Date Night

We had our second ever date night out in Ghana...like a real date!  It was fun spending time with this guy.  We headed to the only place we knew to go, the Accra mall!

We tried a new restaurant at the mall which will definitely be a repeat.  Don was very pleased with his burger and I had a yummy avocado, "bacon" (translate ham), and feta pita sandwich.  The prices were reasonably inexpensive, the service was reasonably quick, and the food was good.  We were excited to find a burger that Don liked (he's on an ongoing quest to find the best burger in every place we visit) the second week we were back in country. Success!

We also scored some frozen yogurt from a new frozen yogurt shop at the mall.  After carefully making our selections of strawberry and mango, we were informed that the sign displaying 15 flavors were flavors they may possibly have in the future and they only actually had plain and blueberry!  :)  The plain (translate actual frozen plain yogurt, not vanilla like we presumed) will probably not be a repeat but the blueberry was delish.

Oh, and we also romantically shopped for appliances...  :)

The Sights and Sounds of the Market

Happy Birthday Ernestina!

We had the distinct privilege to celebrate this young lady one evening!  Her birthday was actually at the beginning of August (she turned 30!) but since we weren't here then, we surprised her now!  Ernestina has an incredible heart and humbly and lovingly serves the people who enter her home.  We had the privilege of living with her for 6 months and she was amazing in caring for our family as we learned new life in Ghana.  Although we have moved into our own home now, we live only a couple miles away and look forward to continuing to see her often.  We love you Ernestina!    

The kids each made her a square of her Ghana flag card.

A photo album of our time with her so far

She rode a horse on the beach for her actual 30th birthday so that needed to be represented in the background.  :)

Happy Birthday Uncle Ryan!

The day after the Gyolai family arrived, we had the opportunity to celebrate this guy!  We started off with a good old fashioned Ghanaian ponding experience (we didn't take into consideration how slippery the tile porch would be when wet so thankfully we didn't have any cracked heads!).  

His birthday dinner request was fajitas which we accompanied with plantain chips, homemade salsa and guac, and of course fruit.  Then his beloved wife surprised him with red velvet cake and cream cheese frosting from home -- his fav!

The kids showered him with homemade gifts and cards and Josi had some birthday elves bring some gifts from the U.S. -- movies, pen, popcorn, drink powder, and fly swatters!!!

Don and Ryan have been friends for 23 of his 36 years.  Ryan is passionate about Jesus and showing God's love to others through relationship...oh, and skittles!  Our family adores this guy.  He's the real deal and we are super thrilled that God led him and Josi to join us in Ghana.

Happy Birthday Uncle Ryan!!!   

Internet Saga

We have internet!!!  It was kind of a long journey but our internet is working pretty well at our new house now.  We are thankful to be back in contact with the outside world again.  So how did we accomplish this great feat you ask?  Well, the issue was that our new house was farther away from the tower and did not have "direct sight" to make a good connection (no satellites here folks!).  So our internet guy, Michael, decided the best course of action was to cement a tall metal pole (think lightning rod!) to the top of our roof where he could attach our transmitter...  So there you have it!  Super tall pole cemented to roof...done!  You can't tell from this picture but this pole rises a mere 50ft into the air and can be seen from the roadside.  The first part is a ladder that they climb, to reach the second pole if they have to take it down for repairs or something.  They started with a 10 ft pole attachment at the top.  When that didn't work, they welded a 2nd 10 ft pole to the first.  When that didn't work, I asked Michael what the next course of action was.  His response, "I will add 10 more feet!"  Well of course!  I was skeptical but Michael did his thing and the internet is up.  We just hope no major electrical storms head our direction!

Barrel Day!

We declared a week ago Sunday to be Barrel Day!  What is Barrel Day you ask?  Well, many months ago, some awesome friends from the U.S. sent this big blue barrel stocked full with treasures across the ocean to bless our family here in Ghana.  

Unfortunately, the 8 weeks they quoted us to arrival turned into 12 weeks and our family had already returned to the U.S. when it arrived.  We were bummed to miss it but we knew it would be the perfect thing to look forward to as our family transitioned back after our final goodbyes at home.

Pepperonis!  These make this guy happy on pizza and movie Friday nights.

 So when we returned, we chose a day to declare Barrel Day, and we dove in!!!  It was so fun unpacking all the treasures.

Snacks and chocolate and American peanut butter...Saturday cereal and water bottles and art supplies galore...contact solution and real ziplocks and ghiradelli chocolate squares...glowsticks and sidewalk chalk and treasures for Ghanaian friends!  So much goodness in a blue barrel!!!

Our family felt so loved!  Thank you U.S. friends for blessing our family!!!  :)

And when we were done unloading, we had fun with the barrel!

 A barrel full of Cuties!

 And what better thing then to stick your sister in a barrel and send her rolling across the living room!

Ghana Friends

Priscilla (12 yrs) and Kokmel (14 yrs) were 2 of our little friends in the neighborhood.  We spent a lot of time with them when we were here last spring.  At one point before we left in April, I presented them with a reading challenge.  As a family, we are passionate about providing jobs and giving people opportunities to work hard, provide for their families, better their situations, and gain the dignity that comes from all of these things.  As we interacted with Priscilla and Kokmel, I wanted to give them some of these same opportunities.  So I explained to them that when our children wanted to buy something, we gave them opportunities to work hard and earn the item they desired.  One of the ways we do this is with reading challenges.  I asked them if they would like to participate in a reading challenge with us.  Their challenge was to read each of the 7 Chronicles of Narnia books and discuss them with us (I also gave them some writing assignments).  We didn't get to finish all the books before we left but we left our Narnia books with them and asked them to finish before we returned again.  It was so fun to present them with their prizes for completing their reading challenge.  For Priscilla, we brought a Bop-It game (her favorite of our toys here) and for Kokmel, we brought a new Nike soccer ball.  It was so fun to see the smiles on their faces.  We pray this is just one of many times these 2 will know the joy and dignity that comes from working hard.  

