Our last few days in mini America...

Selina and I had a wonderful last few days in Ghana. I wanted to share a few of my favorite memories of this time as it was really wonderful. Thankfully I chose to stay at La Palm Resort which I called "mini America". I had checked out the hotel and chose it because it was all on one level, had a lot of things for Selina and I to do and because I felt it would be a good transition to America for Selina. This resort had many guests of various nationalities and was almost like an America in Ghana.

THE STAFF
I came to be so thankful for this resort as the staff here were so kind to me. As I mentioned before, when I called to let them know that I needed to go to the hospital, they took me, waited for me, took be to the pharmacy and again waited while I filled the prescriptions. This was all at midnight. I can't tell you how nervous I would have been to make this trip without their assistance. Word must have gotten out that we went to the hospital as in the days we were there, so many staff members checked on us to make sure Selina was doing better. They stopped us as we passed by, called us on the phone or asked about her in the restaurants as we ate.

We had a beautiful view from our room overlooking the pool with the ocean in the distance.



THE PIANOMAN
Every evening, there was a man that played the piano in lobby. I took Selina there each of the nights and we just layed back on the leather sofas near the piano and enjoyed the music until she was ready for bed. By the third night, I got smart and just got her ready for bed and brought her out and let her listen to the music as she fell asleep. At first she would bop her head to the music but as she got more tired, she would relax and rest her head on me and start to dose off.

The piano player got to know us as we kind of stood out compared to the men and women in suits on their laptops that were also in lobby area. On the second night, I asked if I could take a picture of him and Selina. He said yes and so we got this picture.



Then Selina decided that she would like to tickle the ivories herself and did so. As badly as it sounded for that brief moment and despite the fact that I should have probably grabbed her quickly so all the businessmen in the room could continue to enjoy the Elton John song as he intended it, I instead snapped this picture! The piano player and I laughed about it.



We spoke later and as it turns out, he was a pretty neat guy that is also Catholic and has a heart for helping children. His focus is those children that are being sold and used in Ghana to work on fishing boats. He was another kind person whose path I crossed. He provided Selina and I with the opportunity to unwind on our first days together and I will remember him fondly for that.

ICE CREAM
Our hotel also had an ice cream shop. In our family, we love ice cream and so I knew that we had to get there before we left. When we did, I selected vanilla and melon ice cream as Selina's first ice cream as a member of the family and hoped that she would like it as that would be a sure sign that she was in the right home. Not only did she like it, she couldn't eat it fast enough! This caused her to pause for what must have been a brain freeze as after a few moments of not wanting any, she suddenly couldn't eat it fast enough again. She eventually finished her ice cream and even enjoyed a bite or two of mine@



SELINA'S LAST DINNER IN GHANA
On our last evening, I wanted to make sure that we got to get her some Ghanian food. There was a restaurant there in which I was able to order her banku which is her favorite food according to the aunties at Eban House. Banku is a doughy bread that is dipped in soup or stew. She enjoyed the meal.



In our first days together, Selina amazed me. Here she was ill. She really could not breathe well at all when she slept. It was so upsetting and concerning that I did not sleep two of the nights as I felt I needed to watch her to make sure she did not get worse. If you saw her during the day though, you would never know that she was sick with a chest and ear infections. She was so happy and energetic. When it was time to leave ther room to go somewhere, I would just say, "Selina, time to go bye bye!" and would grab her shoes. She learned quickly that this meant we were leaving and she would just jump up and reach for me and get so excited to go on a little "adventure".



While it would have been so nice for Selina to have been well so she could have swam and played more in our first days together, we made the best of those days and ended up having a wonderful time. I saw what a resilant and sweet little girl we have and how blessed we are. We had these few days to prepare ourselves to leave Ghana. I was able to enjoy a few of the luxaries that I had been missing the past month and Selina had the chance to get a glimpse of what life is like in America. Now we were ready to board the plane and head home...

We are home!

Hello everyone!

Selina and I are back and are doing great! Unfortunately I came back to a virus on this computer. I am working on it as I am excited to post some pictures and updates as soon as I can!


Jennine

Last post before I go...

Hello and Happy Thursday!

Selina and I will head home in the morning. She is doing better but is still not well. I finally got a nasal aspirator after two days, four hours and five stores but I can't tell you how much of a difference it has made in getting the guck out of her!

She also has a double ear infection I learned yesterday. They are looking better today. That is a bummer as I suspected this earlier and mentioned it a few times but people here seem to think a child has an ear infection when fluid is coming out of the ear. I do know that Selina has a higher pain tolerance as do Kman and Cater when it comes to their ears. I remember screaming like a baby holding my ears when I used to get them!

We are doing really well. I am so proud of how happy Selina is in spite of being sick and being in a new environment. She is such the trooper.

I am also making progress in getting the boy from an earlier post into the place that will make him an artificial limb. I have to talk to some people here to see if the things that need to be done for him here can be accomplished but thanks to the donations from everyone, I think we can get it done!

I hope everyone has a great day.

Thanks again for everything you have done for me and for our family while we have been here!

Jennine

Quick update..

