Mole National Park-Day 12

We talked with Daron this morning after he was coming in from his Safari walk at Mole National Park in northern Ghana. He is having a wonderful time and really enjoying the experience. He was was given or gave himself the self-imposed nickname, "eagle eyes" because he spotted the first elephant they have spotted there in the last couple of weeks. I guess from the hotel you can see a watering hole and off in the distance he thought he saw an elephant and asked the guide. The guide agreed that it was probably an elephant, so Daron talked him into starting the tour and hour and a half early, gathered all the people, and they headed out to go and track down the elephant. I guess they had some boots on and they had to walk in a lot of mud, but after a couple of hours, they came upon the elephant-he said it was amazing! They also got to see other animals, but the ones I remember were monkeys, deer, warthogs, antelope, and some baboons came up to the pool after their tour. Pretty amazing, I would say. It is there, at the hotel he is at now, that he has seen his first two mosquitoes; prior to that, he hadn't seen any in Accra. I think his plan is to leave tomorrow morning with a couple of Swedes he met there that he will share a car with, instead of traveling back in the bus for 12 hours or more.

One thing that was interesting was that Daron started talking to an American there and they asked each other what they were doing in Ghana. She said that she is volunteering at an orphanage that we had heard of that is working with our agency and may someday place children at Eban House. There was a child there last spring that we had heard about and prayed for, as a family, and we continue to have on our hearts out of concern for his well being. The referral never worked out because of different reasons(paperwork/social welfare/etc.), but we have just wondered how he was doing. Anyway, it was a small world in Ghana today, because this volunteer knew exactly who we were and showed Daron recent pictures of this little boy. He is growing and looked healthy now(chubby, to be exact!) Not sure if he will ever be able to be adopted, and it may not even be in his best interest because he does have a grandmother that may care for him, but we pray that he continues to get the care he needs at the orphanage or wherever he is at now. It was amazing how God brought them together today and gave us a little more peace knowing that he is doing okay. Small world-big God!

Regarding paperwork, no news. Supposedly the passports are now under investigation. I haven't heard of this before, but we are still resting on God's timing and know that he is watching over us and I am praying that his timing is the same as mine! There is an election that is going to take place at the beginning of December, so some have thought that they are holding onto passports, looking for a bribe, before they are out of a job, since it is going to be a different party(most likely). Not sure if that is true, but whatever the reason, PLEASE PRAY that we get Fia and Kwame's passports really soon. Percy, the coordinator in Ghana, is headed over to the passport office tomorrow-hopefully we will have some good news! All around, it would be in our best interest to get everything done before the election so there aren't any more hold ups.

The 1-600 is only on business day #6 since Daron has filed it (Tuesday will be day 10) so we don't expect to hear anything yet. But since the kids and I are planning on traveling next week, he thought he would call and check in and make sure there isn't something missing and they have everything that they need. A miracle would be them telling him that it was ready, so it doesn't hurt to ask God for that, so I am! I also pray that whoever he talks to is friendly with him and genuinely wants to help. If you want to pray with me-please pray that both our passports and our I-600(immigration) paperwork is complete before the kids and I go over. If not, we will take it as it comes, but it doesn't hurt to ask!

Well, the rest of us are all doing great here. We have had our dear friends, the Crowders, visiting us from NH. They brought 1/4 of their children-Donny, who is a very best friend of Justus'. They hit it off right away again, after not seeing each other for 2.5 years, and had so much fun together. Hopefully I can get some pictures up here eventually. What was really special, was that Courtney organinzed a 'Coast to Coast' shower with some wonderful friends back in NH. You don't even know how blessed I was and how touching it was that our Bethany church family was thinking about us and blessing us with some special gifts. I was so blessed by the gift cards to Target for the inevitable upcoming diaper/clothing expenses, the adorable outfits, and the thoughtful learnging games, etc. Wow-Thank you!