Off to Market we go!!

Thanks for all the GREAT encouragement from the last blog. I like to read it a few times afterwards and all of your comments made me smile as much as the story!!

If you commented on my first version, I needed to edit it to change the names of my Ghanaian friends so it erased my original ‘comments’ section. I did get to read all of them though!!

It is Tuesday night. Again, my baby is asleep next to me and hubby on the other side. As I said at the end of my last post – we got to rest all day yesterday. Mark and I didn’t even go out for the dinner. We just had them bring rice back to us. That ‘right-before-the-summer- diet slim down’ has kicked into full gear!

It is HOT here. From the way Ghanaians talk coming to the North Region of Bolga is like travelling from North Dakota to Florida. Ok. Not quite. But it is much hotter here than Accra. You just sweat to death here. Even though you are drinking tons o’aqua you don’t have to pee as much bc you are sweating it all out!

This morning we travelled to a local pottery & art place where they make products and sell them around the country. It was very interesting! We learned the term ‘Calabash’ today! For our island friends who remember the Coleman’s store behind the carwash on Demere named Calabash – it is a bowl with a top to put shea butter or jewelry or spices in that is made with pottery! Very interesting!

Today, Zoe decided she is independent. HA! We let her get a taste of walking around in public while at the restaurant Sunday night when we arrived. I can’t really gauge if this is an American thing or not bc we haven’t see any Ghanaian children in a restaurant. It is usually too precious to spend $ on a meal typically to take children too.

At the tour of the art spot – we are outside in a covered pavilion with benches. Much like a gazebo – there is one way to walk in and out– it is perfectly fine for the kiddos to walk around while the guide is talking. We are the only people on the tour so nobody cares. Then we walk over to an outdoor area where we are introduced to a statue of a very important Ghanaian UN rep bc he has visited this art center. Both kiddos totally fine -wandering around in the yard near us – content and happy not to be carried.

We walk into the art making house & it is like walking in to a china shop. So, we pick up Zoe – she is NOT having it today. Mark tells her no, sternly and she falls apart. I pick her up, walk outside – only bc I think the Ghanaians are uncomfortable with a crying child- I am fine! She is doing what in America we could call “a fake cry”. No worries – we just walk around the yard. Then Ghanaian mommy woman making baskets under a tree can no longer take it and she comes to get Zoe. She INSTANTANEOUSLY stops crying. I feel foolish and white and go back into the art center as she follows us.


She eventually goes back outside with Zoe to sit under the tree while I stay in to listen for another 10 minutes. When we return to the yard to leave – I see Zoe sitting in a chair playing with Brandi’s bandana. She smiles as I arrive. Gives me a high 5 – I pick her up – and there she goes again!!

It was short-lived – we get in the van to go to the crocodile ‘park’ – and she falls asleep in my lap. She was tired. That’s what I’m telling myself.

Crocodile Park – We have now driven to Paga and are just a few short miles from Burkina Faso which is the country north of Ghana. In Paga, crocodiles are considered sacred. The man who founded Paga took one in – the story is that he fed it and it became his friend. They train the crocodiles. We learn the ‘entry’ fee and we are also charged to take pictures per camera. We decide we will all use one camera to take pictures and email them. Good decision! Our ‘guide’ who is about 18 years old takes a chicken to feed the alligator and we head down to the pond below us.

This is no joke!! I didn’t believe them. Until I saw them WHISTLING for the crocodiles in this large pond. Here comes the ‘little one’…no, no, no… we think he is going to feed that one the chicken. Yes, we are going to feed that one the chicken but we are going to take pictures with the big one. Whistle! Whistle!! I see one – Yes! That is the big one! He begins to meander up towards us and opens his mouth like a baby bird. The women obrunis are backing up because we have small children in our arms. I’m sure that’s the only reason we were backing up.

The 18-yr old guide pats the gator on the back and then says “who will come?!” Our foster daddy is the bravest and heads on out to ‘squat’ on the gator and touch it. Snap! Next comes Mark. He is done this before and is acting like the veteran of the group. Snap! Next comes Jesse – Brandi not so happy with this decision is shouting ‘Let him eat all of you if he starts chomping!’ Snap! I succumb to the peer pressure and head on out to pat that gator on the back. (WITHOUT the baby) Snap! We all peer pressure Brandi into doing it. She does it but is neither happy nor proud!! Snap! What fun that was! The chicken is thrown in to the mouth of the OTHER alligator who has not performed a thing. The big alligator has already eaten today! YAY! I am so glad he did not want a mid-morning snack! We want to know where we are going for lunch.

