TouchOne

Thank you for all the thoughts and prayers. We are trying to keep everyone informed as much as we can.  Today, we learned our dossier is officially in the mail and on the way to West Africa. Have you figured out where he lives yet? I thought the heart on the t-shirts may have given it away. We were hopeful that another adopting family who is in Africa would be able to see our son and take a few more pictures, However, we learned Emmanuel has left the orphanage he has known as home. He has returned to his birth village to see if there are any living relatives or anyone who will care for him before he can be cleared for adoption. This is the standard procedure, but it broke my heart. I am so thankful he is too young to realize the magnitude of all this. I want to reach out and hold and tell him, buddy, I want you. I will always want you. Emmanuel, I love you son, and I am coming as fast as I can. God we trust in you! There are no orphans with God.  He has CHOSEN us and we are ADOPT

The time is ticking and we hopefully are getting closer and closer to meeting our son for the very first time. I find myself in a grateful but reflective mood. The other night, I looked at the stars for a long time in bewilderment and wondered if our son ever did the same thing. The moon was so bright and couldn’t help but wonder if he was looking as well. What will be that moment like? How will it feel to see his face and to hold him in my arms? What will it be like to hear him call me daddy at some point? What will it be like the first time I hear him pray or to sing? I am filled with so many questions. I still wonder sometimes how I got here? My life has been a roller coaster filled with crazy turns and unpredictable loops. Now, I hear the click as we prepare to crest over another crazy hill with our arms held high with anticipation. We don’t have any firm date expectation, but filled with excitement. Our agency Hopscotch Adooptons   has been amazing, and we are grateful to each

We received approvals from the US government to adopt. Our dossier and 1600 are both on the way to our adoptive country! We hope to be traveling in the next four weeks to spend 10 ten days in Africa and hopefully travel back three to four weeks later to bring Emmanuel home. We prayerfully hope to have Emmanuel home for Christmas. Hard to believe we started this process in May. We have also been blown away by you! This journey has never been about us or Emmanuel; it has always been about God and his will for our lives. So many of you have bought a shirt, sent a note or offered to help in some way. We are truly grateful and excited for everyone to meet our son. Over the next several weeks there will be a variety of different opportunities to get involved. Retreat Raffle – Register to win an amazing weekend at one of Alabama’s premier properties, winner can choose from a group of selected dates. Adoption Shower - will be held on October 16th at Valleydale Church in the Big Room fr

Thank you for following along. We are humbled by the notes, emails and posts we receive. We are also excited about the number of people who are following our blog. We have had visits from 11 different countries. We are so excited about our new addition to our family, but saddened by a recent Facebook post. Which was from an orphanage in Africa, which stated, “We are registering over 2000 orphans living in the Eastern Region this December. More sponsors will be needed to care for these innocent orphans. It is truly difficult to identify orphans in Ghana. Please pray with us." Each one of us can impact the world one life at a time. Adoption update: Department of Homeland Security has approved our right to adopt and have forwarded the approval to our adoptive country. We have been informed the African side is also working on our file. We are trying to temper our emotions with realistic expectations, but feel like we will be traveling in within the next 6 to 8 weeks. I personally h

Adoption shirts: Below are the three shirts we are selling to help cover our travel costs to Africa. As most of you know, we have to take two 10 day trips to complete the adoption.  Each shirt is $20.  There are two options when ordering. In-state and hand delivered or the shipping option which includes a $3.00 fee.  You can use your paypal or account or send us a check.  Information is located on the right side. Why these designs: We have been CHOSEN by God, and through the sacrifice of Jesus, we have been ADOPTED into his family. We did not choose Emmanuel to join our family; God has chosen our family for Emmanuel. This process has been hard in so many ways, but NOW we can see the light and know our gift from God is months away. Thank you for joining us in this journey to bring Emmanuel home.   The deepest and strongest foundation of adoption is located not in the act of humans adopting humans, but in God adopting humans. And this act is not part of his ordinary providence

Thank you for your concern and prayers as we walk down this path. The adoption journey is an express lane of emotions. Full of quick turns, long straight aways, but perhaps the hardest part is you can't see what lies ahead of you to properly prepare.   Adoption update We have had numerous updates over the last few weeks. Things appear to be returning to normal. However, we have no idea where we are in the process on the African side. We hope to have Emmanuel home by Christmas, but realistically, it could be another six months to twelve months. We have had his room ready, clothes in closet and books on his shelves (thanks Amy) for months. The truth of the matter is HE IS in complete control and I am not. The more I study scripture and it’s affect on my life, the more I feel prayer is our communication to God and the word is his communication to us. Growing up Jesus was a carpenter by trade which is such a beautiful picture of his character. When a carpenter sees a raw piece of

First, I/we want to say thank you for your thoughts, concerns, questions and prayers. You know going into this process it will be a long and complicated journey, but it’s really hard to properly prepare yourself for the roller-coaster ride. Emmanuel is not just a name or a little orphan boy in Africa. He is our son whom we love and desperately want home. Adoption update: This week we learned that our in-country partner reported a positive meeting with the government. We pray that our paperwork will begin to resume processing at beginning of next week. We also learned the last sets of fees are more than we anticipated and are prepared for which was a big blow. We are looking at different fundraising options. Please let me know if you have any ideas. Contact me @ rcall4him@gmail.com .  Jessica – returned to the University of Mobile yesterday for her junior year. Wow, hard to believe how fast time goes by. Jess is majoring in Intercultural Studies with a minor in Spanish. She will