new knowledge has flooded our brains and so many new relationships have poured into our lives. We survived. We did more than survive. We are stronger. And Kwe is home. :D

So our 3rd trip to Ghana in paragraph? Ok, go:

Just getting to Ghana was a mess starting with all the Delta computers down in GR leading us to missing our connecting flight. Afer a little drama and a lot of stress and 2 flight changes, we finally made it to Ghana...but our luggage did not (shocker). Got it the next night. Didn't really matter to us though because jumped towards us as soon as he saw us walking out of the airport! Picture the biggest smile you have ever seen and multiply it by 25! The VISA interview went ok. 3 hours in the waiting room to find out we (and by "we", I dont necessarily mean Chad and I) were missing a required document. Enter mad rush to get said document from another region in Ghana (a couple hours away) and submit before embassy closes. Then we didnt pass. They need to verify some things etc, etc etc. So then we dont hear anything for an entire week or so and we begin calling and emailing everyone we know to try to figure out what we can do and how we can get approved. On Wednesday the 15th, right as we are making decisions about Chad staying in Ghana or coming home to go back to work, we get the call that we are approved and can bring his passport to the Embassy. We freak out. Scream. Dance. Cry. Waking Kwe up very abruptly from his nap. We RACE to the Embassy in hopes of begging for his Visa to print by Friday so we can come home. We wait. And wait. We are called up. They stayed late so that they could print his Visa right then and save us a trip back. WHAT!?!?! We are told they "never" do this. Don't tell everyone (ssshhhhhh) and we are free to go.  

God is faithful. He asked us to have faith, to work hard and trust Him even harder. And He showed up. He showed up big. Oh, if only I could hold on to this faith forever and never doubt again... God is good. ALL the time. In the struggle and in the celebration. 

Ya. So that just happened! 

So we celebrate, book tickets home and enjoy a few final days in beautiful Accra.  So then came (and keeps coming) the continued outpouring of love and support from our community. Friends and family drove from near and far to meet Kwe the day we arrived, we walked home to a kitchen countertop, refrigerator and freezer literally bursting with food, meals have been delivered consistently, a 2nd (and MUCH needed) carseat arrived via UPS yesterday from people we've never met, and we have been loved on and prayed for in more ways than I can even describe (my fingers would literally fall off if I tried to type it all out)! Whew. 

Ill try to post more pictures this weekend (and different pics than we put on FB for those who follow us there!) but here are a few of my favorites. 

Landed in Grand Rapids airport!

Playing in our backyard!