As we leave, Owen asks if you were to swim in the pond, would the gator eat you? The 18-year old guide says…….it depends on what your intention is. Huh? Owen laughs and says, why don’t you take a swim and we will see your intentions! Funny, Owen!! Very funny!

We head to a nice restaurant for lunch. The Ghanaians have been so gracious about finding nice places for us Obrunis to eat. Zoe & I eat Fried rice and chicken. Tasted just like Chinese with a little kick!

On the way home – Zoe falls asleep – we take a break/nap/rest for a couple of hours before heading back out to market and to see foster daddy’s new home for children in this particular region.
When we make it to the true ‘market’ here in Bolga – it is a little like the farmer’s market in America – bc they only have it every 5 days. It closes at 6 and we arrive shortly after 5:30.

Apparently, we have just been transported BACK to the Amazing Race. The market has very little stalls VERY close together that sell anything & everything. The stalls are small wooden spots with thatch roofs or tin roofs. Clothes, cloths, spices, food, shea butter, school paper. We are arriving very late & people are beginning to close up shop. I imagine it is fairly calm for the market bc it is so late in the day. The smells are STRONG and NOT GOOD. We are DEFINITELY the only obrunis AND we are obrunis with Ghanaian children. We are causing quite a stir with the stares. There are 7 of us and the 2 kiddos. (5 Americans and 2 Ghanaians) We have gone purposefully to buy shea butter for the kids skin (like lotion for special purposes) and cloths for Brandi & I to tie the babies to our backs. Anita let us borrow a couple of hers but we wanted some to take back home also. The lady we bought them from is very happy. There is lots of translating going on with Owen and foster daddy. We find the shea butter and buy lots of it between the 3 obruni women. If our Ghanaian friends had gone and hidden – there is no way on God’s green earth we would have found our way out of there. We were so deep in the market. I would have loved to seen that market from an aerial view.

The thing that stands out in my mind about the market were the children. Small, small children had on very few clothes and very dirty – nothing is paved and it is very hot! The more elementary school children are VERY interested in the Obrunis!!! Hello! They shout and run to see. Hello!! Several of them sitting on a bench while there parents are packing up. Hello! The mothers are less friendly. I wonder if it is simply culture or disapproval of white women with black babies. Maybe I am paranoid.

While we are buying Shea butter, Mark is playful from afar with about 5 or 6 children. I have pretended to stand for a picture so that Mark can snap a picture of the market aisle behind me. As he snaps, a little boy poses silly and he and his friends laugh. Mark says ‘Again’ and he tries to act shy – ha! His friends laugh and encourage him enough that he does it. Mark snaps and then shows him the pic on the digital camera. All of a sudden about 20 children run up to see the picture. Laughs and pointed fingers are going all around.

Thankfully, our Ghanaian friends have not hidden and we follow them out of the market. Whew!

We go to dinner at a restaurant that serves pizza!! Not American pizza by any standard but good pizza nonetheless. I ordered a ‘tomato’ salad with a dressing that tastes a little like vinaigrette and put it between two pieces of toast. It was heavenly. The tomatoes were fresh grown. So happy!!

Zoe and I go out to a big patio to walk around several times bc it is taking them an hour to cook our food. Unlike America, Ghanaians start cooking whatever you order when you walk in. There is no cooked food waiting on you in the back kitchen. We play sweet games. She is SO happy to finally be able to walk around and not be carried. I told you that today was little Miss independent day.

She has begun calling me “Mommy” and “Ma”. I am totally in love. She is still very stand-offish with Mark, but will definitely refer to him as ‘Da!” and will respond if anyone says “Where is Daddy?” or ‘Give this to Daddy”. She will let him play a game with her but she will not let him hold her. She will flirt with her eyes in a blinking game with him when she is in a good mood during the day. It is just taking more time. ‘They’ say that the children typically attach to one parent before the other and that it just takes time. She and I are definitely bonding and I think I would be a basket case, honestly, if she had attached to Mark first. For those of you who know Mark well, he is taking it all in stride. I think Zoe will laugh at her early interactions with Mark once she is older and totally in love with her Daddy who is already head-over-heels about her. I am certain Mark is gathering more sermons in his head about how some of us play hard-to-get with our heavenly Father when all he wants to do is shower us with love LAVISHLY the Bible says.

