When I think about how I felt 4 weeks ago it almost makes me physically sick. Don't get me wrong, I felt a huge amount of peace and I felt divine protection and provision during that time but I also felt so overwhelmed. 4 weeks ago I was alone in Ghana with 2 new children, only one of which had a visa to come home with me. I was fighting a stomach bug. I was learning how to manage the physical and emotional needs of two sweet little people who really didn't even know what their needs were. We were rolling with the punches and there were many punches.
Then 3 weeks ago at this time we were boarding a plane for a 12 hour flight to NY to come home!!!
I now sit in my comfortable home surrounded by the 5 people I love most and I feel so, so, so blessed.
Our struggles have been plenty but so have our laughs, our successes, and our hugs. All of them are blessings. You see, I have learned through this season that the struggles are sometimes the greatest blessings. I have found that God has been using some of the hardest times in this adoption journey to mold me and teach me and also to encourage others and make His name known.
Many of you who are reading this blog have never met me or my family. When I get emails from you telling me how God has used parts of our story to help you, it is humbling to me. I am so thankful.
So...I guess for now I will keep blogging.
Here are a few tidbits from this past week:
Meals have still been a bit of a challenge in our home as both new children learn what they like, and don't like, to eat in America. We still fall back on a few staple items that they love from their past. One of those foods in banku. It is a dough-like ball of starch made from cassava and maize. Imagine grits that are firm enough to form into a ball. Our children like to dip it in pepe' which is essentially salsa. I have made a ton of banku in the past 3 weeks and we have tried all different sorts of pepe'. We tried made-from-scratch pepe' with tomatoes, peppers, onions mixed...cut with a knife, a food processor, cut small, cut chunky. No luck. We tried garden fresh salsa from the vegetable section of the grocery store. No luck. We have tried rotel tomatoes with green chillies. No luck. Then we tried Tostito medium chunky salsa and WE HAD A WINNER!!!!! Our home-grown son also loves banku and this salsa. Needless to say with two growing boys we are going through that stuff so quickly!!!! After school, Gabriel goes straight to the fridge for some banku and salsa. The other day he accidentally grabbed a jar of Ragu spaghetti sauce. I watched as he dipped his banku in it and I waited for a familiar scowl and grouchy face and instead I got a smile and a "yummmm". Ragu!?!?!?! Who knew!?!? We are learning.
Speaking of learning....Gabriel went to school all week and did great. We are so thankful for his amazing teachers and classmates who are making him feel so welcome.
Did you know that "cackras" means "crackers" to our Debo Grace? and "Pufftom" means "popcorn"? She is doing SO WELL with English but every once in awhile we get a kick out of the words she comes up with to express herself.
Gabriel had his well-child check-up and besides the osteochondromas that are affecting the growth of his wrists as well as other parts of his body, he is very healthy. He kicked and screamed through the two shots that we chose to get that day. We are dreading the several other shots he will be getting at the next appointment in 3 weeks. (I wonder if they can just save them and give them all to him when he is under anesthesia for the surgery on his wrists?!?!?) We don't know when the wrist surgery will happen but it is not urgent so we will wait a little bit.
Debo Grace will have her well-child check-up on Tuesday. Her leg has healed up very nicely from her massive cut in Ghana but there are still a couple lingering sutures that haven't dissolved. Other then that I anticipate her check-up going really well and she will be much easier for me to hold down for the shots. ;-)
Gabriel is all smiles and waves on the soccer field, in the neighborhood and in school. At home, it is not quite so rosy but it is getting better everyday. He is VERY argumentative about EVERYTHING. We choose are battles as wisely as we possibly can and we let a lot go for now. It is so hard some days every day but we are all learning.
While they were in Ghana, we sent the kids a video of us reading them a book and they watched it quite a bit. Even since they have been home they often watch that video. At the end of it I say, "We can't wait to bring you home." The other night at bedtime Debo Grace and I were reading that book and at the end she said, "We can't wait to bring you home!" It was so funny! She wanted to read it again so I taped it the second time through and her ending wasn't nearly as spontaneous and cute, but I thought some of you might enjoy listening to her little voice as she "reads".
Her new self-proclaimed best friend is a sweet little girl named Claire. Claire was adopted from China several years ago and her family just recently brought home 2 new sweeties from China. Debo Grace and Claire are a very cute pair. Last week they enjoyed Chick-fil-a together and this week Claire came over for a playdate/lunch and then accompanied Debo Grace to her first gymnastics class. I wish I would have taken more photos of these sweet girls in gymnastics. It was super cute and a great hit! (Don't miss the link above of them playing CandyLand together.)
Cael is out tonight with Adam and his best friend, Will enjoying the Harlem Globetrotters. He received tickets for his birthday in January and has been looking forward to it. When we purchased the tickets we didn't know if we would be in Ghana or if we would be home with the kids so we bought 3 tickets. We didn't know if Cael would want to take Gabriel and dad, or mom and dad, or dad and granny. In the end we really felt like he would have the most fun with dad and Will. They are sitting on the first row enjoying the game as I type. I am so happy for him. He needed this extra love tonight and that makes this mama's heart very happy. He also had a great baseball game today and hit a triple while switch-hitting lefty. I didn't see it since Gabriel's soccer game was at the exact same time but was happy to hear about it after the fact. 
Gabriel had another spectacular soccer game. He had a super awesome header, several goals and an entire game of great passes. He told me while he was bathing tonight that he really doesn't want to score at all he just wants to make a bunch of good passes but "sometimes no one is open so I just have to shoot and score."
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