Just a few tidbits from my trip

Sorry this has taken me so long to post.  I just want to share a few things from my recent trip to Ghana.  It was a wonderful trip!  Very exhausting because I did it so quickly but wonderful to spend time with our kids, meet Rebecca's new Mom Cynthia and see Rebecca preparing to leave for the U.S.

Here are a few pics:

Abi and Joseph enjoying the recorded book Omar and I got for them.  We took turns reading the story Frosty the Snowman to them and now they can listen to it and hear our voices whenever they want.

This is kind of funny.  When we were in Ghana on our first trip Omar was showing Abi and Joseph how to curl their tongue.  Abi has been practicing and she wanted me to take a picture to show her Daddy!  She's a very determined girl with a great sense of humor!

In this picture I was giving a child at Paul's house a welcome bag from his new parents.  Amy Fritchman did this for us and I felt priviledged to be doing it for someone else.  This is Emanuel and he now knows he has parents!

The three of us waving to Omar wishing he was there with us!

So...... we are officially waiting again.  We probably won't hear anything at all until middle to end of January!  We hope sooner than later and are trying to be patient with this stage.  It's hard!  We are making strides with their bedrooms.  Getting close to being finished.  Soon we will start buying some clothes and necessities they will need when they come home.  We're trying to drag it out a little to have something to keep us busy while not waiting too long and end up stressed and frantic at the end trying to complete things. 

Happy Holidays!!

I'm Back!!

I'm back from trip #2 to Ghana.  I got home Thursday afternoon.  The trip was great!  It went very smooth and it was so great to spend time with Abi and Joseph.  I got the I600 filed on Tuesday the 7th!  The countdown officially begins.  We should have approval by middle to end of January!!  (60 days max)  Please think positive thoughts for a quick approval. 

I will post some pics and details later.....

Headed to Ghana Tomorrow

This will be my last post until I return!  I head back to Ghana tomorrow returning Wednesday.  Very quick trip!  I have an appointment at the Embassy in Accra Tuesday to file the I600 applications for Abi and Joseph!  This is a huge step and after it is filed we can "officially" start the count down to bringing them home!

We are "hoping" to be able to bring them home mid to late February.  Could, possibly, be a little sooner and that would be so wonderful!  It could also take a little longer and we really hope not.

Anticipate new pictures when I return!

Rebecca's Coming Home!

Remember Rebecca?  The little girl at the foster home with Abi and Joseph?  Well her visa is being picked up tomorrow and she will be home with her family for Christmas!

I will see them in Ghana when I arrive Sunday!  We'll celebrate for sure!

December 1st = World Aids Day = Know the facts, share the truth

UPDATE 12/1/2010 - please visit this blog http://gillispiefam.blogspot.com/2010/11/world-aids-day-dear.html  She writes about it prefectly!  Much more proficiently than I can.

 You CANNOT contract HIV from casual contact. HIV is not found in tears, sweat, snot, feces and urine.
You don’t have to fear catching HIV through day-to-day activities with people who are HIV+. You are free to share plates, cups, utensils, food, toilets, towels, linens and other household items without risk of transmission.
There has never been a case of accidental transmission in a normal household setting.
HIV cannot be spread by shaking hands, hugging, & kissing infected individuals.
Chances are, you know someone with HIV/AIDS. Chances are, you can't tell them apart from anybody else in the crowd. Please, if you haven't already, take a few moments to educate yourself about what HIV/AIDS is today--a chronic but VERY MANAGEABLE disease! Please, if you know the TRUTH about HIV--spread it! It's contagious! (courtesy of http://www.gillispiefam.blogspot.com/)

Heading To Ghana

We received word today that the decree has been picked up and there are no mistakes!  This is huge!!

I am leaving for Ghana Saturday and have an appointment at the Embassy on Tuesday the 7th to file the I600's for the kids!  One more step (and a big one!!) to bring them home.

We are very hopeful that we can have them home sometime in February. 

The Post that isn't a Post

I have been purposely not posting waiting for the good news I want to share.  I'm getting impatient so I am going to post but it isn't really a post.  All I can say is stay tuned tomorrow because we hope to have some great news to share.

News about a certified adoption decree, a trip to Ghana in just a few short days and the filing of our next piece of paperwork at the embassy in Ghana that will get us another step closer to bringing Abi and Joseph home.  I hope that is my next post!!