During one of our times on the patio, she was standing in my shadow and I started patting my hands on my legs for no reason at all. She started copying me. I put my arms out straight to see if she would copy that also - she did – and then ran the 5 – foot distance between us to jump in my arms and hug me!! Yay!! We did this about 3 or 4 times. The 2nd time, I said ‘I love you, Zoe’ then I said ‘Can you say, “I love you, Mommy’? And she totally did!! Then kissed me. I am head-over-heels. Mark said today that I have a new best friend and I totally do.

Tomorrow, we are sleeping late (we got up early today at 7:00 so don’t get the idea that all we are doing is sleeping (KIM!!) We will head to a different market tomorrow after breakfast and then we are going to see Zoe’s home village. We found out earlier that my daughter and Anita’s daughter are cousins – I love that we know that!!!

Please keep praying for us. We have some important days ahead.

Kim & Holly – thanks so much for helping with the boys and for giving my in-laws a break.

Frank & Dixie – THANK YOU for loving the boys these 2 weeks.

Asa & Eli – Daddy and I love you!! We keep saying how much you are going to love Zoe and she is going to love you! We can’t wait to have our first dance off with the 5 of us!!

Love to all!
Amy for 3 of us.

We are here!!

Wow. What a day. Wow. So many things to say. My best-all-around-friend from high school (that’s her official title), Christine, says that she and I should go on a “The Amazing Race” together. She has been saying this for years. Well, Chrissie…too late! I am ON the ultimate Amazing Race. I am CERTAIN there are hidden cameras.

First –to Lora – she adores the blanket you made her. We toted everywhere in this story and it is amazingly still clean!! Will post pictures of her with it soon!

This post may be long – I am typing it off line and trying to remember everything – for you, my dear readers and friends, but also for Zoe Andrela & our family. There is SO much to remember and we have only been here for less than 72 hours. I’ll start at the beginning but go grab that cup of Joe!

On Thursday afternoon, we meet our adoption coordinator in New York from layover in Atlanta. We have a couple of hours to get to know each other in person. She is super nice and very helpful. We are SOOOOO thankful she is making this trip with us. Mark and I get to ask lots of questions, yada yada yada. (By the way – our lawyer today actually said ‘blah, blah, blah’ while explaining something! Ha!) We arrive in Ghana with no glitches. None whatsoever – thank you Lord! Even our 8-hour flight was not as bad as we anticipated. Mark managed to ask for a ‘bulk head’ seating which is the first row – and the next best thing to the emergency row – thank you, Lord! A little overwhelmed at Ghanaian airport – Anita is with us – thank you, Lord! So far so good!

We meet the AAI driver,load up without being accosted by many ‘helpful’ Ghanaians to our van/bus/tro-tro (big discussion about the name of this vehicle! Final answer: bus! It looks like an American ‘van’ but also looks like an African tro-tro BUT! Because it is private owned and run – not picking up people anywhere like a taxi….it is a bus! (same vehicle!) All have learned a new fact for Trivial Pursuit.

Headed to Hotel Bora Bora – lovely place – very decent AC – and flushing toilets! YAY!! We decide to take an hour or so to get settled and unpack from the plane before heading over to meet our kiddos.

For those of you who’ve seen Zoe in pictures with a little boy her age – his name is Sammy. He has a young mom & Dad from California who are here with us. We have all said many times in the past 72 hours what a blessing it has been to have another family to walk through this with AND Anita! Yay! Thank you’s, Lord! heard all the way around the ‘bus’.

After our hour of decompressing from our 8 hour flight, we grab our 2 bags of clothes and school work donations and head down to meet Brandi & Jesse in person, then get in the bus with driver & Anita and head over to the foster home. We are going to meet our DAUGHTER!! So thrilled! So nervous! Have tried to play out every scenario in my head from her running into my arms shouting mommy! To completely disinterested (expecting this to be the most realistic) to her screaming bloody murder bc an ‘obruni’ (White person!) has come to hold her!!

We could not have asked for a more PERFECT first meeting. Foster Dad came out with both children dressed in outfits we had sent them a few months ago. She came straight to us – was little sleepy – and thus allowed me to hold her and talk with her and even caught a smile or 2 in there. We spoke with P. & his other children for about an hour and then left. THANK YOU, LORD!! What a glorious first meeting and we left feeling like a million bucks. Sammy was the same way and we were all satisfied for the day. “See you tomorrow!” We are coming back to play with kids in the am and then there are 7 of us catching the 4:30 bus (real bus) to Bolgatanga to meet with our lawyer and sign the adoption papers so that they may be filed in court on Monday.

