Songhai

The Songhai people live along the Niger River in Niger and Mali. But, conditions in those desert climates make life difficult and many of the Songhai have migrated south to Ghana's capital city, Accra.

With an estimated population of 8,000 - 12,000 in one neighborhood in Accra, the Songhai are still living within their tribal system. The chief and tribal leaders are responsible for the decision making in the neighborhood.

Pray that tribal leaders would be open to groups coming in. Pray that God would show us a practical need we can meet to show the Songhai we care.

Thanks for your prayers! The internet's too slow to upload pics, but this is a beautiful country!

Adoption Paperwork

So....a huge part of the adoption process is getting all of the paperwork done. The file of paperwork that will be sent to Ethiopia is called a dossier. We were super pumped to finish ours and get it in the mail on December 21st. When the paperwork goes to Ethiopia and we are matched with a child, they will give him the photo album we put together for him!

The agency has approved all of our paperwork (I really can't believe we did it all right the first time). Now, we are just waiting on the ever-important I-171H - a form from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration that approves us to bring a baby into the U.S.

We can't be put on the waiting list with our adoption agency until we receive this form. So, if you feel so inclined, send up some prayers for the person in New Orleans responsible for processing "orphan petitions". Pray that she'll be quick!

Pumped to send off our dossier! As you can tell in this pic, it made us a little weary!

First Post!

We've had several people ask if we had a blog they could follow to keep up with our adoption progress. The answer was no, until now! I'll probably use this blog to update folks on other things as well, like my upcoming trip to Ghana!