The internet is $12 an hour here! Yikes so quick update

I took custody of Selina yesterday after lunch. We had a goodbye party that was nice. Got the kids a juice box and ring pops and fanta and cookies for the staff. Kids loved the ring pops and it was funny to see them try to suck through a straw as it was the first time for many of them. They looked at the juice boxes at first as if they did not know what to do.

Selina left saying "bye bye". We got to the hotel and walked around the pools, had dinner poolside and listened to the man playing the grand piano. She loved it all and was happy all day.

When she went to bed and fell asleep, she started having trouble breathing. Her whole chest was sucking in and her rib cage was moving. She had been congested but this was very concerning. I called my doctor's office who could hear her in the background. They suggested I take her to the emergency room immediately. It was 10:30 pm. Thankfully this hotel is into customer service as their staff drove me, waited for us and took us to the pharmacy. She has an upper respiratory infection or pneumonia. I have five medicines now and while she is okay during the day and has no fever, when you lay her down- OMG. I could not sleep but about 30 minutes last night as it was that concerning. I felt so bad as she was trying to suck in some air. I almost took her back to a different hospital until I decided to just watch her all night and if it got any worse I would have.

She is walking around today and is happy. I got all the meds in her last night- poor girl did not like it at all! I am hopeful that she will sleep better tonight and I can just get her home. Please say a little prayer for her that she sleeps better. I know the congestion had been going on but had not seemed to get worse. I just never slept with her over the past three weeks where she was laying down. I felt so bad for her!

Other than the RTI/pneumonia, she is really happy so far and is looking at every thing as an adventure. We are so blessed..


Thanks for all the congrats from everyone here and on email!!

Jennine

I am headed home!!!

I filed for and received the visa approval yesterday!! It was not without some unnecessary drama but in the end, I had it!! I guess I am the first one to file and get it that day! They wanted to give it to me on Friday but I asked them nicely if I can get it earlier as my kids at home miss me. They checked and told me to come back in the afternoon to pick it up! Praise God!!

So after two and a half hours on the phone and waiting for Delta to call back, we have flights for Friday! I will fly on a Friday the 13th that will never end as I leave early in the morning from Ghana and because of the time differnce, I will also arrive home on Friday the 13th. I also have Selina as a lap child because I cannot pay the extra $1200- $1500 they want for her to have her own seat. I just can't do it- we will make it through. So in short, I will have a toddler on my lap for the longest Friday the 13th I will ever experience!! Please say a little prayer for us!!

In the meantime, I take custody today. I am having little treats after lunch and then Selina and I head to a really nice local hotel for three days. It actually is a five star resort which is a nice place to start your new life! Thanks to their willingness to negotiate on the price, I am saving a lot of money so we splurged!! We need some good bonding before the plane ride as TR said!!

I may not be on internet as much or as long as I will have Selina with me from here on out so I will try to post a quick note to keep everyone updated until I arrive home!

Thank you to everyone that has said prayers for me. This really could not have gone much faster and I believe it is in large part for all of you who have checked in with me and prayed for us. My bonding with Selina is so much better than I ever expected at this point.

Another father is here visiting his daughter and yesterday Selina went up to him and was showing him her book and pointing so this gives me lots of hope for her to meet TR and the kids! She just seems much more comfortable with people and strangers in general. She will still grab on to me but given a minute or so, she starts to relax.

Also thank you to all you that donated. I am spending the last few hundred dollars and will update more on what we did when I return. We were able to make a difference to many people here and for you to trust me to do that and to make a donation to help those here that needed it- I am really so appreciative of your generosity! :-)

So I am off to get some last minute shopping done before the party...

Have a great day...

thanks again...

Jennine

A wonderful day...

Selina and I had a really wonderful day. I arrived at the home early this morning as I wanted to take her to church at the Catholic Church in Tema where my great uncle was before he retired. He was there from 1987- 1996.

We arrived for church before the mass and so I went and met with the priest there. Selina had fallen asleep in the car and was still sleeping.



I asked the priest to baptize her and so he did. She will have a formal baptism when she gets home but in the meantime, I feel better that she has been blessed! I also asked to have the mass said for my grandmother.



Church was about two or three hours. It was a sea of Africans and Selina and I. I say this as I had to walk from the back of the large church to the front for communion and to give my offering and everyone looked at me. Kind of like when you get married and you are the bride. It was a nice mass though and several people came up to greet me and remembered Father Beem and were happy that I had come. The priest ended up saying that mass for my grandmother and so it was nice to have had her remembered while I was there.



Selina woke up for a large part of church but was still tired which made it interesting. She started babbling loudly. It doesn't go over quite as well in Africa- I was getting a little extra attention and so we went right out the door and I was able to easily watch the mass from the overflow area. It worked out beautifully. She fell asleep again prior to church ending!

After that, I had our taxi driver, Augustine, take us to two of the hotels that I am considering staying at with Selina. Augustine was so good today and helpful. He took us to church and waited the three hours, drove us to check out the hotels and waited for us when we went to lunch. He also said that he had his brother go get a gift for Kman because he wanted to give him something. I don't have the gift yet as it is coming from another region of Ghana. So here he is- a taxi driver in Ghana that makes probably about $30 a month after he pays for gas and pays the man who owns the car and he is buying something for Kman? Another example of how kind people here are!