On another bright note.....Rebecca (the subject of my previous post) had a very successful exit interview at the embassy and will hopefully have her Visa this coming Friday.  Her Mom is leaving tomorrow to spend the rest of the time in Ghana with her until that Visa is printed!!!!  She should be home for Christmas as hoped for!

Stay tuned for another post tomorrow that really will be an update!

REBECCA

I've been thinking about Rebecca a lot in the last few days and especially today.  You will remember her from all our pictures from our trip.  She is the little girl that was with us a lot and a very good friend to Abi and Joseph.  She lives in the same foster home as our kids and comes from the same village they do.

Tomorrow morning bright and early in Ghana her Visa Exit Interview takes place.  This will hopefully go well (and it should).  Once that is done she should receive her visa within 1-3 weeks.  Her adoptive family is so anxious to bring her home to America before Christmas!

If you wake up about 12:30 am Mountain time tonight and wonder why, it might be to take a moment and send all the positive thoughts you can to Ghana and a little girl at the embassy on the last step before she can come home!

I-171H (I600A approval)

It's not a huge step but it is a step and every step gets us a little closer right now.  We received this little piece of paper today with these words:

NOTICE OF FAVORABLE DETERMINATION CONCERNING

APPLICATION FOR ADVANCE PROCESSING OF ORPHAN PETITION

Number of Children 1-2  (good thing because we adopted 2)

Gender - Either  (good thing because we got one of each)

Age - 0-11  (that'll work they are 7 & 8)

There is this great letter attached that explains to "Whom It May Concern"  all the fingerprinting (yep twice) that was done, the check against the Child Abuse Registry, the home study (yep 4 home visits, 8 classes, 10 more hours of parent training, and mounds and mounds of paperwork), a series of background investigations (yep sure was) and more. 

It ends with this little papragraph:

"In light of these requirements, if presented with form I-171H indicating that USCIS has approved a U.S. citizen's application to proceed with an intercountry adoption, the proper authority of another country may properly infer that USCIS has carefully considered the facts of the citizen's case, and that USCIS has concluded that the citizen's household is suitable for intercountry adoption."

Yeah......we could have told you that!! 

Come on adoption decree!!!!!  We need you next so I can high tail it back to Ghana and file the next piece of paper!!

The remainder of our Ghana Trip

Ok.... so I've been bad about journaling the rest of the trip.  Sorry!  Life gets in the way.

After the great weekend spent with the kids they continued to stay with us in our hotel room every night until Tuesday night when they went back to Auntie Ruth's for Tues, Wed and Thurs nights so that they could go to school.  We did however spend every afternoon after school with them.  This was great because we were able to help them with their homework everyday which helped us judge where they are academically.

Monday was a day we arranged for the girls (Abi and her friend Rebecca) to have hair extensions put in their hair.  It is extremely affordable in Ghana to do this and the girls love it!!  It does however take MANY hours to accomplish.  It was an all day thing to get both girls hair done but worth it because they loved it so much!

Abi getting her extensions

And then Rebecca next

The finished product....beautiful hair and two happy girls!

On Tuesday we made a trip out to the village Abi and Joseph come from.  It was a long journey in the AAI van (about 3 hours each way) but well worth it.  We are so glad we went!  Abi and Joseph were so excited to show us where they come from and so very proud to return to their village and introduce us.  We met some extended family members and many other families who live in the village.  For the purpose of privacy I'm not going to post any pictures right now or go into much detail.  Let's just say it was a great experience that we will never forget and I don't think Abi and Joseph are likely to forget it either. 

As I mentioned above the rest of the week we spent afternoons with the kids and then Friday they came back to spend our last night in Ghana with us.  We went out to dinner that night at a place called Next Door Beach Restaurant.  We were able to eat outside on a large patio and the view was beautiful! 

Abi wanted to take a picture of us and of course we were being goofy

The whole group (except me since I'm taking the pic)

Joseph eating Fufu and lovin' it

In case you wonder what Fufu is!

Abi lovin' her "frenchy chips"

Saturday we spent just hangin' with the kids.  We walked to The Ultimate twice that day...once for breakfast and once for a later lunch/dinner.  It was a kind of subdued day because we all knew we were leaving that night.  Abi cried throughout the day and so did Joseph.  Just a very emotional day for them and us.  We kept assuring them we will be back and tried to talk a lot about the future so they could focus on that. 

