ADOPTING ONE CHILD WON'T CHANGE THE WORLD; BUT FOR THAT CHILD THE WORLD WILL CHANGE.



Thursday, October 28, 2010

Ghana trip Days 1 & 2

I thought I would try to post a sort of journal of our trip by posting a couple days at a time.  We left Grand Junction, Co on the morning of Tuesday October 12th and arrived in Ghana Wednesday about 1:00 in the afternoon.

Here we are at the Grand Junction airport getting ready to leave for our first trip to Ghana!

When we arrived in Ghana we were met at the airport by the AAI driver Daniel.  We loaded up our 6 bags (yes 6!!....3 were donations) and headed out.  I asked Daniel "where are we going first" he says well "we will drop your bags off at your  hotel and then I think you want to see the kids"....how did he know??  Yeah...we want to see our kids! 

We checked into our hotel and then stopped to purchase a cell phone and some minutes to use while in Ghana and then headed to Auntie Ruth's.  So nervous!! When we got there the kids were still in school.  Auntie Ruth said she had not told them we would be there that day.  They knew we were coming that week for court but not which day.  We didn't have to wait long and we could hear kids talking outside and in came Abi, Joseph and Rebecca (another adopted child still staying at Auntie Ruth's while her parents work on getting her visa).  Auntie Ruth said "Abi and Joseph who is this?"  After a few moments hesitation they realized who we were and came flying across the room and gave us the biggest hugs I've ever had in my life!!  Almost knocked me right out of my chair!!  It was a great moment and I know one Omar and I aren't likely to forget.



The camera was on the wrong setting for these first two photos. :(



These first photos were taken at Auntie Ruth's.  After spending a little time there Daniel took all of us to our hotel (including Auntie Ruth and Rebecca) and then we walked over to The Ultimate to eat dinner.





It was a great first day in Ghana!  After dinner Auntie Ruth and the kids all piled in a taxi to go back to Auntie's house for the night since they had school the next morning.  We made plans to go to Auntie Ruth's house to get the kids when they got out of school the next afternoon.  We were ready for some much needed sleep!!  We had basically been up for about 44 hours other than a little sleep on the plane. 

To be continued.......

Monday, October 25, 2010

We're Back from Ghana!

We are back!  It was an amazing trip!!  A trip we will never forget and the kids are amazing!  We bonded with them so quickly and so closely.  Leaving them in Ghana was heartbreaking for us and them.

I will post pics and details in a few separate posts as soon as I get a chance to get organized.  We got home yesterday afternoon and we were exhausted.  It's back to work this morning....no rest for us!

Oh yeah.....and the adoption is taken care of in Ghana!  We were granted a full decree and their names were changed to Venegas. 

Next step??  I600-Petition To Classify Orphan as an Immediate Relative. 

Note to U.S. Embassy:  please work fast!

Monday, October 11, 2010

Last Post Until We Get Back

We are leaving in the morning!!  We will land in Accra on Wednesday 12:40pm Ghana time!! 

We've packed, planned, made lists, packed some more, revised lists, packed some more, revised the list some more....STRESSFUL!!  We hope we have everything we need and if not...oh well!!

We may not have internet access while we are gone but will try to get to an internet cafe and post of fb at least a couple times. 

When we get back (the 24th) we will have lots and lots of pics and stories!!

Until then.....

Thursday, October 7, 2010

We Have A Court Date!!

We got the great news today!  We have a court date in Ghana next Friday, October 15th!  We are so excited and happy.  We are working on travel arrangements now....hoping to leave Tuesday and stay until Saturday the 23rd.

Abi and Joseph we're coming!!