Now to some people, it may not matter what hotel I stay at, but those who know me, know how I can be when I get an idea in my head! I wanted it to be a nice comfortable place where Selina and I can have some room. The first hotel was exactly what I wanted. It was all on one level and is spread out with walkways and grass so we can walk around. There is a HUGE pool area with about six pools including a kids pool that had about 10 little kids playing in it. It also had a fountain in it. There are three restaurants there- including one with Ghanian food (for Selina) and one with American food (for me). There are tons of big chairs everywhere to sit. It was just what I wanted.

The second hotel is multiple stories in which there are a lot of steps to get where you are going. This may not seem like a big deal but Selina can barely manuever a few steps still so she would have to be carried up and down most of the places we went at this hotel. I want her to be in a place where she can get around easily and independently if she wants to walk on her own and run around. So there is not much space to walk around and no grassy areas. There is a pool with a smaller kids pool but it was deserted wheras the other one had a tons of families around. So to make a short story long- I will have wait to find out the prices but I plan on staying at the nicer hotel!

We ate lunch at the second hotel and it was okay.



We had the interesting experience of a lizard waiting for Selina's table scraps. Yes, not just one but a few showed up at different times during the course of the meal which made me eventually eat with my legs elevated (a good thing to exercise the legs while eating pizza though). Selina liked the first lizard well enough but by the third was a little concerned and sat in the corner of her chair!



Selina also peed on me. She woke up right when we got to the restaurant and as she woke up, I felt a warm sensation on my clothes! Oops, the adoption center accidently sent her in the wrong size diaper (they had a few extra infant sized diapers in the room with Selina's)so needless to say, she had some overage!

Thankfully I had brought not only diapers that fit but an extra outfit for her. As for me and my clothes we just had the potty! With all the sweating I do, what is the difference anyway? I was able to rinse the spot so I was fine! Just one of the bonuses of parenting- you gotta get peed on and puked on at least once by each of your kids so we got at least one of them out of the way!

It was funny as the house mother at first acted like I was crazy and Selina's diaper size was the right one until she went to look and saw that there were two sizes out! Then she felt bad but I gave her a hard time and we had a good laugh about it!

I go to start the visa process tomorrow. I am not sure how it all goes but I will know soon enough! I called the airline and asked about flight availability and prices and all looks good for me to leave on Friday or Sunday. I prefer Friday but won't know for sure until Tuesday.

It was such a great day with Selina that when I was at the hotel, a part of me just wanted to call the house and say, we are staying here! I am really ready to take custody but I also have to consider Selina and the aunties at the home. I started telling the ladies last night that Selina's last day will probably be Tuesday. They were surprised at first as they don't really keep up with where everyone is at in the process and all the details. A few just nodded and looked at me and I could tell that they were trying to keep their composure. I am glad that they know and can spread the word as it is obvious she is really loved here. They are the ones that saw her come in unable to walk or say anything. They have taught her to walk and have watched her flourish in their care. I know that the day or two that I wait will mean a lot to the aunties and Selina will just be at a place where she is loved and cared for a day or two more. I know that she will get some extra love and attention as everyone has their time with her.

Have a great evening...




Jennine

Thank you...

If you read my last post and prayed at all it worked!! My headache is gone (I also would like to give a big thanks to the 4 advils I took!). I also just spent a few hours with Selina and we had a great time! She can now make a few more sounds including a more consistant "d" and when she ate, she held the spoon herself and scooped her own food most of the meal without too much mess!

The last two days have been hard. Yesterday I visited the Kasoa orphanage and saw conditions that bring me to tears just thinking about it. I saw pictures before but seeing it in person and after rain with standing water- It is something that you just can't walk away from and forget. It will forever be in my mind and if you know me, you know just how sensitive I am and so this is just heavy on my heart right now.

I also went today to an orphanage for children affected by HIV. They either have it or have family members with it. While conditions are not great here. They are better than Kasoa. I really like the orphanage director, Edem. He met with me here at my guesthouse the first day I was here and then I saw him at the orphanage this morning. He called me this evening to thank me again and to let me know how he has already spent the monetary part of our donation. It was very kind of him and we agreed that we will keep in touch. I took some of the most beautiful pictures of the kids there today and I am excited to share a few with you.

I am just praying that they will give me a good idea of how long I will be here when I go to the visa appointment on Monday so I can make the most accurate guesses on flights and hotel accommodations! I will be taking custody of Selina as soon as I can get every thing arranged- and you know me once I get going on something so it will be quickly after my appointment! I am really excited to get to be alone with Selina and together 24/7 although I think the nights will be a challenge at first!

I will post more when I get a chance in the next day or two. I am still really tired and need to work on some paperwork for Monday so I will have every thing set for my appointment and can get every thing done to take custody of Selina!! I am hoping to take her to a Catholic Church tomorrow morning so hopefully that will work out!

Thanks again for the prayers and especially to Mary and Erica for going shopping for her!! You are so funny! :-)

Jennine