Saturday evening the AAI van came to pick us up and we stopped and picked Auntie Ruth and Rebecca up as well so they could all see us off at the airport.  The airport was hectic and between all the traffic, all the people and the emotions of saying goodbye we headed to our gate feeling like we had been run over by a truck.  If you're wondering if it was hard to say goodbye at the airport.....yes it was!!  Very hard on all of us.  So tough to bond like that and then say goodbye for who knows how long. 6-8 weeks???  The hope is no longer than that!  And then I will be the only traveling to file the I600 so for Omar the time apart is much longer....probably 4 months or so....and again hopefully not longer.

The toughest part of adoption so far???  THE WAITING!!!  Have I mentioned that before?

Ghana Days 5 & 6

On Saturday, the day after court, we took the kids swimming at The Dutch Hotel.  It wasn't very far at all from our  hotel.  They were very nice there and Auntie Ruth talked them in to giving us a little discount since there would be 6 of us swimming.  Yeah Auntie Ruth!!

The hotel was really nice and you could walk right down to the beach.  Beautiful! 

Abi and Joseph don't know how to swim but are very eager to learn.  Joseph was fearless and will learn very quickly....  in fact he probably would have been swimming in a day or two if we had been able to go to the pool consecutive days.  Abi is a little more cautious but she kept stepping out of her comfort zone more and more.  Brave girl!!

We also took Rebecca with us (another girl in the foster home very close to coming home to her parents).  She LOVED the water!!!!  A complete fish.... we called her bubbles after that.  It fits her!  She loves the water and she has this cute little bubbly personality and laugh!

All the kids in the pool with Daddy! 

Abi and Rebecca

Joseph being a little pouty

Abi, Rebecca and Brendon

Abi (left) and Rebecca (right)....such good friends!

Joseph still a little pouty.  He wouldn't come all the way down to the beach.....we never could figure out why... hmmmm

Needless to say the kids were EXHAUSTED that night!  So much fun!! 

On Sunday we took the kids to the Accra Mall.  It is a very modern mall much like our malls....actually much better than the mall in our town!  The kids asked to go there a day or two after we arrived.  There is a kids play area they like and it is a treat for them to go there.  There is also a Shoprite that we could buy some groceries for our hotel room and a food court where we could have pizza!  For some crazy reason we didn't get pictures that day.  :( 

It was a great bonding weekend with our kids!  It was obvious they were cycling through a broad range of emotions as they adjusted to us, and us them, learned about us, and us them.  They would go from ultra happy to pouty and emotional and back very quickly but we felt like this was perfectly normal.  Through that they learned that we are their parents and they are our kids and we would handle things as they came up...... hug them when they need it and tell them no when needed as well.  Omar and I felt like just acting like normal parents on an outing with our kids was the best way to gain their trust and judging how our time in Ghana progressed I think it worked well.


To be continued......

Ghana Days 3 & 4 (court day!)

Okay so I thought I would post everyday about our trip.....easier said than done!  But here is the next 2 days better late than never.

Day 2 in Ghana we slept in (exhausted from the trip!) and just kind of killed time until we could grab a taxi and go to Auntie Ruth's to get the kids once they got out of school.

When we arrived at Auntie Ruth's (after much confusion with the taxi driver!) she was busy cooking.....for us!  She made us fried plantain and beans.  It was soooo good.  She explained how to make fried plantain and I'm anxious to try it myself.  I know the plantain won't be as good here but still....

Auntie Ruth making the fried plantain...yummy!

Once the kids arrived from school they were so excited to see us and us them.  I got the feeling they felt a sense of relief....we came back!! (as if there was any question)  Can't imagine what fears go through their little minds.  We explained to them that they were coming to spend the night with us in our hotel so that we could leave very early the next morning for court.  COURT!!!  Yeah!  Auntie Ruth was worried about Abi's hair and my ability to fix it.. :)  and rightly so!

Autie Ruth fixing Abi's hair for me.

Waiting for the AAI van to pick us up for court.  Poor Abi all the clothes I took her were a little too big! 

Once the van arrived we stopped by Paul's house to pick up Abi and Joseph's bio Mom.  She had to appear in court with us.  (I'm going to do a separate post about their Mom and meeting her etc).  Then on our way down town to court.

