Playing for Change...

I heard about this docucmentary tonight and immediately went to find out more. I love music and how powerful it can be. I love the idea of this organization Playing for Change bringing people together from around the world to share the joy of music. Their organization starting out making a documentary featuring musicians from around the world singing and playing together. In the process they were inspired to do more and are now also building music schools around the world. Their first school is in South Africa.

Their video of Stand by Me- (first scroll down to the bottom of this page and turn off the music)


An interview with the director Mark Johnson of the documentary with part of their One Love video at the end.


This organization also had a concert with musicians from around the world including Ghana. In the coming months, they will have music available to download.

I just thought this was such a fabulous idea. One of my favorite memories of Africa was when I went to church. I witnessed the joy the people had as they left their worries and troubles at the door and entered church to sing and rejoice. I love the way music can make you feel. It is a common bond that we all share no matter who we are or where we are.

Good prices come to all who wait...

I have been watching these clocks since summer for them to go on sale... the time has come



I am putting them side by side in the den- one with the time in Ghana and the other with the time here to always let the kids know what time it is in Selina's birth country.

If you want one too, go here. Don't forget to google "Pottery Barn Kids discount codes" to check for discount codes.

I will post all about Christmas very soon. I just wanted to post the clocks for all my adoptive friends! :-)

PS.. Now I just need to talk to my BFF Chalene who does vinyl wording in her free time to score Africa and USA!!!

Digital Scrapping

So remember how I told you about my first digital scrapbook page I did a few months back? Well since then, I have been having so much fun working on Selina's album from Africa!! I am going really slow and I keep playing with each page as I learn new things and find new pages and embellishments. I use the Creative Memories Storybook Creator Plus as my program but use pages and embellishments from outside places to decorate my pages.

What is so great about digital scrappin is...
* I don't have to take out all my scrapbook supplies and set them out and clean them up
* It is cheaper than traditional scrapping and there are millions of freebies out there
* I can do it for a few minutes at a time so I can get my "fix" whenever I want
* No scraps!!
* If I get half way through a page and don't like it, I can erase it guilt free

For my birthday and Christmas, I got a little laptop that will be devoted to me and my scrapbooking which will be nice as it will free up space on our desktop for the kids and TR to use. I was starting to really take up a lot of space on our old computer! It will be also nice to have for when I travel back to Africa in the future.

So for my friends out there that digi scrap (do you notice my name for it keeps getting shorter as I write this post?!), I have included a list of some of my favorite stores and sites for free stuff on my sidebar. If you have sites you love too, please let me know!

THANKfullness

I happened across the post I did last year around the holidays. As I read it, it just really summed up how I feel again this year and made me go back to a year ago and remember how excited I was about the possibility of a referral in the near future and finding out who our child(ren) would be. I am so blessed to be here a year later with everyone doing well and our sweet Selina so I thought I would share it again...

Since deciding to adopt from Africa, I have learned so much. Through this adoption journey I have had my eyes opened to so many things that I never would have seen. I have spent countless hours on the internet reading articles, personal stories and watching videos of life in other countries. What I have come away with is how thankful I really am.

I am thankful that I was born here in America to a family that was able to care for me and meet my basic needs. At that same time, another woman was born in Africa probably in difficult conditions and her life is very different from mine if she is still alive. Now that I have been to Africa, I know that she has lived a more difficult life while I have lived a comfortable life. I never was concerned about where my next meal would come from and I always felt secure and safe in my home.

I am thankful for my education. My grade school education, junior high, high school, my bachelor’s degree and master’s degree. I used to only be thankful for my college degrees. Now I understand that I am blessed to have been able to go to grade school.

I am thankful for my childhood. This includes dance lessons, violin, volleyball, key clubs, honor societies, badminton, band and my sorority. I was able to not only go to school but I also was able to enjoy any extracurricular activities that I wanted. I had a childhood that was carefree and joyful.

I am thankful for my freedoms as a woman. This includes the ability to decide when and who I was going to marry. I was not forced into marriage. I am in a marriage in which I am an equal partner. My opinion counts (a lot!) and I am happy and in love.

I am thankful that I chose my profession. I decided what I wanted to be when I grew up. Not my parents or the government. I was further fortunate that my options were not really limited. I always felt that I could be whatever I wanted to be. Now I understand how liberating that really is- to contribute to your community in the way that you want to.

I am thankful for the freedom to create my own family. TR and I are allowed to give birth to as many children or adopt as many children as we would like. Our government is not going to tell us how many children we will have. When we decided to adopt, we were able to follow our hearts and find our children whether they were near or far.

I am thankful for my health and the health of my family. Working in the special education field, I have first hand knowledge of a variety of disabilities and I have met with hundreds of parents no different than me that are living with children with disabilities. I have attended the funerals of some of these children. When some women are pregnant they make the mistake of focusing all their energy on if their child is going to be a girl or a boy. A special education teacher knows that a healthy child is such a blessing.

Also, doing the 3 Day Walk for two years, I have come to be especially thankful for my health. I was able to put my shoes on and walk for sixty miles without aches, pains or any other condition (besides a few blisters)! I walked with women who have cancer and have had cancer. I have lost an aunt to cancer. I walked part of the walk last year with a coworker with breast cancer who passed away from it five weeks later. I used to complain that I wasn’t the size I wanted to be or wished a part of me were smaller or bigger. Those days are over. Thank you God for my health. I will never take for granted the ability to wake up and go to my day free of any ailment.

This year I add the blessing of Selina. I am so thankful that we have been entrusted with her as she is a gift from God to our family. She is such a stong, strong little girl who has overcome so much in her short life. Not only are we thankful for Selina, but we are also thankful for the opportunity to get to know about her birthplace. We will forever be connected to Ghana, a country of kind, spiritual and beautiful people that I have had the good fortune to be able to interact with and connect with during my month in Ghana.

Thank you God for opening our hearts to adoption and for being with us on this journey and for such a blessed year.

jOy: Our Celebrating Adoption Shoot...

Oh my goodness! I am so excited! Yesterday we did a family photo shoot with Maggie McDonald. It was so much fun. Seriously, pictures have always been something that ended up being stressful in the past. I have some bad memories of mall photo stores. I haven't even gone to a photo place in a few years because it is easier to just take pictures at home.

There is a fabulous program out there called Celebrating Adoption.
It started in 2006 and it is now an organization in which photographers from across the country donate their time to celebrate life..love and adoption. It is available to familes that have adopted and have brought their children home within the last year. The photographer donates the photo session setting fee and gives up to 20 proofs to the family although familes are able to purchase more pictures if they choose. For a family that has just gone through an adoption which we all know is not inexpensive, it was so helpful to have that portion of the session donated.

When I heard about the program, I was so excited. I went through all the photographers in this area and chose Maggie because I loved that she really captured the personalities of the children and because her pictures were outdoors. They just looked so fun!

If you want to see a sneak peek of our photo shoot, go here...