And the 4 of us today, my friends, started the AMAZING RACE! Ok – it was technically yesterday but we have not slept since Sat am and it is currently 10 pm on Sunday so it is still one long day. This is not an exaggeration. I WISH IT WAS!!!

SATURDAY AM:
Morning starts with 8:30 wake-up knock for delightful boiled egg, fresh squeezed OJ, hot tea & yummy bread with marmalade with our new friends Brandi & Jesse. Fabulous conversation had with another Christian couple in ministry who are in the same adoption process. We have much in common (and they are funny!! Yay!) and many things to discuss about our journeys!! Thank you, Jesus for orchestrating a life long friendship with an awesome couple!

We have called our driver and he will come get us to go to Foster home to see our children and play with all the kids at his house. We have confirmed a later check-out time of 3:00 instead of 12 since that is when we are leaving for the bus station.

Driver drops us off at Foster Dad's for a couple of hours. Fabulous day – Thank you, Jesus! We walk in to Foster Dad's yard hug all the kids, wave at a couple of Aunties & go in the house to see our 2 ‘babies’ of the house. After about 30 seconds, Foster Dad comes to me inside and says “Come with me, I’d like to speak to you outside”. I follow Foster Dad and as he introduces me to a beautiful young woman who I thought was an Auntie as I waved by, he says “I’d like you to meet Andrela’s birth mother.” SCREECH OF BRAKES. NO PREPARATION. NO time to get nervous. Thank you, Jesus! My brain calms down and we hug – I say a sincere-from the bottom- of my-heart-thank you. Look each other in the eye. Tell her we will love Andrela very much. She is beautiful. She turns & leaves with no salutation. Hmmmm. Very Ghanaian. Very American awkward. She has come to receive the fare to reach Bolgatanga for court this week and then leaves. Mark comes out at some point in those 60 seconds and I’m not even sure what just happened!!! We go back inside.

We play in the yard with all of the children including ours for a couple of hours. Jumping rope – drawing coloring – just hanging out and laughing. The 4 of us had a great time – so did the kids (I think!!) The weather has been graciously and uncharacterisctically, slightly overcast both days. Thanks Lord! I truly, at this point, am thinking we could not be having a better experience. We are here experiencing this with ‘friends’, we have several ‘guides’, our kids are gorgeous! We have it made!!

Side note for a couple of my AAI mommas:
David – is absolutely delightful! He has a calm, sweet spirit about him. He seems very contemplative and loving. He is realizing Bismarck will be his brother in America and he is so sweet and loving and protective of him.
Bismarck – Strap on, sister!! He is FULL of life and smiles! He is super sweet- of course one of the babies with our 2. He loved trying to do what the big kids were doing – jump rope – drawing. Very loving. VERY smiley!
Abigail – such a sweet darling. She was very respectful of adults and the other kids. The boys were having a ‘jump off’ with the jump rope to see how many times they could jump in one count. The boys were getting 50 & 60s & Abigail stepped right up with out a word and jumped to 100!!! Everybody was impressed! She was quick to remind the others not to grab or not to push.
Joseph – was very quiet while we were there. I’ll let Brandi share about Joseph as she had some special time with them. Both Joseph and Abigail were very excited and intentional about coloring pictures and dictating letters to their America Mommy & Daddy. Brandi has those too.

Back to the RACE! So we leave foster home around noon – “We’ll see you (Foster Dad & 2 children) around 3:00 pm (in 3 hours) to go to the bus station to ride the 4:30 pm bus to Bolga!!” Wave, wave, wave.

We ask to be dropped off at a restaurant around the corner from our hotel – ‘Gnat” For my island friends – NOT EVEN JOKING!! Except everyone here calls it G- Nat. It is an outdoor patio that is serving a couple of Ghanaian dishes. Time for my first real Ghanaian food! We order Jollof Rice which is spicy, fried chicken with spicy rice, with cole slaw. I liked it! Yay! Thank you, Jesus!!

We ‘hurry’ back at 2:30 on foot to be back by 3:00 to be ready. We will our guide and local Ghanaian who handles all of the adoption cases along with a beautiful woman who is our AAI rep. Mark has correctly and decidedly said that our guide looks like Terrell Owens. He is right! He is a tall, young, great-looking man who is very helpful. We will call him Owen in this story.

