a wonderful confirmation

our journey to Clayton

who is waiting for us in Africa.

need to catch up?

finding Clayton [1]

finding Clayton [2]

finding Clayton [3]

after the meeting with the director, i was so happy...yet so confused. her answer was so simple. 

just "okay." i had so many questions about the process: how long would it take to verify 

he is adoptable? what does that process entail? how often does it not happen? 

but, in reality, none of that mattered right then. 

she said okay, and i needed to trust and be patient. 

so, i left her office.

it was naptime, so clayton was sleeping. i snuck in and videotaped him. so precious 

sucking his thumb. as i walked back to the guest house, fear and confusion began to set in 

for the first time. i prayed, 

"how in the world do i love him as intensely as i do, knowing that we might still lose him?" 

i did know it my heart that it would be worth it to love him whole-heartedly no matter what,

but, He knew i needed a little extra assurance.

i walked down to the little internet cafe during their naptime. this is something i did almost 

everyday that i was there. it was wonderful to stay in touch and receive so many encouraging 

words from home. i was obviously so emotional and just kept re-playing the conversation i'd 

just had. i sat down at the computer and suddenly realized what song was playing on their 

little radio. most days it had been milli vanilli, celine dion or sinead o'connor. i had never 

heard a worship song at all. but, right at that very moment, i realized that the song playing was

 Days of Elijah!

just as i had every moment prior to the meeting, i again loved him whole-heartedly from 

that moment. the silly few moments of confusion and fear? God cared enough about our 

son to reassure me that our Clayton, our Elijah, (his name at the babies' home!) would indeed 

be our son. we obviously still have paperwork to do....court to appear in....a ruling to be 

handed out....and more paperwork to complete. but, in my heart i have....and will forever 

be his mom. we all love him with all our hearts.

right now, we're waiting on a court date. when we get this date, we'll travel back to Africa to 

bring him home. that trip will be somewhere around 21 days. my husband and i are planning 

on splitting that trip between us. thank you for walking this journey with us. we feel humbled 

by the support and love for what to us is just a simple story of love.

annnnd, i saw that a lot of you wished me happy birthday yesterday on steph's blog while 

commenting that you had been following our story. thank you so much for that! i'm so grateful 

for this lovely community! here's the video of our sweet boy for anyone that missed it!