Thank you Maggie! :-) We had so much fun with you yesterday... After a long year and a half going through the process to bring Selina home and settling in, it brought tears to my eyes to see my children all together beautiful and happy. Thank you for making a difference and for valuing adoption and supporting it in this lovely way...

143,000,000 Orphans

I just found this on Maria's blog and had to immediately copy it. You may have heard that there are 143,000,000 orphans but it is such a hard number to grasp. I think this video helps.



I think of Selina who used to be one of those numbers. I look at how special she is, how much love she has to give and how she has blessed our lives. It is overwhelming to try to figure out how we can make a difference to those 143 million but I don't think that should detour people to looking at how they can help ONE. Maybe it is through adoption, sponsoring a child or helping to improve conditions at one orphanage. It may not make a difference to all orphans but it will mean the world to that ONE.

The latest BUZZZ...

I am sorry I haven't posted in a bit. I felt like I didn't have a lot to talk about which is unusual given how much I do talk!

I also had a birthday a few weeks ago. I only bring it for two reasons. The first is because I had the opportunity to face one of my greatest fears.

I took the day off to go on a field trip with Kman's class to an outdoor desert museum. It was nice to be able to go on the trip. There are a lot of stay at home moms in my town and so when there is a field trip, there has to be a drawing of the moms that want to go to see who gets the honor. Since I work, I usually don't go but since this one was on my birthday, involved a chartered bus and I really like his teacher, I decided to throw my name in the hat along with a little note about how it would be how I choose to spend my bday! I am thinking the note gave me an edge over the competition and my name was drawn.

So back to the fear. I was confronted with it right when we got off the bus at this outdoor desert museum. As we debussed (I am not sure if that is not a word but it works for me) there were hundreds of bees right outside the museum. I want to make it clear at this point that I am not exaggerating. There were so many bees, that you could not escape them, the swarmed around us and many landed on us as we waited to get into the museum.

I have to go back for a second to explain why I am SCARED TO DEATH of bees. This is the fault of my mother and all my aunts. When I was a young girl and we went swimming at my aunts, there were often bees or wasps in the vicinity. When a bee would come to the water, they would yell, "Look out a bee" and all my cousins and I would go under water and hold our breaths as long as possible. This often did us no good though because the bees would wait for us apparently as when we came up, my aunts would yell, "They are still there" and we would go back under, trying to hold our breath until we needed air so badly that the possibility of a bee sting was better than drowning.

Now you might be thinking that my aunts did this for fun but actually, they were scared too. I think it takes a lot for a woman that is on a lounge chair drying and sipping on a coke to suddenly run and leap into the water themselves. Nope, they definitely do not like bees. Now that you understand that this fear of bees was imparted on me by adults who should have tried to help me be brave and that it was done to me at such a young age that just seeing bees takes me back to those feelings I had years ago. It probably doesn't help that I have never been stung so I don't know if I am allergic and if it really isn't as bad as I imagine it to be. I have been stung in the bum by a scorpion while sleeping but that is another story for another day!

So I get off the bus and realize that I have been let off into a sea of my childhood demons. I want to turn around and get right back into my comfy chair behind the driver but I have Kyle and five of his classmates counting on me to be brave. So I go into a mode where I talk with words of a sane and reasonable person on the outside while I swear and think how this is BS and that I would rather be working at my desk on the inside.

This talking on the outside, swearing on the inside went on for the next twenty minutes or so until we got past this whole big area that had been overtaken by these bees.

Things the outside was saying to the kids:
"They are only bees, they don't want to hurt you- they seem very friendly"
Inside thinking:
They usually only kill a few people and animals a year, statistically we should be okay but if we aren't the nearest hospital is over an hour a way and so we are basically SOL"

Words to kids:
As a child looks at the bee on his arm and talks about how cool it is. "Wow, you have a new friend."
Inside thinking:
I am so glad you are not my child, you probably were one of those scary, dangerous toddlers too. No thank you. I will keep my cautious Kman.

Words to Kids:
"Okay kiddos, let's go this way. This is going to be so much fun and we want to see every thing so let's walk quickly to this cool indoor exhibit over here."

Inside thinking:
Run my little friends, run to safety. We gotta get the heck out of here, I feel my blood pressure rising with each bee that buzzes by my head!

Thankfully, it was much better after we got further along on the trail. We still had bees but it was much more manageable and after hundreds, I was not about to complain over a few random bees here and there. Plus I got to focus all my energy on the girl with asthma in my group who started having difficulty breathing and had nothing on the trip to help her. I don't know much about asthma but I do believe that if your child has it and requires breathing treatments the morning of a field trip, it probably is not prudent to send her a few hours away to tour a desert museum without an inhaler or something! I ended up calling a teacher to come meet us and walk her back slowly and she spent the rest of the trip at the shops by the entrance. Ugg poor girl.

So now I am happy to report that what I learned this birthday is that you are never too old to face your fears and that maybe it is a good thing. I saw the bees and faced them and in spite of what I said inside, I appeared calm, cool and collected on the outside. I was brave for my six little peoples and helped those of them that were scared to be brave. It was great to know that I could do that.

So earlier in the post I mentioned there were two reasons I bring up my bday. Later in the afternoon as we were getting ready to head back into the swarm on our way to the bus, the school called and Cater was in the office with a 102.7 degree fever. So, for the third year in a row, Cater threw up on my birthday. I blogged about this last year here although this year was a little better as it is was much cleaner as she can now make it to an approved location to do her thing. She had a little flu bug that lasted a day or so but the timing of it being on my bday again was just too funny. The glamorous life of a mother! LOL

So all is well now and Cater got over the flu although she did get stung by a bee that flew into her shirt on Thanksgiving which I thought was a little ironic.

More BUZZ- to follow up on two former posts:

Albert's Arm: Albert was supposed to get his arm Nov. 10. I guess they misplaced the piece of paper with his measurements and so they have to measure him again and then make his arm. This will put him back but it will be done soon hopefully. I spoke to the center and they offered to take a picture of him with his new arm and so I am looking forward to getting another update on that and possibly a picture to share soon.

Beansie Bonanza: The girls both loved the soup and ate it very well. So well in fact that I made it again a few weeks later. That was a mistake as this bean filled soup needs probably should not be consumed more than once a month. I just got a little overexcited that I served something and did not get the response, "Why did you cook, why can't we just have macaroni and cheese?"

Okay, if you are still reading, I will wrap this up- Things are still going very well here. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family. Selina seemed very comfortable in a house with about 30people, many of whom she does not know well. She felt comfortable enough to venture off on her own. She is doing better everyday and Kman and Cater are so good to her. We are looking forward to Christmas and sharing it with Selina. I can't wait to see her face when we get the tree up in the next week. How fun to be able to experience Christmas this year through her eyes...

Christmas...

A few blogs I read have had this video on them now. It is a good one. This year is a tough year for so many. A few people I know have said that they won't be able to help others this year because it is a tough year for them. I have to say though, if you can still buy presents for friends and family, can't you help others still? I am worried about all the families that are really struggling this year and am hoping that they will all be able to get help.