Owen calls Anita. The 4:30 bus filled up already and we will have to wait for the night bus. ‘Well, what time does the night bus leave?” 6:30 or 7:00. Are you sure? Oh yes! Stay at hotel and we will call you when it is time to come. OK.

So the 4 of us and Anita all pile into 1 hotel room at 4:30 to consolidate not having to pay for any more of the rooms extra. We start chit-chatting. At 7:30, another phone call….still waiting…stay put….Not enough people to fill night bus….hmmmm. For our Marietta buddies, we call Eddie in Kumasi to see if we can hire him to take us. He can’t but has a friend. Call him if we cannot find anyone. Another phone call 8 or 9:ish maybe - They think the night bus is going to fill – now we come. It is now 11 pm as we pull up to the foster home with the driver in his bus-not-a-tro-tro. Foster Dad brings us the babies gets in the bus to go and we are off!! Just a slight 7 hour delay! Thank you, Lord! The 5 of us had a fabulous time talking and discussing in an air-conditioned hotel room. And I’m not being a smarty pants on this….we really did! We never spend 7 hours just talking to people with no agenda, event to plan, or time constraints. It was delightful!!

We arrive at the bus station around 11:30 – it is captain crazy busy here. I copped my first squat!! The 3 obruni ladies must t-t so we walk down the street and find a dark spot in an alley way and go Ghanaian. Pretty proud of myself. There are people urinating everywhere here. Nobody thinks a thing of it. Hmmm. Can I get an Amen? I don’t think so.

This is where it starts getting good. Amazing Race good. We arrive. Bus is BRAND NEW. Like no joke – take on your youth trip ski retreat nice. First class airline nice. Wide, reclining seats. TV with an exceptionally bad and even more exceptionally loud Ghanaian soap opera playing. The air conditioning is so cold that the Ghanaians won’t stay on it to wait for it to fill up. They are in the yard. Obrunis still on the bus.

At this time it begins feeling a little Amazing Race-ish. The only problem with this tricked out bus is that it only goes to Kumasi. That’s only 5 hours away. Bolga is 13! But still – we all agree (with Owen) that we are making progress and we cannot afford to wait until morning or noon to start travelling as we will miss our appointment with the Adoption Lawyer bc he has to leave after our appointment to go to another town and this will delay our filing.

We talk smack with a tro-tro sized bus driver who has an 11 seater van who could take us all the way to Bolga in one trip but we only have 7 people. Brandi and Jesse and me and Mark quickly agree to just snatch up the other 4 tickets and Let’s GO!! We will pay for it. Lest you forget that all this time we have 2-2year olds.

He calls his manager – realizes it is Obrunis and we must hire him as a private driver and not just buy all 11 tickets but charges us twice the price. Owen isn’t having it. We all load onto the mack-daddy 30-below-Americans-not-complaining bus and within an hour – we are full & off to Kumasi!! THANK YOU, JESUS!! Forward motion, people.

The only kink in this plan is that we re planning to take the ‘firm’ 4:30 am Mass Transit Bus the other 8 hours to Bolga. Good plan! We will arrive in Bolga in time for our Monday-first -thing in the morning appointment with the lawyer! We make great time and arrive at 4:00 am in Kumasi at the bus station. Woohoo! All are VERY tired but in good spirits. We knew this would be long and not so pretty. We are fine. We tell ourselves: We are FINE. Everyone still has smiles on. Sleepy smiles but smiles nonetheless.

Kumasi bus station was full of a lot of very awake people or very asleep in chairs or children on the GRAVEL sleeping. We are a little shell-shocked but no-one will admit it. Seriously, we really were all doing great. BECAUSE WE HAD NO IDEA WHAT LAY AHEAD. You must know that I am laughing as I write this. Because 90% of the day, I wished that you were a mosquito on the bus to see this nonsense. Honestly, I wrote about 19 blog posts in my head along the way. Mark gathered several sermons in his. And I just kept laughing. Until about hour number 7 on that bus.

So. The 4:30 am bus has not arrived (from where? I think but don’t ask)……it looks like we will be waiting until AROUND 6:30 am or 7:00 am for the Bolga bus. We find old bench bus seats in the out door-gravel parking lot- waiting area with our babies and settle in for a 2-3 hour wait.

The Bolga bus arrives – yay!! THANK YOU, LORD!! We are finally headed towards our destination. We begin boarding around 7:00ish and depart at 7:30.

