I met Carmen through Cornerstone and was in her bible study group for several years. She is sweet, kind young, and is a Godly woman. I have admired her knowledge and understanding of the bible. She is well spoken and strong in her faith. She was a young mother of three young children 4 1/2 years ago when her and her husband decided to pursue adoption. I love the many adoption stories that have taken place among many Cornerstone families, adopting after having biological children of their own, and adopting from a third world country, most commonly Africa. I followed Carmen through her adoption process, she added me to her email list so I got updates. In the beginning they were matched with a brother and sister, they had gone to meet and spend time with them. It seemed as though all was going according to plan. Then, some extended family were identified and the whole process started over. Over the past 4 years, I have followed Carmen's roller coaster of a story as they have tried to bring little Esther home. I remember 3 years ago she was so excited because she thought Esther would be home in time for Christmas. 3 Christmas' later, she still wasn't home. It was a story filled with frustration and so much waiting. Carmen never lost hope. She was so strong and relied heavily on God for her strength.
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Not only was Carmen patiently and prayerfully waiting to bring Esther home, she praying over a very sick little girl. Carmen was there for her helping her get the care and surgery she nneded. This is one of her entries while in Ghana at a hospital with Esther. 7/31/18
I need to lighten things up ...so, things in Africa are...fine. I may or
may not have had a melt down tonight when I needed a napkin, paper towel,
Kleenex, ANYTHING and there is nothing of the sort to be found ANY where in a
hospital. So, I felt like sharing some things- like that- that you all can
start to appreciate that you DO have back in the best country in the
world.
Fun facts here in Ghana you find:
1. No running water in the hospital bathrooms (which are common areas). It
is byoTP too.
2. The ward we were admitted to today does have a sink with water at one
location, but it also has rats. And not just small ones. Esther's bed faces the
area they are running all over so they are always catching my eye and turning my
stomach. The first one I saw was so big I thought it was a cat or squirrel.
Sweet dreams.
3. The holes in the window allow mosquitoes to flock to the fluorescent
lights inside. We rammed some sticks into the corner of the bed (only three
sticks but I was thankful the nurse scrounged that many up) then draped the net
over it. Hopefully we don't have any holes and the mosquitoes don't have
malaria. Sweet dreams again.
4. Television here is something special. You know those bad, low budget
foreign sitcoms with SUPER CHEESY voice overs? Those are on ALL the time. On
multiple channels. They are funny for about 30 seconds before becoming painful.
The Ghanaians can't get enough. The other two options are like a Ghanaian C-Span
or these "shows" which I'm pretty sure are recorded on someone's phone and it
consists of horrible acting as they sit on someone's couch and have fights like
a really bad soap opera. Again, the people here eat. It. Up.
5. Surgery here requires you to show up with all your own anesthesia and
IVs and anything else you might need. I had to go arrange for blood too though
that was the one thing they don't make you carry in yourself.
6. When walking along the street at night the open sewers on the side of
street sound almost exactly like the beautiful flowing and bubbling clear creek
by my house. I smiled as I pretended that's what I was hearing.
7. For Esther's exams that's she's been working on here at the hospital one
portion asked to use certain words in a sentence - two of the words were "cat
meat" and "dog meat". Ahhhh, does anyone use those words in sentences...ever?
If they do, should they be? That was after she had to copy the sentence, "The
baby crawled out naked. " (Totally a common thing here) A baby peed all over the
floor while we were in the hall today- you just grab a mop and spread it around-
common situation, standard procedure.
Alright, that's enough for you to appreciate today. 😉 We really do have so
much there in the states. Thank the good Lord for all he has graced you with -
sweet dreams 🐀🐀🐀.
Carmen
In May this year, Carmen's family brought Ethser home to her forever home. It was going to be quite a road ahead with all her health concerns. What a sweet example of adoption and trusting GOd through the storm!
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