Time keeps on tickin', tickin', tickin'... into the future...

• Dave had a very productive meeting with Pastor Kofi on Tuesday, February 5th. Dave drove 45 minutes during his lunchtime to Lancaster, SC, stopping by Bojangles on the way and picking up lunch for the Kofi's, and he met with Pastor Kofi for about 30 minutes... enough to pray, eat lunch together, and share his proposal. (see below) Pastor Kofi was so excited. He said if there was ONE thing that Liberian kids needed, it was treatment for trauma. In all his years of ministry, no one had ever approached him about doing something in the trauma arena. In fact, Kofi said he could see this idea expanding beyond the orphanage and into all parts of Liberia!
  • Click here for a copy of Dave's Trauma Proposal:  Trauma Services Proposal

On Wednesday, February 6th, Dave and I met at our church to have some forms notarized, the last step for our Liberian dossier. We walked into the notary's office and there sat our Missions Pastor, Tom Henry. He said, "I just had an anointed meeting with Pastor Kofi of ACFI." I said, "Really? You met with him this morning??" And Tom said, "Yes. And I think our church should rally around him and his ministries in Liberia. We should get a team together to go to Liberia and serve. Let's pray right now." and he hopped up from his chair, put his arms around me and Dave, and he began to pray: Father God, we just ask right now that You'd be with Pastor Kofi and ACFI. Please guide Dave and Ellen as they pursue these children from Liberia. Gather a team of folks together from our community with a heart for Africa. In Jesus name, amen." It was a holy moment. The hairs of my arms were standing up. All of a sudden, our little part of a story grew into a movement of the hand of God; what a cool thing to experience!

• On Thursday, February 7th, Pastor Kofi left for Liberia.
• On Friday, February 8th, our social worker called and said our Home Study was complete and in the mail.
• On Saturday, February 9th, we received not only our home study in the mail, but I also got my passport. We are now thinking that I will go with Dave when he goes to Liberia.  (FYI: I had just mailed my expedited passport application one week earlier.) That night, we had dinner over at the Rutledges' house. They had told Angel (who now wants to be called Angelyn) that we were going to adopt her brother and sister. So when I first saw Angelyn, she flew at me with arms open wide and gave me a huge hug. Here is a picture of us taken with her that night.
  • On Sunday, February 10th, I added our notarized home study to the other forms and put together a final dossier packet to be sent to the ACFI orphanage in Dixville. Dave had spoken with Cece Kofi, Pastor Kofi's wife, and asked her if she would hand-deliver our dossier when she traveled to Liberia on February 14th. So I put together a package each for Sayfou and for Matterline. I had been writing letters to them since December, so in each package I was able to place 8 letters from me, a prayer from Abbey, 3 lollipops, a Valentine's Day card, a leather bracelet that said "Be Strong" and a necklace for each. 
    • Click on the link below to see what we sent Sayfou and Matterline as an introduction to our family.
      
      Family Newsletter
  • On Tuesday, February 12th, Dave again drove to Lancaster to drop off the dossier and the two packages with Cece Kofi. He thanked her and prayed with her, then drove back to work.

  • On Thursday, February 14th, Cece Kofi flew to Liberia with our life-changing documents in her possession.