So….when you think bus – scratch the original description of our glorious first class edition. We have just boarded a version of a glorified school bus with no air-conditioning and 62 of my closest friends. With my 2 year old that I just met yesterday. The kids have been AMAZING!! The WHOLE time. They are not like our American kids…when I say ‘our’ – I’m including yours.  They aren’t running around – being loud – screaming because they see something they want – pitching fits – they are very quiet and subdued. ALL of the very young kids we see. I think part of it is culture – they get carried so much that they aren’t down walking around & it is so stinkin hot that I can’t imagine they have the energy!!

Mark and I have won the lottery and have been assigned the 2nd seat from the back. There is luggage piled EVERYWHERE!! There is a small luggage bay underneath but also lots of luggage on the floors – like 2 & 3 high- bags of agriculture, etc… The ‘back door’ where step down stairs is directly in front of us – piled so high with luggage that Mark can’t even see over it. We are now squished in a tiny little school-bus seat with Zoe for 8 hours. We realize there is a chicken in a basket right in front of us underneath 2 layers of luggage. We hear him clucking and chirping. We decide to name him Chipper for the ride. Thank you, Jesus????

It is now Sunday morning – the sun is coming up again but it is very overcast again. THANK YOU, JESUS!! All bus windows are open and Chipper is going to town. Zoe is now wide awake and quite content to watch out the windows and the people and towns passing by. There is no bathroom on this bus (It’s a school bus, silly!) and they only make one real stop where people may ‘deboard the plane’.

After about an hour, we slow to a stop in the middle of a road. Young girls and women walk up to our open windows and start yelling things I cannot even begin to understand. Loudly. They all have baskets on their heads. All of a sudden at the same time different people on the bus start hanging out the windows handing them money while they throw fruit and water bags and other such stuff into our “I can’t eat another bite” bus. Yay! Ghana’s version of the Kangaroo convenience store. That was fun. The 1st time.

Cluck Cluck!! Hey Chipper!

We hand Zoe a couple of McD’s toys a plastic dog and a plastic horse. She likes the dog but can only process 1 toy at a time. Doesn’t need horse. We are on hour 2. It’s only 9ish – still smiling. Knees hurt – butt hurts but my baby is happy and we are on our way to Bolga!! Thank you, Lord!!

We slow again – the fella behind us (on the last row) buys a whole bag (15ish) of an orange-smelling fruit. Nice! About 30 minutes later we hit a speed bump on a dirt road in a school bus going about 45 miles an hour!! AIR BORNE!!! All of us. Especially in the back. I grab the baby. Mark grabs our bag. Oranges are flying everywhere. One knocks me in the head and another lands in my lap. Chipper is clucking and everyone laughs. That was fun! Ha ha ha. Here are your oranges. Nice. Nice. Nice. I ask Mark what time it is. We are only on hour 3. Still smiling!!

On hour 4, the girl across the aisle from us and one row up starts throwing up! Yay!! Unfortunately, our friends Anita, Jesse, & Brandi are sitting directly in front of her. Mark and I quickly look out the window and sing ‘LALALALALALA” real loud in our heads to avoid looking, thinking, or smelling about it.

Isn’t my baby acting so swell? She really is. That’s no joke. She has now fallen asleep for a morning nap and is the sweetest thing ever! YAY!! THANK YOU, JESUS!

Hey! I hear Chipper!! I thought he had fallen asleep too! Nope! Still there.

I have begun calling her Zoe Andrela throughout the day and she is responding. LOVE IT!! She is the most beautiful thing in the world. By the end of the day, she even responded to just Zoe. Smart girl!

Hey! I hear Chipper!! I thought he had fallen asleep too! Nope!

Mark and I are still twisting and turning every 10-15 minutes to give the other butt cheek a rest. Poor Mark. He is 6’3” folded into a 2’2” spot. For 8 hours. Did I mention that?

Hour 5. I think maybe this is when we were allowed the exodus off the bus to tt in 15 minutes. This is no joke either – we stopped at a grassy market area with a concrete ‘pavillion’ like area with a restaurant and bathrooms. We stand around stretch – buy some rice for the kiddos for lunch to eat on the bus and HONK HONK HONK. Time to get on the bus! HONK HONK. Obrunis haven’t tt’d yet- so sorry!! HONK! Become tempted to flash the Universal sign for take a hike but decide to run to the bathroom instead.

3 Obrunis – last on bus. Dirty looks from all. HA!!

I am STILL smiling. Sorta. Running on NO food but granola bars & almonds AND we are trying not to drink much so we don’t have to pee – which means we are dehydrated. And Cramped! SQUAWK! Goes Chipper. And I laugh to myself. Isn’t this funny? It was 6 hours ago.