When we arrived we parked in a parking lot to wait.  After a few minutes Catherine (AAI staff in Ghana) came to tell us there was a "little problem".  My stomach sunk and Omar and I both though "oh oh we aren't going to court today".  Catherine said some paperwork had not been filed by social welfare as the gentleman who was supposed to file it was bereaved but he was trying to get permission to file it as we spoke so that we could still go to court that day.  Catherine said "we wait".  Uugh.....3 kids waiting in a hot van.  We brought coloring books and snacks and it was a good thing! 

After several hours of waiting Catherine suddenly got out of the front seat of the van and said "we should go"....what???? we should go???  Now???  Just like that we were taken into the court room to wait a little longer on benches with many other people.  Shortly we were called into the judges chambers.  Everyone goes in.....All 5 of us, Catherine, the attorney, Abi and Joseph's Mom, a man from social welfare and the judge.  After a brief presentation of the facts by the attorney the judge spoke and said the adoption was granted and Abi and Joseph were now Abigail Okine Venegas and Joseph Okine Venegas.  Yeah!!!!  We left the judges chambers and headed out to the van.  Just like that they were ours!
It's hard to describe the feeling so I'm not even going to try.  The kids had big smiles on their faces! 

Later in the afternoon Auntie Ruth and Rebecca came to our hotel room to go with us to Frankie's for a celebrations dinner.  Frankie's is kind of a traditional spot families go to celebrate.  It is air conditioned and the food is more American.  They had excellent pizza!  And ice cream!!



The whole gang at Frankies.  Abi only wanted "frenchy chips" for dinner.  Hmmmm...my Mom instinct was having an internal battle about this...but oh well....it's a celebration right?? Joseph loved the pizza though!



After dinner and ice cream we took a VERY crazy taxi ride back to our hotel.  When we left for dinner it probably took us about 20 minutes to get to Frankies and it was daylight.  By the time we headed back it was dark, traffic was HORRIBLE and we spent about 2 hours all crowded into one hot taxi going back to our hotel via bumpy back roads with bumper to bumper traffic.  At some point Auntie Ruth became  very upset with the taxi driver and they were arguing in their language.  When we finally arrived at our hotel I told the taxi driver "thank you".  Auntie Ruth said "don't thank him he's a terrible taxi driver!!"  Too funny!!!!

To be continued.......................

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.......

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!

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.....

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!!

Why is Waiting So Hard?

By the title you can see we are still waiting for a court date.  I look at the calendar and the time that has passed since our dossier arrived in Ghana and I realize we haven't been waiting all that long...really.  But it seems like an eternity.  The scary thing is we have a lot more waiting ahead of us.  Let me explain:

Once we go to court we WAIT for the adoption decree.
Then I most likely go back to Ghana and file the I600 and we WAIT for I600 approval (and the timeline for that is unknown right now because of changes)
Then we file for the Visas and we...yes you guessed it....WAIT for the Visas to be approved and printed

We really hope our WAITING is over by February or March at the latest but I guess we will just have to Wait and see.

Waiting is always going to be hard.. mainly because we want it and are ready for it to happen now, and by waiting, we worry that it won't come and that something will go wrong. We are trying not to forget to live in the meantime.  We know waiting for them will be worth it.  We also know the wait doesn't change the chances of it happening.  Yet we are still struggling with the wait and probably will all the way through until we are on a plane bringing A & J home.

In the meantime we are trying to keep busy (and we are!) so why is it so hard???  We have been working on remodeling A &J's bathroom.  I found out men get the nesting instinct too!!  Ha!  Here's proof:

Shower before the backer board was all up....new plumbing!



Tile about half way up the wall

About 2/3 the way up the wall now....we went to the ceiling.

We grouted the tile a couple nights ago.  It looks great!  I will post a pic of the finished product later.  We now need to hand texture the ceiling, paint the ceiling, paint the walls, install some shelves where an old medicine cabinet was and the best part.....accessorize!  As soon as this project is finished we move on to A & J's bedrooms.  The fun part!

In the meantime I have to WAIT until we finish the bathroom before I start the bedrooms.

Amazing 11 Year Old Girl

I want to post today about a 11 year old girl that leaves me speechless.  She is doing more for orphans in Ghana than most adults.  You HAVE to check out her blog at:  http://feedingtheorphans.blogspot.com/

She has accomplished this so far:

Our 11 year old daughter designed a shirt months ago to feed the orphans of Ghana, West Africa. When we traveled a few weeks ago, we visited several different orphanages to deliver food and fed a group of over 500 children. She is still raising money for these kids. 

