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.......................