Saturday in Ghana

It really feels like we have been here a long time.  To think it has only been 3 days is very shocking to us! We are really getting to know our kids well and each day we love them more and more.

-Our son can eat more in one meal than his mama. That boy loves to eat and he especially loves a Ghanaian dish called banku. It comes as a white round ball wrapped in cellophane. It is soft and mushy but a little pliable.  He pulls off a piece and rolls in into a ball in his fingers and then he dips it into a sauce that is similar to salsa. Adam and I enjoyed it as well.

-Our daughter loves rice.  She will eat all kinds of rice but if there are any vegetables in it she will pick them all out. She also loves chicken and fish.

-Our son has become an expert at Subway Surfer. ;-) He also is learning so many manners in how to ask mom for her phone politely.

-Our daughter has become an expert accessory. She clings to mom's neck and doesn't often let go. Legs around my waist and arms around my neck and off we go. Thankfully she is a little peanut so carrying her isn't too difficult. By the end of the day though I am tired. There will be time to break her of this habit but for now we only have 2 more days and I am loving all the close snuggling time.

-Our son loves to pick on his sister and then she copies eveything he says to make him mad. They are very typical siblings and this normalcy makes us feel happy.

Today we got to sleep in! Yay!  We were desperate for a good night's sleep. When we woke up our hotel security guard took us for a walk down the road to see the local river.  It was a beautiful view and we really ejoyed seeing all the locals out doing their early morning chores.  Many people passed by carrying their water on their heads. It is truly remarkable how much we take for granted in the states. One thing that was really ironic to me was the lady carrying a huge jug of water on her head and texting on her cell phone. True!

I really enjoyed passing out some smarties and lolipops to the local children. They were hesitant to take them at first but when their moms gave them the OK then they were all smiles. We also gave out some bubbles and raisins.  All of these things were very foreign to the children living near our hotel.

Speaking of our hotel, the road leading up to it is the bumpiest road I have ever encountered.  I am not exaggerating! There are divots and crevaces in this road that might be small mountains and we are driving up and down them everyday, several times. It is getting a bit old especially when our sweet girl gets sick. Again today she emptied the contents of her stomach all over herself and me. Thankfully, we were on our way to the beach and we were able to shed our nasty clothes and clean up.

We met the kids from the orphange at the beach today and had a wonderful time.  The highlights included:
-meeting all of the children that our kids have been living with for the past 3 months.
-meeting the house moms and dads and volunteers who have been taking care of our children.
-playing with all these very sweet kids who are starving for love and attention.
-watching Adam throw the boys into the waves as they giggled and yelled. (many of them were stark naked, by the way). ;-)
-feeling my little girl still snuggled around me or close to my leg holding my hand the whole day even while the house mother who speaks her language and has been caring for her for 3 months is standing right there.
-buying our son a coke and watching as he shared it with all of his friends. They each took a small swig.

After the beach we went to a wonderful place for dinner and enjoyed trying the banku and some other delicious dishes. Adam got the fish and chips. It was quite different from what we are used to as the fish was whole...head and all. He enjoyed it!

Following dinner we drove about an hour to the orphange and saw where are kids have been living.  It is full of many wonderful people and a lot of love. Certainly the conditions could be better but for a rural village in Ghana it is not so bad. The kids did not mention staying and were anxious to leave when the time came. They are staying in town this week while we are here at the home of their social worker who is with us all the time. We would do anything to bring them home with us now. But as it stands they will be in the orphange for another few months. We know they are in good hands and our reunion will be sweet when it comes. Tonight when they dropped us off at our hotel both kids really wanted to stay with us. That is not acceptable at this stage in the process so we kissed them goodbye and sent them with the social worker. This is preparing us for Monday night when we fly back to the U.S. It will be difficult.

We are so tired after this long day and very excited to sleep tonight. I am once again borrowing this computer so you will have to wait for all the pictures until we return to America. Sorry!!

Thank you so much for your prayers. I am confident they are keeping me from puking on these roads and my back from breaking with all this carrying. ;-) Adam is also doing great!