Snow and Fufu

Ama wants to like snow...she really does.  And maybe she really does a little but she's not so fond of playing in it.  It takes us 10 minutes to suit her up and she lasts about 2 minutes actually playing in the snow.  Haha I don't blame the girl.  You didn't see me out there!

One of the traditional foods of Ghana is a dish called fufu.  It is a dough like food often in a red soup.  It's quite the task of making fufu.  They take a food like plantain, cassaba, or yams and mash them up in a bowl or pot with a large wooden stick that is flat on the end.  It's quite interesting to see them do it.  I was able to try it on my 2nd trip to Ghana but it's not my cup of tea that's for sure.  Ama on the other hand loves it and has been wanting us to make some.  She has been "making fufu" with her play dishes and Ethan's bat for awhile now.

Madelyn decided to enter this years Reflections contest at school.  We had never entered before so I didn't know what to expect.  The theme for the year is Magic of a Moment.  We came up with the idea of taking a picture of Ama seeing snow for the first time.  It was late October and the forecast was calling for snow so that morning when it snowed we ran outside, trying to hurry because the kids had to get to the bus, and Maddie took some pictures of Ama.  The day the entry was due I got it printed and matted it and turned it in with maybe 30 minutes to spare.  Madelyn went on to win for her age division  in photography at her school.  She then won for the Fremont area and she got invited to the ceremony for the region.  There she received a certificate of merit and did not move on to state but they chose a winner to move on and two others received this certificate of merit so she was very close to moving on to state.  I'm proud of her for trying something new and I love the photo she took.  Every time I look at it I get a little choked up thinking about all of the firsts Ama has been experiencing in this whole new world.  I'm glad Maddie was able to record this first for her.  The title of the photograph was "There's no snow in Ghana".   It's pretty appropriate.  When Ama first saw the snow she stood frozen with this look of "what in the heaven's is this?"  Then she said it was too cold until I started playing with the snow and she decided it wasn't so bad.  No quite so magical at first. Haha

V-day Dance

Madelyn had been dreading the annual 6th grade Valentine's dance at her school.  She got a new cute dress and we put curls in her hair and I think she actually had fun.  I went and watched (totally paparazzi) and had a good time seeing all these cute 6th graders interact with each other.  I saw lots of moans and groans when the slow songs came on but everyone was a good sport.  I can't believe Madelyn is 12 years old.  She's in young womans now and even taught the lesson in her Beehive class last Sunday.  This Sunday she is speaking in Sacrament meeting as a youth speaker.  Time flies!  I proud of who she is, the decisions she makes, and the beautiful girl that she is.

Introducing....

Ama 

Toward the end of May we traveled to court in Ghana to officially and legally adopt Ama.  I will post more later about our trip (really I promise).  Here she is a beautiful spunky, happy, loving, a bit of a tease little 6 year old girl.  And she's ours...We are blessed and happy.  We can't wait until she can come home for good.  Right now we are waiting on new birth certificate, passport, immigration clearance, and visa.  Ohhh the waiting.  You'd think I'd be used to it but I'm not.  And I'm impatient.

The Latest

I've been meaning to post an update for some time now. Since my last post I am happy to report that the grandmother did indeed sign off for our adoption to go forward. It took them a bit to find her but they did and she said yes. Since then we have just been doing a lot more waiting and more waiting. A few months ago they had a meeting (in Ghana) to see if everything was in order to go forward. They informed us that three more things needed to be done to get a court date. This is where we are now. We were told that those three things are almost done but it has taken a while. I hope to hear about a court date soon. When we do get a court date Chad and I will be going to Ghana to meet our little girl and to go to court. After court it will still be a few months before she can come home because we need to get her visa, passport, etc. done before she can enter the US. Yes we still have a lot ahead of us and yes it takes everything I have to be patient sometimes. I do know however that this is all in God's time. He knows us and He knows her. I just have to be more trusting sometimes. We did also get a birthdate and she is 5 years old but will be 6 next month. So...there it is right now. Praying for a court date and blessed to be on this journey. I can't show a total photo but here is one taken in January. A fun little story: I stumbled upon a blog of someone doing volunteer work at the orphanage and I contacted her to tell her thank you for the Christmas gift they gave all the children at the orphanage. She quickly wrote back and said they were going to be in Ghana for only a few more days and asked about the girl we are adopting. She then without being asked went back to the orphanage one more time and got photos just for me. It was a very kind gift from a very kind stranger. I've cherished these photos greatly. I simply can't wait to meet this little girl!

Adoption

Adoption is something that has been in my heart for as long as I can remember. I don't truly understand why (well maybe I do now) but it's always been there in the back of my mind. I remember in college while working I would occasionally look at adoption websites at children's photos. I still remember one little boys face in particular from Romania. I fell in love with that little picture and tried to convince anyone around me at work to adopt him.

Throughout the years we have been raising our kids it has come back to me often. I would research on the internet for awhile, come to the realization that it couldn't happen and tuck it away in the back of my head again....and again...and again. Over the years I have researched many different programs, collected adoption agency information (I have a file folder full), and wondered and prayed "why?". Why am I thinking about this so often. Each time I felt reassurance that there was a reason I was thinking about it, but I didn't know what it was. It's expensive, I didn't know that it was something we could ever or should afford.

I had researched many countries. Haiti, Marshall Islands, Ethiopia to name a few. I am on yahoo groups, and had contacted agencies. I knew quite a bit. I had landed on Ethiopia. We were sponsoring a girl there to go to a better school. We attended shows with beautiful native dancers and learned about charity organizations working there.

Along the way Chad mostly thought I was crazy, blowing smoke, and unrealistic I think. He let me blab about this country or that child's photo. He let me tell him about adoption tax credits and so and so who adopted 3 children from this country. He's let me browse adoption blogs until my eyes are red and I think he just let it go in one ear and out the other until it didn't. Along the way his heart has softened and he's realized that this wasn't really going away. While his head still worries about money...his heart has said yes...YES!

Awhile back I felt like I should just be patient and an opportunity would maybe drop in our lap so to speak. Well here it is. In our laps. You see, over Memorial Day weekend we go camping in Idaho with Chad's parents and their friends. Some friends of ours, that live in our neighborhood, also go with our group. While we were there I asked about my friend's dad who works in Africa as I had done before. This time my friend mentioned that his mom who visits an orphanage there had fallen in love with a little girl there and really wanted to see someone adopt her. And there it was....in our laps. I quietly started asking questions. You see few people knew about my desire to adopt. It was something I kept fairly close to me over the years. They told me what little they knew and then told me there was picture of her on Facebook with my friend's mom. I disappeared for a bit to find my phone and look on Facebook. I found the picture. I found her. She's in Ghana.

Here we are many months later, waiting to hear if her grandmother will sign off on the adoption. Waiting...waiting...waiting... That is international adoption. It's amazing how The Lord works though isn't it. How He sees the big picture.

So far we have completed our home study, put together a dossier of a mountain of paperwork, had doctor visits, fingerprints, background checks, gotten passports and visas, fed-exed galore, researched and researched some more and right now it comes down to what her grandmother decides...as it should. And we are waiting. We are blessed to have people like my friend's parents and wonderful people that they know working on our behalf in Africa. Though I can't show you pictures yet I can tell you that she is probably 5 though we're not sure. She has a beautiful smile and loves my friends parents dearly and I can't wait until she can come home.

And so we wait.

Emma Lou

So yesterday was my birthday and I couldn't resist uploading Emma's take on the birthday song. That other one was getting boring anyway :) Don't forget to mute my tunes all the way at the bottom.