Hour 6 – BLUR. The only thing I can remember is that my darling new Ghanaian beauty tt’d ALL over my lap. Dunno what happened. Had on a diaper. Too much tt? Bad diaper? Bad installment of diaper? I don’t know but at this point I am so very sad about my very wet skirt.

Hour 7- I FINALLY fall asleep. With Zoe asleep in my lap – with Mark’s fleece neck pillow. Hmmmm. I sleep about 30 minutes. Long enough to get REALLY GROUCHY when I woke up. Too bad. Nowhere to go! You’re stuck on a bus! How much longer? Bout an hour. We’ve heard that before.

So, we pass the “Welcome to Bolgatanga” sign and our bus driver decides to pull over with 62 people and a chicken and get gas! I AM DYING to get out. Mark couldn’t be rolling his eyes any further back into his head.

And then – it happens. The Saturday Night Live skit of all time!! We pull out of the gas station and drive about 2-3 more miles to the BUS STATION!!!! Seriously??? Was it going to take up too much time to let us all out and THEN go get that gas?

Right before we pull in the gas station, Owen tells us that the Attorney has to go out of town tomorrow and he is now waiting in his office for us to come by to sign the adoption papers. Are we going to hotel first? Nope! Are we going to be able to change clothes? Nope! Straightaway!! Yay! Thank you, Lord that our attorney wants to come early and not late!!

As we all start throwing our luggage out the windows Ghanaian style, I realize my skirt has dried – because it has been 2 HOURS since my darling daughter released a liter of pee on me. Maybe no one will notice? Maybe we all smell bad? Anita and Brandi assure me that yes, we all definitely are dirty and smell bad. As I deboard the school bus, I realize just how disgusting it had become in those 8 hours and hold my breath as I get out. G’bye Chipper!!

The rest is not nearly as entertaining. We sign papers – we go to hotel – we go out to eat. Brandi, Anita, and Amy each almost have a break down during dinner. We order a bottle of wine and we are all better now!!

I am now in my hotel room, with my Ghanaian beauty sleeping next to me and her Daddy on the other side. We have prayed for her purposefully tonight. She is mine. There is no doubt that God had each of us in mind when he created the other. I love her so.

If you’ve read this far – you are amazing. I needed to process before sleep more than anything. Hope this will tide you over for a few days. I will try to post pictures in the morning.

It is now Tuesday early evening. We have slept all day and been in our hotel room all day….and it has been heavenly.

Couple of quick notes –
Pictures are coming. Mark’s computer is not connecting to the internet but Anita’s is. I couldn’t actually post last night bc of that. We have connection on his blackberry now so feel free to text Mark’s bb or email Mark’s email to get us. Mark’s parents have that info if anybody needs it. They are at our house.

For our Marietta friends circa 2004: the Camille & Molly days. We actually learned where “Aw Debbie, Debbie” used as an expletive in our terms came from!! It twi in Africa, ‘de be’ means ‘I do not like” “no thank you” ‘take that away’ HA!!!!! Apparently, Mark and Molly both brought that back from the 2004 Africa mission trip and forgot why!!! Hilarious. We had an entire youth group use that term for a couple of years and nobody knew where it came from. Honestly. That’s good stuff.

Love to all but especially my big boys at home!! I love you!!! Mom!

8 More Days till Africa!!!

We CAN NOT WAIT!!! 2 weeks in Africa - with our little Zoe Andrela. I can't wait to get back and post some awesome cute pictures of her!!

Prayer Requests:

1. Relationship building & bonding with Zoe Andrela while we are in Africa. We are going to get to spend some very concentrated time together on a very long bus ride and some sweet time in North Ghana for a week!

2. For all of our court proceedings, paperwork filings, and travels to go smoothly. Pray for favor with Ghanaian authorities as we move through the process at court and the embassy!

3. Pray for our 2 sweet boys at home with their grandparents. They are very excited about spending 2 weeks with grandparents. I was away last week in Texas for 4 days and was dying to get home...2 weeks sure is a lot longer! Pray for me and Mark too cause I know we'll be missing our boys!!

We hope to update facebook via Mark's phone while in Ghana. Check there for updates.

It's really happening y'all!
Amy

PayPal - Requests!

Hey Hey!

We had several emails and requests asking about PayPal - We just set up a link on the blog that will take you directly to our church's paypal account. If you give this way, please make sure that you send a follow up email to finance@thechapelbrunswick.com & cc: me so that they will know that donation should go to the adoption fund and not general funds.