We are now trying to find monthly food sponsors for the kids at $20/month. This will ensure they receive 3 meals/day. If you are interested in sponsoring a child or making a one-time donation, please let her know. Her t-shirts are still for sale, too. They are $15 each and are youth and adult sizes. All donations and purchases are tax deductible.


Lastly, she is selling bottle cap magnets for $2/each and chokers with a bottle cap for $5. The money from the magnets will help her buy her own plane ticket to Ghana to minister to the orphans. She still needs $550.  - this was posted by her Mother on a forum we are involved in.

She has some videos on her blog and pics of some of the kids A&J have been living with in Ghana.  When she mentions Paul's orphanage that is where A&J have lived up until just recently when they were moved to Auntie Ruth's.

This little girl is amazing!!!

Stay Tuned!!

I think we are going to have some news very, very soon!  I would guess that within the next 30 days we will be the legal parents of A&J in Ghana and we just have to work on the steps to get them home!

Not much to post

I haven't posted because we don't have much to say right now..... we are just waiting.  Waiting for that court date and hoping to hear a date any day! 

Our I600A was filed a little over a week ago so I guess that is news.  This is an "Application For Advance Processing of an Orphan Petition".  We will be waiting on that approval simultaneously as we wait for a court date and then the adoption decree (comes 2-6 weeks after the court date). 

Other families adopting from Ghana have had some great news this previous week.  There were many families that had been waiting for a very long time (more than normal) for the Visas to bring their children home.  Many of those Visas came through last week and families are bringing their kids home!  This is great for them and also a huge plus for families in the process like us because some of the issues the Embassy in Ghana has been working through seem to be getting resolved!  This is great news for A and J because hopefully they will be able to come home sooner rather than later!

I am anxious to share pictures and videos of A and J but can't until after court.  Soon....... very very soon!

Dossier Sent To Ghana!

Well....our Dossier is finally on it's way to Ghana and should arrive there this week.  We are so anxious to hear some news of a court date.  We have been advised to be prepared to travel on short notice and we are ready to go as soon as we get the word!  We have our vaccinations, our travel visas and lots of anticipation. 

A and J are doing well.  They have been moved to a smaller foster home and our being taken care of by "Auntie Ruth".  This will give them a little more one on one care and some female nurturing until they can come home.

We made the decision this weekend to start working on their rooms very soon and start buying things they will need.  We want to be ready if the process goes quick and if it has delays it will give us something in our home that feels like they are part of it.  Also,  we can take pictures and send to them via other families traveling to help give them the security of knowing their new home is waiting for them.

Can't post any pictures yet......but very soon.....after our court date.

Mountains of Colorado

We went camping and jeeping last weekend in the mountains above Silverton. There are some beautiful mountains in Colorado.

This is a gorgeous lake we came across at about 12,500 feet in elevation!

 Look how blue the lake is!!

 Our jeep coming up a rocky hill

 All the jeeps at the beginning of the trip

An an old house in a ghost mining town called Animas.  Imagine living there in the winter!

We had a great time but came to a conclusion at the end of the trip.....before Abi and Joseph get here we need a pop up camper!!  3 kids...two adults....tents.... cooking..... sleeping..... I DON'T THINK SO!!

So guess what we bought yesterday........

"OFFICIAL REFERRAL"

We have accepted an official referral of two children in Ghana!

We have committed to adopting 8 year old Abigail "Abi" and 7 year old Joseph. We are hoping to have a court date by the middle of October and will travel to Ghana at that time and go to court for the adoption in Ghana.

We can't post any pictures until after court but let me just tell you Abi is beautiful and very obviously full of life. Joseph is very handsome and loves sports.

We really hope to have our kids home by February or March. It could be later but we are really hoping for that time frame so keep our adoption in your thoughts.

On another note....the clothing and toy drive was very successful! Thank you to everyone that donated and/or came to our Ladies Happy Hour for the drive. There will be many kids in Ghana who will benefit from your generosity!

Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way.- Abraham Lincoln

We are hoping to have some very good news to share in the very near future. As sad as we feel about the kids we thought we were going to be adopting that situation has led us to another possiblity that has made us believe there are children in Ghana waiting for us and only us.

