Birth Certificates.....

We got the corrected birth certificates on Friday! One more thing checked off the ever-growing list! Now if we can just get the elusive death certificate, we can file the I600! I am so sad to say that I will have to file it in the US. We just don't have enough money to fly to Ghana again to file it there. Period.

I absolutely HATE to file it here though. From the time I filed our I600a until the time the NVC forwarded it to Accra was one year! Twelve. Full. Months. I cannot imagine my children living in the orphanage for another whole year while we wait for approval. It kills me. We've been trying to get them home since December of 2009! (And they had already been in my heart for a few months before we decided to go for it!) But we have no choice. Hopefully it will go quicker this time. Please.



Still Waiting.....

For our beautiful children

to come home...

Court Decree....

We received our court decree last Friday! I was so ready to file the I600. But unfortunately, we still aren't ready. There is an error on the children's birth certificates. New ones have been requested today. The errors will have to be corrected, the birth certificates reprinted. Then mailed to us. We are also waiting on a death certificate for the children's bio father. That was requested around the first of December. No one knows how long that will take. It seemed like there was a light at the end of the tunnel. But now with all these certificates that we need.... I just want to bring my kids home!



Just Because......

Man, I miss my kids! I am still waiting on the adoption decree so I can file the I600. So, in the meantime, here are some pictures of my beautiful children!

My baby boy.

My little princess.

The playground.

Me & my children.





Finally Ours......

I made it back! (Saturday actually.) I did go to court on Friday as planned, only to find out that none of the judges were there that day! However, they allowed me to go home. They rescheduled court for Tuesday (yesterday), and allowed the wonderful lady who owns the orphanage to represent me. She called yesterday to say that we passed court and she has the adoption decree!!!

I am SO glad that part is finished! As soon as she gets the attestation from Accra, we can file the I600! I can't wait for the day when I can finally bring our kids home!

Serwaa & Kontoh

One More Day.....

Well, tomorrow is my court date! I can't wait. I hope it will go smoothly and quickly. After court, I am taking the kids, their bio mother, their Auntie, and the orphanage director out to eat (if you can go "out to eat" in Ghana)! Then, I will head to Accra for my flight which leaves a little after midnight. I think it will be strange for the kids and I to spend our last hour together with the whole family. I mean, what right would I have to act sad because I'm leaving the kids, when the bio family will probably never see them again after tomorrow. I'd much rather have a quiet goodbye time with them. But- it is what it is. By this time tomorrow, I'll be on my way to Accra as the proud mother of 3 children.

Still in Ghana.....

Wow. Where do I begin? Well, I'm in Ghana. I've been here for 14 days now I think. First night I got in VERY late, so I stayed in Accra at Hotel Obama. It was ok. Just a place to sleep. In the morning I got a flight to Kumasi. (Shoulda taken the bus, but don't know how it works.) Ms Mary (who runs the orphanage) picked me up at the Kumasi airport & took me to the hotel near the orphanage. It was about $13/nt USD. It wasn't bad. There was no a/c or hot water, no towels are provided, no internet, and it was so dim I couldn't see anything. But, I'm pretty durable, so it was alright for the 10 days I was there.

Anyways- Friday afternoon I was taken to the orphanage. I had this awful fear that I wouldn't recognize my own children when I got there! But they actually took me inside, then brought the kids in. They are beautiful! Just like the picture! They were SO quiet & shy! But by the end of they day they were a little more comfortable. They are really great kids!


Let me sidetrack for a minute & tell the hard details. The first few days were devastating for me. Everything I knew about the kids was false. I know our agency switched representatives in Ghana. So I guess the old rep was the bad guy who lied. Anyways- the hardest thing was their ages. I started to wonder Friday if they were really 8 & 6. So I asked Serwaa her age. "I am 10 years old." Shocked. She is older than my bio daughter. Hard. Because our first priority with the ages was to keep her the oldest. Then Kontoh. He says 8. You know he was going to be my baby. I'd been picturing this boy who just turned 6 two months ago. It's like I lost 2 years of my baby's life in that one second. We didn't even know his official birthday. He will actually be 8 in March. It honestly took a few days for me to accept it. But I'm ok now.


That's enough of that. Over the past 10 days, I've met with social welfare twice, and the lawyer 3 times. By the way- at the lawyer, I got to meet my children's mother (who I thought was deceased). She was a sweet, quiet lady. I liked her.


Yesterday I got to my new hotel in Kumasi. (I'd been advised to stay near the orphanage so we could run all the legal errands. But I really needed some time with just my kids.) We've been having a great time- swimming, eating on the balcony, reading Christmas stories online.... What's strange is that it feels different than I thought. I don't feel like I'm with brand new kids. I just feel like I'm with my kids. I'm sure it won't be this easy when we get home. But so far- everything is normal.


In just 2 days, they will officially be my children!