I can honestly say, my best memory of the last few Christmas' have been when our family was helping another family. We always adopt a family and bring them things right before Christmas. Two years ago, we spent a few hours at the home of our adopt a family as TR and a friend put up a bunk bed that we got for the twin boys that lived there. I brought lunch for everyone and we all ate together in the kitchen and our children played together. We had a wonderful time talking to the family... we didn't speak the same language but with the help of the kids, we were able to get to know each other a little better.

To me, that is what Christmas is all about.

Beansies...

Beans- my girls LOVE beans. When Cater sees we are having beans, she gets all excited. She has really loved any beans she has had the past few months. Selina loves them too and they love to chant "Beans, Beans" when I ask them what they want for dinner on any given evening.

I think this is all a little odd, but whatever floats their boats.

So I am making my Weight Watchers Taco Soup right now. It calls for a few different beans. I have not made it for Cater since she decided that beans are the best food in the world as I don't like to make soups in the summer.

The weather was finally a little chilly yesterday (like in the 70's or something) because remember, while I don't live in Africa, I am in a desert. So I am making Taco Soup today because they are playing Christmas songs on the radio even though I am in capris and flip flops still.

In case you want to make it yourself, here is the recipe...

Taco Soup
1 lb ground turkey (I use beef, which takes Weight Watchers out of the title I suppose)
1 can pinto beans
1 can black beans
1 can red beans
1 can Mexicorn
1 can Mexican stewed tomatoes
1 can Italian stewed tomatoes
1 chopped onion
1 packet taco seasoning
1 packet ranch dip seasoning
1 cup water

Put in crock pot

I will be serving this for my girls tonight. I have cleverly renamed it to "Beansie Bonanza" in hopes that it will conjure up some excitement prior to being served.

The question is... will it be a hit or miss?....

These are the girls that LOVE macaroni and cheese too but only from the box. I go out of my way to make Patti LaBelles Over the Rainbow macaroni and cheese and they all complain that it isn't the stuff in the box.

So I am thinking the "Beansie Bonanza" will be a miss... we will see.

Go easy on me... there is a lot going on in my head!

Okay, I am one who likes to take those tests that try to figure you out. I don't do it often but I happened across this one on brain dominance and after answering 20 short questions it spit out the following description of me which verifies that there is conflict in my noggin... just reading it made me tired (or maybe it is because it is almost midnight?) Anyway, I got a kick out of it... those that know me well- does it sound like me? What does it say about you?

Jen, you are one of those rare individuals who are perfectly "balanced" in both your hemispheric tendencies and your sensory learning preferences. However, there is both good news and bad news.

A problem with hemispheric balance is that you will tend to feel more conflict than someone who has a clearly established dominance. At times the conflict will be between what you feel and what you think but will also involve how you attack problems and how you perceive information. Details which will seem important to the right hemisphere will be discounted by the left and vice versa, which can present a hindrance to learning efficiently.

In the same vein, you may have a problem with organization. You might organize your time and/or space only to feel the need to reorganize five to ten weeks later.

On the positive side, you bring resources to problem-solving that others may not have. You can perceive the "big picture" and the essential details simultaneously and maintain the cognitive perspective required. You possess sufficient verbal skills to translate your intuition into a form which can be understood by others while still being able to access ideas and concepts which do not lend themselves to language.

Your balanced nature might lead you to second-guess yourself in artistic endeavors, losing some of the fluidity, spontaneity and creativity that otherwise would be yours.

With your balanced sensory styles, you process data alternately, at times visually and other times auditorially. This usage of separate memories may cause you to require more time to integrate information or re-access it. When presented with situations which force purely visual or purely auditory learning, increased anxiety is likely and your learning efficiency will decrease.

Your greatest benefit is that you can succeed in multiple fields due to the great plasticity and flexibility you possess.

I think this is reassuring news for me that I am not crazy- it is just that my perfect balance leads to mini battles in my head for dominance. As the owner of my head, I have to try to mediate these inner battles in addition to the ones that go on outside my head between real people. It is a busy life I lead!!!!

PS- COMMENTS: I have adjusted my comments so basically anyone on the planet can randomly leave a comment. Basically it is an invitation for random crazy people to say something anonymously... Actually, I know that I have a lot of family and some friends that don't have google accounts and don't want to, so I will try this for a bit to give them an opportunity to comment if they choose to. We will see how it goes!

Today's the day?

Albert is supposed to be taken to the orthopedic center today to receive his new arm. He will live there alone for about a month as he learns to use it. I pray that it works out that he gets to go there today and start this new chapter in his life...

I will keep you updated...

So So Tired...

Happy B-day Kman!!

Kman had a soccer tournament last weekend and a photo company caught some great shots so I thought I would share some pics of my little soccer stud!






Kman's team did awesome and he played particularly well. In one game as goalie all game, he didn't allow any goals in shutting the other team out and in a second game, he played goalie half and the field half and in the field he scored four goals in a game they won 5 to 1! They went on to the championship game but lost in sudden death in overtime. In case you are newer to my blog, last year I did a post on my thoughts of Kman playing goalie here, sharing the anxiety I silently deal with on the sideline! I am doing a little better with Kman playing goalie this year even though we are now playing club teams only and not rec teams like last year. Having a two year old running around and wanting to run on the field with her Dora ball helps keep me occupied!

Anywho, I love you my little man who is growing up much too fast! Thank you for being an awesome son and big brother to your two sisters and for always looking out for them. I am so proud of you! :-)
Love, Mom

PT: EZ come EZ go...

When Selina arrived here this summer, I knew she was behind developmentally. With medicals indicating she had central nervous system disorder, aphasia, weak legs, etc. Edited to add: I knew she did not have CNS or any of the things her medicals indicated. It just showed how far behind she was when she entered the home. I knew she would qualify for something though as she was definitely delayed. Being employed in the special education field, I knew the importance of getting her help as soon as possible as early intervention is so incredibly important.

I had Selina evaluated very soon after we arrived home. She basically has at least a 25% delay in all areas tested. As part of the evaluation, I requested a consult from a physical therapist as Selina learned to walk on such weak legs. I wanted to make sure that her walking was progressing as it should and the she bears weight on her legs appropriately and such. Also with my experience, motor development is the area that I don't know as much about so it was important to have this area looked at.

A physical therapist came out and evaluated Selina. She said at the time that she was borderline for qualifying but because of her situation, she decided that she would qualify her. She went over the areas that she wanted to target for goals. This included Selina doing the following: catching a ball, jumping and improving her balance on uneven surfaces.

Well a month later, the PT came for her first therapy session. She started working on the goals but as she did, she realized Selina could do each thing. I sat there saying to myself, "wow, yea, we worked on that too this month but I didn't think she could do it this well!"

So about 45 minutes into the session, the PT says, "Well, her motor skills are age appropriate now"

EZ come, EZ go. It looks like she will be seen one more time and then dismissed. The obstacle courses the kids made to work on jumping with her this month along with them playing ball with her almost daily, really went far.