Very sad news

It has taken me a few days to be able to post this news. Sadly, we will not be adopting Vivian and Noah. There has been a complication and the children had to be returned to their village. It has been heartbreaking and we will always have these children in our thoughts.

We do plan to move forward with adoption from Ghana but are evaluating exactly what that means. We will not be traveling to Ghana in 3 weeks. We need to postpone that trip until we have identified a child or children that need to be adopted and fit into our family.

We hope we can move forward in the very near future and will post information as soon as we have some.

Clothing Drive

We have scheduled a date for a clothing drive. There are so many kids in Ghana in need of basic things like clothing and shoes. So when we travel to Ghana September 3rd we are going to take 3 extra suitcases full of items we collect.

The drive is set for August 17th at 5:00 pm until approximately 7:00 pm. Our friends have offered their house for the event since it is centrally located.

The Brillhart House
2523 Falls View Circle
Grand Junction

Come by and have a cocktail and bring your much appreciated donations!! Clothing for kids of all ages and sizes!

And....don't worry if we get too much stuff we will just take more suitcases full of items on our next trip to Ghana when we pick up our kids!

Home Study.......Done

We completed our home study yesterday and we are just waiting for our clearances to come back (hopefully within the next 3 weeks) so we can send our dossier to Ghana and Kofi can request a court date!

We also booked our plane tickets for our trip to Ghana!! We are going September 3-10 and Brendon is going with us. It is going to be a great trip learning about Ghana...their people and their culture, meeting Kofi and most of all meeting our kids! We will be taking as many extra items as we can (we can fill 3 extra suitcases) to donate both to the foster home and the village where our kids came from. My Mom is also making little snuggly blankets for all the kids in the foster home.

We made a decision about Vivian's name as well. We are going to name her Vivian Belle Venegas with the idea that we will probably call her Belle. Belle means beautiful and it sure fits her!

Next step..... more shots next Friday...Brendon starts getting his too....that produced a frown from him :)

Relief!!

Well.....Noah is doing much better. We got a message this morning from Kofi in Ghana and he said he is smiling and fine. He said he is so adorable and smiling all the time to the point everyone in the foster home wants to take turns holding him because he is so adorable. That's such a relief! I'm sure it is for his sister too who must have been worried about him. She has been doing fairly well all along because things were able to be explained to her.

We got the green flag to book our flights in Septmeber around the 17-24 as Kofi will be available to show us around etc. Can't wait to meet our kids!!

We are hoping to fill 2-3 suitcases with clothes, shoes, toys etc so if anyone has donations to help fill suitcaes let me know!

It's Official!

Well....it's official.....we have two children in foster care in Ghana, Africa. They were moved yesterday and the Mother relinquished her rights. Our little girl (5 years old) is doing fine but Noah (the 5 month old)is having a rough time. He has been crying pretty much the last 24 hours. I wish I was there! I'm sure one of the biggest issues for him is that he has always been breast fed and now has to take a bottle. TOUGH STUFF for a 5 month old! I just hope he can calm down soon and adjust!

We finished 2 out of 4 of our home study visits as of today. We finish the final 2 next weekend and then will just be waiting for our fingerprints to come back from CBI in order to send our dossier to Ghana to apply for a court date.

We are looking at booking our trip to Africa for mid september. We will probably take care of that this week.

One step at a time!!

And then there were two......

Big news! Seems Noah has an older sister that the Mother needs to give up for adoption too. She is about 5 years old. We received an email yesterday morning from our adoption agency Ghana Coordinator asking if we would be interested in adopting her as well. After getting over the initial shock of the news Omar and I decided we would like for the siblings to stay together and decided we will adopt her as well.

Both kids will be moved to the foster home tomorrow and the Mother will be relinquishing her rights.

So....our family just grew literally over night!

We'll keep you posted.

Our First Blog Entry!

Welcome to our blog! This is our first post so it will probably be short. Many of you already know but for those of you who don't.....Omar and I have decided to adopt. This decision has lead us to a little boy in Ghana, Africa. He is currently 5 months old and we are naming him Noah Zachary Venegas. We are just beginning the process so this blog is a way to journal our experience for us, for Noah and for all our family and friends.

We are currently waiting for news that Noah has been moved into the foster home our agency has in Accra, Ghana.

When we have more news I will post. I will also be posting pictures as soon as they become available and we are given permission.