A Whole New Story.....

Hey. Remember me? I'm Carrie. The one who used to (not-even-so-regularly-then) post on this blog. Ya know, back in the days when we were adopting our two kids (Serwaa & Konto) from Ghana, West Africa. But then the kids got home. And I kinda stopped writing. Not that I had nothing to say! There were soooooo many funny things that I wish I would've recorded over the last few years! There were lots of firsts for the new kiddos. There was lots of sibling jealousy. There was an endless amount of hilarious stories due to my children not fully understanding English.... I just got busy and stopped blogging.

But I'm back. (You're welcome. Haha!) And I have a lot to say. But first- I guess I should fill in what all has happened since I last posted. Here's the quick recap:

In March 2014, I went back to Ghana. This time it had nothing to do with adoption. It was more like a mission trip. (We now have a small non-profit working in Ghana.) We were there to deliver medical supplies to a new hospital, purchase chickens for an orphanage poultry farm, have clothes made for the orphanage kids, deliver Bibles, and pay school fees for the high school & college age orphans. (And probably some other things I forgot...) Anyways- that was it.

While there I met 6 month old twin baby girls at one of the orphanages. No big deal. I'm more of a fan of older children. That was mid March. Near the first of May, we got news that the twins had fallen ill, been diagnosed as HIV+, and were taken to (and left at) the government hospital where they were expected to 'expire'. No one was able to care for them due to their illness. Furthermore, it was going to be fairly impossible to find an adoptive family in time. (The Social Welfare officer in that area was requiring that a family meet the kids, then return in  a month to adopt if they still felt compelled.) On top of that, this particular orphanage had never done an adoption. A family would need an agency to walk them through the process. Unless...... that family was VERY familiar with Ghana adoption & could proceed without an agency. (This would be ideal because the process would go quicker without hiring an agency and waiting for them to get everything in order.) But- the family would have move very quickly in order to get through court & file immigration paperwork before the US law changed (on July 14, 2014) to REQUIRE families to use an agency to adopt. This wouldn't be possible- unless the family had already met the girls a month prior (thus skipping the month-long waiting period SW required). As it so happened, I had already met the girls, was familiar with the process, and we were comfortable working without an agency. So, it began.

After a very short adoption process, the girls made it home on September 20th, two days before their first birthday.

Well, I said I was going to tell the short version. I may have lied. Sorry. But now you're caught up. So here we are with 5 kids. And two of them with a disease that terrifies most of the world.

That's where I'm stopping for tonight. But it is only the beginning of what I have to say.....