Selina just amazes me every day. She has such a desire to interact with people and to learn. I see it with our family and friends as well as her classmates at school. It is fun and exciting to see a child that you give birth to achieve each milestone such as walking, first word, etc BUT... to see a child that was so disadvantaged but that is really a bright and capable child catch up from all they missed- it is truly incredible. The rate at which she is learning is astonishing. She still has services from a Speech Therapist and Developmental Specialist but she is making huge progress in these areas also.

Selina learns so much every single day- she has come so far since the day she arrived at the adoption center in January....


I just had to share this exciting news as I am so proud of her. She is such a determined and strong girl that I can't wait to see what her future holds and what other accomplishments she will make. All I know is that whatever it is, I am so grateful that she is our daughter and that I am so blessed to share in her journey...

Friendship Award

Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person; having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but to pour them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then, with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away.
Dinah Maria (Mulock) Craik (often attributed to George Eliot)

Laurel over at I'm Ghana Adopt gave me a friendship award on her blog. I love Laurel! I feel I have gotten to know Laurel better the last few months- and I wished she lived close by as I would love to hang out with her (especially now that I know she is a scrapper!:-))

I thought this was a fun award as it gives the opportunity to talk about friendship. I love and appreciate my friends so much. I couldn't get by without them. The instructions for this blogging award are to answer the following questions about friendship, before passing it along.

1. Do you have the same friends since childhood?
I still keep in touch with a handful of friends I have had over the years. I have remained in the same area which helps although several of those I keep in touch with have moved away. I got married much earlier than my closest friends (like at least a decade earlier) so we were always at different points in our lives. That made it fun though to live a little through them and their experiences and adventures! Some I don't talk to as often as I would like but once we connect again, it is like time never passed- which is one of the greatest gifts of a wonderful friendship.

2. What do you value most about your friends?
I value most my friends that share the same views of what friendship is and isn't. Some of my most hurtful experience over the years were things said to me or about me by people I considered close friends. While hard at the time, these experiences really helped me to understand women better and help me determine the kind of friend I want to have and be.
I think that is when I truely learned that a good friend is not necessarily someone that I am most compatible with but is someone that is the kind of friend I am most compatible with. If you view friendship very similarly, even though you may be different, there are less conflicts because you understand each other and treat each other the way you want to be treated.
It is interesting as I have many friends that are very different from me, that others can't understand how we can be friends. In reality, I really enjoy my friendships with these women as I appreciate our differences and love hearing their perspective on life.

3. Are your friends your sounding boards?
Definitely. I love the quote above as it is so true to me. Sometimes you just need someone to talk to and it is so comforting to have a friend who you can just talk to and know they will listen and gleam the most important parts. I talk a lot so statistically I have a high chance of saying something that can be taken the wrong way- my best friends know to just take the gyst of what I am saying! LOL

4. What is your favorite activity to share with your friends?
Hanging out no matter what we do. With how busy our lives our nothing is better than time with just the girls. I will do whatever to get that. It was such a big perk of doing the 3 Day Walk for the past two years. Just the girls and I got to have a slumber party for two evenings and as we liked to say, "We only had to walk 20 miles that day to get it!".

Other favorite activities include a scrapbook or movie night, lunch to celebrate a birthday, pedicures or even the more simple spontaneous things like enjoying a margarita or glass of wine on the driveway as the kids play, running to a local sale together, meeting up for a coffee or a friend that will just take a drive on a long errand so you don't have to go alone (or alone with your kids!)

Now ... I get to pass the award along to some of my blogging friends. These are women that from what I know about them from chatting or reading their blogs, would be a fabulous friend...

Chalene- okay, I know Chalene super well and would not have made it through the past year nearly as well as I have without her!

And now other women who I have come to know and love...
Robin, Kristin Heather A and Ginny

One of my Fall Break projects...

I learned how to do digital scrapbooking! Yea! I have done traditional scrapbooking for about 14 years not but had not tried digital scrapping.

Earlier this year, I bought a program and have not had the time to sit and figure it out. I always take a long time at first to figure out technical stuff.

So over break, I made the goal of getting myself set up and this is my first page so far... I am still playing with it some. I plan to do a book with digital pages for Selina from the time she went to the adoption center to the time she came home, documenting some of her history and showing pictures of her stay at the adoption center and her time there.

I have to say that digital scrapbooking is so easy to do because I don't have to bring out all my supplies and put them away, I just sit at the computer and work on it for five minutes or an hour- however long I have. That has been the hard part about doing the traditional scrapbooking with young kids. I can't bring out my stuff and leave it out as I don't have a separate place to work on it.

This was so much fun to do and allows me to do something I enjoy whenever I can catch a few minutes. So are there any other scrappers or digital scrappers out there????

A Little Fall Fun...

The whole fam had the past week off for Fall Break. We went to Schnepf Farms (a big farm with a rides, a train ride and pumpkin patch) with the Chalene and their family and then we went to Amazing Jake's Pizza one day. I wanted to share a few of my favorite pics...

Looky here, we are all facing the camera with open eyes! Woo hoo!!

TR got called up during a little performance with a group of people. He basically had questions posed and when he did not answer first, had to put a dum dum in his mouth. He ended up winning with only three at once. Some people had up to seven dum dums in their mouth at once- YUK!

Cater and Rita and Racheal


Kman and Kaiden

I think this will end up an all time favorite pic of Kman and Cater...

Kman attempting the rock wall

Selina was not feeling as well at Schnepf Farms but was much better today. She enjoyed the spinning tea cups and a train for the first time and loved them! The day was pretty full of ups and downs as the poor girl did not understand that you have to get off the ride and get back in line to do it again. Every time a ride ended, she got so upset! Yea, that is pretty hard to explain to a two year old!LOL

Helping those left behind... summary

“If you want to adopt from Ghana and bring children home, that is fine but it is not enough. You have to understand that while America is rich, Ghana is richer and better in many ways so don’t think that you are saving them from a bad place because you are not. Always tell them how wonderful Ghana is and that they are special because they are from Ghana. Take them back to Ghana if you can. Most importantly, while taking a child or two will help those children to have a family, remember the other children left behind and help them because they are your children’s friends and relatives and by doing that, you are honoring your children and where they come from.”-

For those who are newer to my blog, part of the reason I chose to adopt from Ghana is because my great uncle, Father Fran was a priest there for over 53 years before dying there in Fall 2006. Initially, it really bothered me that I did not talk to Fr. Fran about adopting from Ghana before he passed away. The last time we saw him, we were content and busy with Kman and Cater and had not seriously discussed more children. These words above are what I decided after much prayer, that he would have said about our adoption.

Over a year later, these words still are with me. After going to Africa to bring Selina home and meeting his friends and fellow priests there, I am confident that this would have been his sentiment.

Before going to Ghana, I asked my friends and family to consider making a donation for me to use to help children and people in Ghana. The following people made donations...