THANK YOU for asking us!!!!

HUGE Praise!! We had some dear friends from church call last night and give us enough SkyMiles for an ENTIRE ticket from Savannah all the way to Accra!! THANK YOU, Lord!!!

Thanks to our sweet friends, Kim & James!!! Y'all are the BEST!!!! MANY, MANY blessings in return!!!!

Love!

HERE WE GO!!!!

Well....forward motion...Ghana - Here we come! We got a phone call last week that our program has made some definitive changes so as to be proactive with some procedure changes that are happening in Ghana. We definitely will be taking 2 trips to Ghana...and the first one is in 3 WEEKS!!!. Our heads are SPINNING!!

We're coming to get you, Zoe Andrela!!

We will now have to physically appear in court for our adoption decree. Zoe Andrela is from the Upper East region of Ghana which is very rural. We will fly into Accra with 2 other American families and then the next day take a 13-hour bus-ride to the Upper East region. (WITH ZOE!!) We will sign papers and then, hopefully, appear in court within the next 2 days. We should then, hopefully, receive our adoption decree within a day or two after that - and then be able to file our I-600 at the US Embassy in Ghana - which should be much quicker than our original (and less expensive) plan to file in the US. Then we will fly home....without Zoe :(. It should take less than 30 days to get this approval - then file for her Visa which typically takes 2-3 weeks - then go back and GET HER!! SO EXCITED! and a little bit shell-shocked - not gonna lie!

So, here are some things that we need and that you can pray for!

*$$$ - we still plan to have our benefit concert and are waiting for a date on this from our friend. We had planned to have this in late April and now our travel dates will be prior to this!
*Our trip will take approx. 15-17 days - pray for our boys during this long time away from both of us.
*Pray for Zoe Andrela - our relationships and bonding during our 2 weeks together.

*Our plane fare to Ghana will cost Approx. 130,000 SkyMiles! If you have these and would consider allowing us to use these to purchase our tickets, let us know!! We would be SO Grateful!!

Our church has set up an adoption fund if anybody wants to send tax-deductible funds - please don't write our names on the check, just put a note in the envelope with it!
The Chapel UMC
114 Harris Farm Road
Brunswick, GA
Phone: 912-262-1331

We are not worried or anxious at all! We know the Lord has called our family to adopt our Ghanaian beauty and we know He knows every step we will make and where every resource will come from!

Thanks for being excited with us!! Keep praying!! We'll keep you updated!!
Love!
Amy

PLEASE VOTE!!! MAP, International!

A very dear friend of ours is the President of an incredible international ministry that serves the global world. MAP is based in our town. They are running a contest to 'Vote for a Hero'. For every vote, Dohmen Company Foundation will donate $1 to MAP to fight Neglected Tropical Diseases and the closer the heroes get to their goal.

Go to Map, International and Vote!
MAP International.

MAP International, a Christian health ministry, promotes the total health of people living in the world's poorest communities by providing essential medicines, promoting community health development, and preventing and mitigating disease, disaster, and other health threats.

Serving over 33 million people in more 117 countries, we are a certified 501c3 with a 99% efficiency rating and a 55 year track record of providing health and hope for a hurting world.

You can vote every day up till March 20! They are trying to get $50,000 votes! Vote every day!!

Spontaneity at it's BEST!!

What an AMAZING weekend! Mark and I LOVE to lay around the house and do nothing. Seriously. We both work hard and play hard. But I also love to sleep, I'm not gonna lie. I'm a great dreamer and going to sleep is like going to the movies! I love it! But every now & then we get the notion to go a little off the beaten path. Friday, Mark had the day off. After sending the kids to school:

Mark: Let's go somewhere this weekend.
Me: Let's take the kids to Disney World!
Mark: Ok!

We looked up cheapo hotels online - found one for $35 a night!!! Packed the car - got the kids after school and headed to Orlando! (which is only 3 hours away)

We had SO much fun! The kids had a blast! Mark and I relaxed. I know you are probably thinking 'How can you relax at DW??" We just decided to BE. We weren't in a hurry. We didn't try to do everything. We soaked up just being with the kids. We laughed alot. We dreamed. (daydreaming...not sleep-dreaming!)

We didn't take a family vacation last year since we started saving money for the adoption. We had been considering a trip for just the 4 of us before we bring home Zoe and this was perfect. The kids were really surprised too!

So awesome!