FAMILY-Catherine Meyer, Joseph Meyer, Laura & Gene Meyer, Tom & Kathy Davidson, Kristin & Gray Fontenot, Joanne & Lyn Simmons, Rick & Julie Meyer, Mary & Gene Warne, Kathy & Charlie Spencer, Elaine & Noel Simmons, Julie Meyer, Erica Warne, Leah Kochis, Neil Simmons, Ben Warne, Todd Warne, Kristin Spencer, Todd Fontenot
FRIENDS-Rachael & Greg Thornton (in memory of Catherine Meyer), Stacy Schneider, Amy Ferrell, Heather Sears, Amy Johnston, Ginger Golden, Marcy Fredette-Roman, Anita Westlake, Noreen Roman, Pam Bradley, Debbie Johnson, Mindy Douglass, Mary Cooper, Molly Lyons, Sandra Pedersen, Kendra Latimer, Sharma Mulqueen

The generosity of these people was humbling. Over $3500 for me to take to Ghana. I never in a million years thought I would be going with that much money available to me to help others. I am good at spending money (TR would even probably say I am gifted in this area-LOL) but for a few days, even I was a little overwhelmed with all the money that kept coming in... thankfully I feel that I was led by God and the guidance of my Grandmother who passed away right before I left as well as her late brother Father Fran to opportunities to use it to do good...

I did three major donation/projects.

Hardthaven Children's Home:

I took a day to travel about four hours away to make a donation to Hardthaven. This orphanage is for children who either are HIV positive or have lost their parents to AIDS. This trip was so wonderful. I was expecting to be sad and for there to be more sadness at a place where those there are living with HIV or are grieving due to loss. What I found instead was an orphanage with children that helped each other and that were happy.
I do keep in touch with Edem still through email and plan to continue to help him. They have had some setbacks lately. They had a child they were helping that was HIV positive that lived in the community die and he just found out he has lost his lease and has to move his orphanage by March. There is such a stigma about HIV in Ghana that it is very imperative that Hardthaven be able to continue to help those cast aside by their villages because they are HIV positive.

Kasoa Orphanage-

While Hardthaven needed help mostly because they help those that are HIV positive and require medical assistance, Kasoa is an example of an orphanage where the situation is so devastating that the kids would literally starve without extra assistance. Hardly a day goes by that I don't stop to think about Kasoa and to pray that God watches over the children there.

And finally... Albert...

Father Fran helped build and develop a church in Nsawam ,Ghana. It is about two or three hours from the heart or Accra (the capital). These grounds not only housed a church but also two schools, the cemetary where Father is laid to rest AND an orthopedic center that helps over 200 people get and learn to use artificial limbs at any given time. I met Albert, an eight year old boy that is missing an arm due to a birth defect, the day after seeing the orthopedic center. It took a few months to work out the details but Albert will be getting an artificial limb from the orthopedic center. We are paying the costs for his arm including him staying there for about a month to learn to use it. Total costs for the arm, his therapy and transporation there will be about $1000. See Albert and more of his story here...

Even though I have left Ghana, it remains a part of me and always will. I plan to continue to help out in Ghana with some other projects. It is important to me to do this as I see it as a way to honor Selina and her history. I am in email contact with a few people there still in order to keep up with what they are doing. I have a desire to specifically help older children that live in orphanages and cannot be adopted. These children will be basically kicked out of the orphanage when they turn 18 with nothing. I want to help them get a better education or help them to learn a trade or get a good job so that they have the means to make it. There is one boy in particular that I met that I want to help.

Thank you... I want to thank you once again for making the donation that allowed me to help others in Ghana. To have been able to go there with money to help others made this trip so much easer. I saw so much poverty but to have been able to do a few things that made a difference was incredible. You allowed me to not feel so helpless but to instead feel empowered that while I couldn't help everyone, I could make a difference in a few places. For that, I will always be grateful to all of you.

3 Parenting Tips

Happy Friday! It is time for fellow bloggers that want to participate to blog three parenting tips or things that work for them.

Sharing their wisdom are the following awesome moms: (Click on their name to visit their blog)
Heather
Amy Fabu
Laurel did one last week that included book suggestions and all here and also posted this today! Laurel has 13 children and she seriously rocks in my book! :-)
Anita PS- Anita is also doing an awesome Feed the Starving Children Project and can use your help!
Chalene
Renee- awesome mom to 11! :-)

Before I start mine, I want to congratulate the Jags on passing court and adding two more beautiful children from Ghana to their family today. See pictures of them here.

For my three tips, I just chose three things that have come up lately. My first one is the one that gave me this idea in the first place as I shared it with a psychologist from my school district and she liked it.

1. Intrinsic Motivation
I think with kids we tend to give a lot of external motivators to reward them for a job well done or we focus too much on how we feel about what they did. I really try to have the focus be on recognizing how they feel when they do a good job. When they do something good or have an accomplishment, I always start by saying exactly what they did (not just that they were good but what they did that was good), ask them how they feel or if they are younger, I will say "do you feel so happy with yourself"
I will also state that I am proud of them but it is not the focus. I start and end what I am saying with their feelings about what they did- not mine. I am hoping that this carries over and helps them to want to do and be good because it makes them feel good about themselves.

2. Problem Solving
I got my ideas here from Love and Logic. I used some of their materials for a class on fostering independence in students with disabilities. The focus of the problem solving is to have the child solve the problem themselves whenever possible. In order to do this you have the following steps when your child presents a problem.
1. Empathic statement letting them know you are acknowledging them and that you care: What a bummer, How sad, I bet that hurt, etc
2. Send a power message letting them know that this is their problem and they can address it: What do you think you will do?
3. If they don't know what to do, you can give them ideas by saying, "Do you want to hear what other kids have tried?" and then give some suggestions both good and bad. It is important to include things that are not how you would solve it so they can evaluate those options and see why they won't work. Love and logic tells you to start with the less desirable ones but depending on the kid and situation, I don't always do that.
4. Each time you give an idea, you ask the child "How will that work?" and have them think about the consequences of doing that solution
5. Give permission for the child to either solve or not solve the problem: "Good luck, I hope it works out"

Then at this point, you let it go. You then check back later to see how it went or I sometimes just wait for them to tell me. If it is still a problem- they come back to me but if it was no big deal and they work it out, they often just move on.

Prior to doing this, I found that I was more involved than I needed to be in every problem that went on with my kids. I have done this problem solving method many times and it is fun to see the kids work out their own problems if they decide to. Sometimes Kman has decided to just let something go. He doen't always choose the solution that I would pick but that is alright too.

My best example of this was when he was having trouble with a kid on the playground that bossed him around and was aggressive. I think a lot of moms would have called the teacher or school or sent in a note at this point. After talking it through and giving ideas, I turned the problem back to him and then waited to see what happened. A few days later, he was so excited to tell me that he put that kids name and his name in the "Bully Box" so that they would have to sit and work it out with the school social worker. Eventually they did and Kman came up with some stragies and ideas during this process that will definitely help if it comes up again.

It is one of my pet peeves when parents get way too involved in every tiny situation that comes up as it often makes things worse. I saw it happen so many times when I was a teacher. It is refreshing to try this first and see if the kids can work through the problem on their own and only intervening when it doesn't work form them or the situation calls for it.

3. Spending quality time alone with each child
TR and I are really good at getting alone time in with each child. If one of us is going somewhere, we often split them up and take one or two with us instead of all or none of them. Even if we are just running an errand to Home Depot, it is fine. We can always add in a trip to Sonic for a drink if we want but the focus is on giving time and one on one attention to that child while we are running the errand.
We also have to make sure to get in the child that is not demanding as much attention. Selina needs attention because she is two and is our little newbie, Cater needs attention because she is five and is just a child that really needs that one on one time. Kman is pretty easy right now and does not require as much attention so we have to make sure that we are giving him that time alone with each of us.
I think this helped with the transition of bringing Selina home more than anything else. Cater had an especially hard time with me being gone and then coming home with a new sister that was to share her room. She had a lot of bottled up feelings and fears about this that it took her weeks to get through. In those weeks she acted out verbally and physically, it was a challenging time for all of us.
One of our best conversations about this was when just the two of us went out somewhere. We were chatting in the car and all of a sudden, out of the blue she said, "Mom when you were gone in Africa, I was scared. I did not know when you were coming back and where you were. I missed you so bad that I cried a lot of times. I wanted you to come home." It was a wonderful opportunity for us to talk about this and process it. This exchange only came after weeks of us working with her and giving her attention and helping her to see that she is still important and loved and that we have enough love in our hearts for everyone. It wasn't until she understood that, that she was able to reflect on her feelings about how that time was so hard for her. Being alone with her off somewhere without anyone else, gave her the opportunity to share that.


These are just a few things we do. I know they have love and logic parenting classes in my area and I want to go to one. I have read many of their articles online here and I tend to agree with their philosophy and approaches more often than not. I am always on the lookout for more ideas and information because we all know parenting is something we always are having to go back to the drawing board to come up with new ideas, strategies and approaches as have more children and they grow!!

If you are a blogger and want to share your ideas, just do your blog post with your tips and link to this post. Make sure I know you did it and then I will link to everyone that does it.

To those that contributed ideas, thanks for playing. You added some excitement to my weekend and have taught me something new in the process!

Our parenting adventure: a call to share!!!

Okay, I got this idea that I think will be fun. I would love to interact a little more here with all of you that stop by to check my blog.

The other day I was talking to coworker who is a psychologist. We were observing a child together who is having behaviors that are concerning in the classroom. After observing, we were chatting about ideas for the teacher and such and the conversation came around to parenting. I shared something I do with the kids that she thought was a great idea. Now this woman knows so much but still got an idea from me!LOL This made me think, how much can we all help each other on this daily adventure called parenting?

So here is what I am proposing:
*We all share three parenting ideas, tips or things we consider to be some of our most successful strategies. (Of course you can share more or less, I am just suggesting three)

*You do a post with your tips on Friday, October 17 and link it to my post with my three tips (I will post Thursday night). I will add your link on my post so we can all get to each other's from there. Make sure I know you posted by leaving a comment if you think I might miss it.

I know that when people do these things, they create fancy badges and such, I tried to create one but I was struggling and it was taking too long. So I am doing this low tech here as the most important thing is the info we are sharing! (although if you know a website to create cute badges, let me know)

Sometimes it can be overwhelming trying to juggle all the things we do. To parent our children is our most important calling and we all want to do it as best we can. I think it refreshes us to discuss this and to hear about what works for others.

Please consider doing this, this is my first time doing something like this and I think it will be fun. I know a lot of you are awesome parents and we can learn a lot from each other. I also know a lot of moms have adopted very recently or are in the process and would love to get some ideas.

These strategies can be especially for the adopted child and how to respond to adoption related issues that arise or tips for any child. Just pick what works well for you. You know that there are at least a few things you do that make you feel that you ROCK! I am even setting it up for Friday so you have all week to work on your post so you can prepare it at your convienence and just post it then.

If you want to comment and let me know you are participating, it will help let others know that "everyone is doing it" and help build some excitement (and I will be reinforced that this was a great idea- you wouldn't want me to have poor self esteem, would you?LOL ) You can even share this on your blog and invite your readers to participate- the more the merrier!

NOTE: If you don't have a blog, you can email me your response and I will include it on my blog. I will even give you credit and not pretend like your ideas were mine!LOL If you haven't started a blog but are considering it (Racheal and Sandy)- this gives you a good reason!

Forgiveness

Yesterday I happened to catch the Oprah show. I really don't watch much television anymore but as luck had it, I caught an episode on forgiveness.

The show was about a man whose son killed his wife and other son. So here this man has no immediate family left except for his son on death row. While there was talk about what happened and why he did it, what I got out of this episode the most was the how this man forgave his son. It did not appear to be merely words, he really did appear to have forgiven his son.

The episode explored how he was able to forgive with author Ned Hallowell who wrote the book Dare to Forgive.

The timing of this show and the fact that I saw it was really statistically significant as I have been struggling with forgiveness lately. I can forgive when a person is sorry about something and asks for forgiveness but sometimes that is not the case and the situation is much more complicated than that.

I want to share some of what this author says about forgiveness with you (taken from Oprah.com)...


Chapter 3: Forgiveness Sets You Free...

To understand forgiveness, you must first understand what forgiveness is not. Forgiveness is not turning the other cheek. Forgiveness is not running away. Forgiving someone does not mean that you condone what the person has done, nor does it mean that you invite them to do it again. It doesn't mean that you don't want the offending person to be punished. It doesn't mean that you forget the offense, nor does it mean that by forgiving you tacitly invite bad things to happen again. It doesn't mean that you won't defend yourself.

So what does it mean? Forgiveness is one of those words that we assume we can define, but when asked we stumble. Before you read on, try it yourself. How would you define forgiveness?
The dictionary can help. My American Heritage College Dictionary defines "forgive" as, "To renounce anger or resentment against." It goes back to a Greek root word that means "to set free," as in freeing a slave. Ironically, when we forgive, the slave we free is ourselves. We free ourselves from being slaves to our own hatred.

According to the dictionary definition I just cited, in order to forgive we must renounce resentment or anger. We do not have to forget, ignore or condone anyone or anything. We just have to renounce our anger and resentment. Even doing that may seem impossible, especially if whom or what we are trying to forgive has hurt us deeply. How do you forgive murder, child abuse or any other horrible offense? How is anyone supposed to renounce anger and resentment in cases like those? How do you stop feeling what you are feeling, or at least how do you renounce what you are feeling? And exactly what does that word "renounce" mean?

Turning to the same dictionary, I look up "renounce," and find the following definition: "To reject, disown."

This helps. In order to forgive I am not required to cease to feel anger or resentment, only to renounce anger or resentment, which means to disown my anger and resentment.

This distinction is crucial, not just a nicety of language. One of the chief reasons that people don't try harder to forgive or be forgiven is because they think it is impossible. They think that forgiving means ceasing to feel anger, hurt or the desire for revenge. How can you forgive someone who has murdered your friend, ruined your career, taken away your spouse or hurt one of your children? If forgiveness means that you cease to feel any anger or resentment toward that person, then for most of us forgiveness is indeed impossible—if not immoral—when the injuries are severe.

Forgiveness has therefore taken on a daft quality for many people, or at least a quaintness, as if forgiveness were a sweet old lady—a sweet old idea, one to which we pay our respects but think of as fragile and weak, unable to help us do the heavy lifting of everyday life. For the heavy lifting we believe we need strong young men—ideas that pack a punch, like vengeance, retribution and that great masquerader, justice.

But that is wrong. Forgiveness is much stronger, not to mention much wiser, than vengeance or retribution, and it begets the best kind of justice. Forgiveness is not a sweet old lady but a strong, seasoned veteran of many wars. Forgiveness bears a greater burden than vengeance ever could. Vengeance lets hatred rule you. Forgiveness overrules hatred. Forgiveness is not only stronger; it is much more clever and wise than vengeance or retribution. Forgiveness takes intelligence, discipline, imagination and persistence, as well as a special psychological strength, something athletes call mental toughness and warriors call courage.

If you look back at the definition of forgiveness, you can see why so much more is required of a person to forgive than to take revenge. When you forgive, you renounce anger and resentment. You give up your claim to anger and resentment. You disown those feelings, you repudiate them, you turn your back on them. Above all, you cease to live under their rule. You are consciously, deliberately renouncing your claim to what you probably want more than anything in the world: retribution, vengeance, a chance to get even. Doing this takes immense courage and strength.

But forgiveness does not require that you cease to feel the anger and resentment you so naturally experience. Not at all.

This crucial distinction is what makes forgiveness humanly possible, albeit still strange and difficult.

What does it mean to give up your title to anger and resentment or to refuse to live under their rule? It means that you set yourself free from those feelings. You no longer let those feelings own you; you disown them. When you feel the yoke of hatred start to take you in its grip, you step out. You lift it off. You renounce it. You put on the yoke of love, instead.

When you've been hurt, why on earth would you do this? In order to improve your own life. As Joanna North, a philosopher and renowned expert on forgiveness, put it: "What is annulled in the act of forgiveness is not the crime itself but the distorting effect that this wrong has upon one's relations with the wrongdoer and perhaps with others."

Throughout her writing, North emphasizes how forgiving (or accepting forgiveness) makes people healthier and happier. As she says, "Through forgiveness the pain and hurt caused by the original wrong are released, or at least they are not allowed to mar the whole of one's being for all time"

On the other hand, holding onto your title to anger and resentment, as if it were a precious deed of ownership, is like holding onto your title to a polluted pond.

Now, return to what I asked before: If you know why you want to forgive, then how do you do it? How do you stop feeling what you are feeling? It is often not enough just to want to. How do you stop your anger from ruling you?

The definitions point the way. You do not have to stop feeling what you are feeling. That's impossible. However, you can refuse to act on those feelings by hurling hand grenades or insults, and you can refuse to welcome those feelings when they hungrily come to your door, hoping to feed on your fantasies of revenge.

Renouncing certain feelings is something we've all learned how to do. For example, we renounce our aggressive feelings when we are stopped by a traffic cop for speeding. We might feel like punching the cop's lights out, but we renounce those feelings, we do not act on them, we disown them, we repudiate them, we do not let ourselves live under their rule. We continue to feel them; the feelings are still very much with us. We simply renounce their control over us.

I shouldn't say "simply" because such renunciation requires strength, patience and skill. But we manage to do it, every day, not only with our aggressive feelings, but also with our sexual feelings, and even our feelings of hunger and thirst or the need to use the bathroom.

When we forgive, we may continue to feel anger and resentment, just as we may continue to feel anger and resentment at the traffic cop who stopped us. But, if we are wise, we put those feelings aside. We do not let them rule our actions.

Furthermore, we try not to welcome the feelings when they skulk back, looking to be nursed. That means when we think of the person who hurt us, we do not give in for very long to the temptation to dream up scenes of revenge or revel in methods of torture. You can luxuriate in imagined scenes of revenge, you can cuddle and nurse your angry feelings, but after a while you risk nursing those feelings into a monster that ends up destroying you, not your enemy.

Let's say you've been betrayed by a coworker, which led to your getting fired from your job. Do you really want to spend parts of the next five or ten years contemplating scenes of this person being humiliated, fired, rejected or in other ways hurt? For a little while, yes, you do. You should; you need to. But for months and years? Wouldn't that mean you gave that person more power over you than was good for you? Wouldn't that mean that the person had achieved a double victory: first by getting you fired, then second by infecting your free time with fantasies of revenge?
Try to think of feelings of anger and resentment as dangerous drugs—useful sometimes in small doses, but highly toxic as regular intake. Try to resist welcoming them into your imagination. They rarely do you good. They often do you serious harm.

When the vengeful feelings creep in, refuse to live under their rule, for your own sake.

Instead, be guided by the principle of love.

This is where forgiveness gets tricky. How can you love, or even like, someone who has hurt you? You naturally feel emotions quite different from love, be they fear, anger, resentment, dislike or even hatred. You cannot control what you feel, any more than you can control the weather.
But you can control what you do with what you feel. You can renounce the rule of anger, resentment and hatred, and subscribe instead to the rule of love. This much you can control. This much you can consciously and deliberately decide to do.

Gradually, as you resist the rule of anger, you can develop empathy for your enemy. There is no one you can't develop something like love for if you know their whole story. I know that sounds like an awful stretch when you are talking about people who have done terrible deeds. In those cases, simply begin by letting the principle of love rule your actions, the principle of love for all humankind, not just love for your friends. Then, gradually try to understand where the evil came from. Try to understand how your enemy, who was once an innocent and loving infant, turned into such a monster. As you understand, your hatred will gradually subside, and in its place something like love will start to grow.

Right alongside, you will grow as well.

Okay, so if you are still with me, perhaps it is because there is someone that you need to forgive? If so, here are the steps according to Hallowall...
4 Steps to Forgiveness

By Dr. Ned Hallowell

Step 1: Pain and Hurt
Dr. Hallowell says the first step to forgiveness is acknowledging what happened.

Talk to someone you trust and open up about how hurt, sad or angry you may feel. Let your emotions out and don't apologize for them.
Don't withdraw or isolate yourself. Stay connected and feel the pain, even though it hurts. With someone there to listen, the pain is more bearable.

Step 2: Reliving and Reflecting
Once you've had the chance to vent, you are ready to appeal to your rational side.

Ask yourself: What do you want this pain to turn into?
Look for the hook. Dr. Hallowell says the hook is what is holding you back—it's the portion of the misdeed that is causing you to hold on to your anger and resentment.
Empathize with the person who hurt you.
Remember that forgiveness is not the service of condoning. It's a service to yourself—free yourself from the poison of hatred.

Step 3: Working It Out
Dr. Hallowell says this step is difficult, but you need to analyze your anger and put your life back into perspective.

Flatten the hook and rid yourself of the anger that is keeping you from forgiveness. Praying and mediating can help.
Take inventory and give thanks for all the things you do have.
You can imagine vengeance—just don't act on it.
Think of your future. Know that you and your loved ones will be better off once you have rid yourself of any vengeful thinking.

Step 4: Renounce Your Anger and Resentment
Dr. Hallowell uses the word "renounce" because your resentful feelings may never permanently go away.

Acknowledge that your anger can come back.
If your anger does comes back, go through the process again and flatten the hook to keep moving forward.
Try to teach others the skill of forgiveness in an empathetic way.


I found some peace in reading this. I had been asking around and looking inside myself for the strength to forgive in a situation in which I need to. This Oprah episode helped put things in perspective as what I need to forgive for is not nearly as serious as murder, surely I can do this. If there is someone in your life that you need to forgive, perhaps you can too?...

The orphanage in Kasoa...

This is a post I have been working on for awhile. I have thought about what I wanted to say and how much I want to include of my experience on this day. It was a day that will forever be in my memory. When you see me going about my life and if I seem like the same person I was before going to Africa, know that I am not the same. More than anything else on my 28 days in Africa, when I think of poverty, when I think of orphans, this day remains...

Kasoa is about 45 minutes from Eban House with the possibility of it being a few hours based on traffic. Before going to Kasoa, I saw pictures and I knew what to expect. I heard about the one pot of food for all the kids to share, the lack of electricity, classrooms with no supplies, bedrooms with missing mattresses, and the filth due to not having staff or supplies to clean the place. I asked around to try to see what was needed the most at this orphanage. While food was a need that they always have, I wanted to do more. Educational materials were suggested which peaked my interest right away with my background in education and my great uncle's desire to help educate the youth in Ghana.

I set out that morning with Muna, who runs the Eban House and Daniel the AAI driver. I wanted to buy work books and school supplies. In Ghana, nothing is as easy as going to one store to get the needed items. One store had workbooks so we got a few hundred dollars in workbooks but they did not have school supplies so off we ent to a second store. They had some supplies but I really wanted to get hand held chalkboards or whiteboards like they have at Eban House. We were told they had those boards at the market so we headed that way. The market is an area where there are several streets of merchants. Picture the craziest swapmeet you have ever been too and just multiply everything by a lot. So after getting into the market and to the area where we were told the boards were- no boards.

So now we needed to get the rice so we went and picked up a big bag along with some cooking oil and headed towards Kasoa. Our last stop was to get as much water as we could fit in our large passenger van. We do that last and close to Kasoa because we really weigh the van down with the water as Muna is gifted at filling the van and found room that I did not know existed to put more water!

So we arrive at Kasoa and several children come out to help unload the donation. While they were happy to see school books and food, the soccer balls were the most popular because after all, a kid is a kid. The largest portion of money that was donated to help those in Ghana went to the orphanage in Kasoa. This is a picture of the donation we made.

I was also informed that Auntie Rose who runs this orphanage has some medical issues but did not have money to go get help for herself. When meeting her it did appear that she needed to be seen by a doctor and so I spoke to her about going to the doctor and accepting a separate donation so that she could do so. I know this was hard for her to do but I emphasized that the children needed her to be healthy and at her best so she could help them. She seemed to understand.

The staff was very eager to show me around the orphanage. This was the hard part because seeing pictures is one thing but being there is another. I was there after a few days of rain and so every room was filled with standing water. To call the top of the building a "roof" is really a stretch as there was water everywhere. The ladies kept asking for insect repellant and mosquito nets. I was so upset I didn't have any that I wanted to get back in the van and go get some immediately but if you saw the muddy roads we had to navigate to get to the orphange door, you realized that we were already granted a gift from God to have made it there without getting stuck once and I didn't know if we would get a miracle twice. Note: I did end up giving money to a family that went to Kasoa right after I did and asked that they try to get some insect repellent and nets.
This is the outside, I just couldn't get over all the standing water. My mind immediately went to all the mosquitos this standing water is breeding.

This is the kitchen where they make food for up to 50 children.

This is where the children eat. There was so much water on the ground in this room that you really could not go back and sit at the tables, it was too deep.

This is the boys room. Not all beds have mattresses, a few have mosquito nets that are ripped and basically ineffective. These boys don't know any different, they were proud of their room. I think they are happy to have a place to lay their head at night.



This man is the science teacher. He spoke to me of how happy he was to teach the children science but asked if I could help him to get beakers and things for experiments. He only has what he is showing her but really wants to teach the kids by showing them an experiment.

Here are a few of the classrooms...






A final thought....While going through the process to adopt Selina, I was constantly on boards with others that have adopted from Africa. I noticed immediately that these families seem to almost be addicted to adopting. No sooner do they bring a child home than they are back working on adopting another one. I thought this was kind of crazy- how can people care for so many children? Now I know.

There are 148 million orphans in the world. One hundred and forty eight million orphans. When you see Kasoa and the children there, you can't help but to look at your house. When you look at the bedroom that these children sleep in and you look at your child's room you can't help but think, "how many more can I fit in this room?"

I no longer think it is crazy to want to adopt more children. I know what an orphan looks like, I know how they live and I see that there is nothing different between the children that were in front of me on this day and the children I gave birth to except for the situation they were born into. To my friends and family that have not adopted, you may see us and think, how can they care for another child as working parents, how will they afford another child? The truth is... these children need homes and when they are adopted and go to new homes, they thrive- we believe that every thing else will work itself out.

I am happy to report that several of the children in the picture with me have been moved to Eban House and are in the process of being adopted right now. I want to close by showing you some of these children that have already been adopted that lived in Kasoa for a period of time. Their awesome mothers (thank you Heather and Amy) allowed me to share with you that they are from Kasoa and I do so because I got to know these children when I was in Ghana and I love them and am so excited that they are home and transitioning into their new lives...


This sibling group of four was one that when I first heard about them, I so hoped they would find a home quickly but thought it would be hard for AAI to find a family to add four children at once. When they did find a family for them, I thought, "How lucky are these children" After meeting these children, my thoughts changed to "How fortunate for this family to be blessed with these four beautiful children". The youngest little guy was with Selina most of the time at Eban House as they are the same age- they were so cute together and it was so fun to watch them interact. See more of these kiddos here.


Sweet Williams as everyone calls him. He was so good to Selina when she came into the home. The staff told me that when she was learning to walk and would fall, Williams would pick her up. I saw him help her and be kind to her so many times while we were in Ghana. I am so happy that he is home now and with his family. See him with his new family here.

Thank you again for all that donated to make my trip to Kasoa and the donations I was able to make from all of us while there possible.