I love her excited smile here. 

Big hug for "Daddy"!  (We are Mommy and Daddy to everyone here.) 

They're HERE and It's HERE!!!

So our internet seems to have stabilized...at least for now...and I wanted to post of all the happenings of this past week and a half before things get crazy again this week. (We are supposed to be moving into our houses this week -- Ahhhh!  More on that later!  :)  )

They're HERE!!! 

We have 2 new arrivals to our little home here.  On October 8, we welcomed the Gyolai crew to Ghana!  We were so excited to show them around and they jumped in with both feet learning all there is to learn about our new home.  It's been amazing spending more time with their family and its a good thing we all like each other as their additions made 15 people living under one roof!  :)   

We kicked off our first night celebrating Uncle Ryan's birthday!

The Gyolai girls came equipped with their new slack line.  The kids wasted no time in setting it up and getting their skills on!

Here is our new friend Bernice giving it a try.  She is the daughter of Auntie Marta who is one of the ladies who washes our clothes by hand.  We SO appreciate her!  :)

Our little Ghanaian friends in this picture are Bernice, Beatrice, Sandra and Baby Israel -- all children of the 2 ladies (Auntie Marta & Auntie Mavis) who wash our clothes.  We've enjoyed seeing the children when they've come with their mommas on washing days.

These 3 have been practicing for their many ballet recitals in the living room.  

It's HERE!!!

Our second new arrival to Ghana was our truck!  Ryan, Josi, and our new friend Kofi at the port worked for several straight days to clear this bad boy through customs.  We were so excited to have wheels of our own that we immediately loaded everyone up and went looking for houses.  We feel so blessed to finally have a vehicle in Ghana.

Yeah for wheels!!!  

What we've been up to...

We are well on our way into our second week here in Ghana.  We jumped in with both feet attacking our To Do lists.  Though things move much slower here, we are pleased with the forward progress we are making so far.  Here is an update on what we've been up to...by way of bullet points!

~ The day after we arrived, Don and Ryan attended a dressy event hosted by the Dutch Navy on one of their ships docked at the Tema Port.  They spent the evening rubbing shoulders with Dutch officials and representatives from Ghana.  Although I can't say this is Don's favorite kind of thing, his networking skills got a good workout that night.

Don & Ryan heading out to their event.  Don grabbed Ernestina's bike as a prop for their picture.  I could make several comments about this however I'll leave it to your imaginations.  (Incidentally, we found out this was a suit and tie occasion the day we left for Ghana.  Nothing like buying a suit on your way to the airport!)

 On the navy boat

~ Unpacking, unpacking, unpacking...  Packing and unpacking has sort of been my life for the last 18 months.  At times I kind of feel like I'm stuck in a bad version of Groundhog Day.  Needless to say, we are fairly settled in...at least for now.

~ Started school right away last Monday.  After 4 months off, we were all craving a little routine and structure.  I can't say that we've found our "groove" yet but we're working on it!

Ally was practicing writing all her review spelling words...with her eyes closed!

I may not have found my groove but this little teacher sure had her students in line.  :)

~ The first few days we were here, we had some new young friends stay with us while their parents (missionary family from up north) spent 3 long days at port trying to clear their container and vehicle.  It worked out well as our kids were occupied with playmates while we unpacked and their kids didn't have to sit in the port waiting room for 3 full days.  They had success and we were able to take notes as we will be going through the same process in a few weeks when our container arrives.

Watching Tale Spin episodes after a long day of playing.

~ We now have phones and internet access.  We've also been having amazing consistency in power -- only 15 minutes of power outages this week.  We are SO thankful for that.  On the other hand, our water supply has been quite low.  We have been hauling water in buckets for washing dishes and showering for almost a week now.  We are praying the main water lines open before the Gyolai family of 5 descends on our house tomorrow night.  Although, nothing says welcome to Ghana like a cold bucket shower!  :)

~ The kids creativity has been out in full force.   I love that about watching them play here.  Here they are leading Aunt Josi into a homemade "trap" to catch humans.

Finding plastic spiders that Grandma hid in their suitcases.

Batgirl has returned

~ Toby's been busy working on losing his first tooth.  He had success with a little help from Daddy.  He's been waiting patiently for this day to come as Chloe has lost several teeth already.  He was very matter of fact and business-like about the whole process (unlike his big sis who was overcome with "happy tears" when she lost her first tooth).  So proud of him!

~ Don has spent much of the last week learning to be an accountant...balance sheets, cash flow statements, and the like are now pouring through his fingertips like a pro.

~  Ryan and Josi spent several days this week at the port walking through the process to clear our truck through customs and making some new friends along the way.  

~  We've also been looking for housing for our team the last week.  We've looked at 10-15 houses primarily in 2 neighborhoods we had scoped out last spring.  We have several options we are considering but nothing that is quite the perfect fit.  We are discussing pros and cons and praying for wisdom as God guides us to the right homes for us.  

Pure sweetness!

~We've also become reacquainted with our neighborhood friends and have picked up our walks to the roadside for fruit, to our favorite bread lady's house, to Auntie Vivienne's for water, and to Auntie Linda's for candy.  We also found our friends Kokmel (14 yrs) and Priscilla (12 yrs).  It has been good to see all our Ghanaian friends and see that they are well.

Libby painting Priscilla's nails

Well, I have a few more things to share from our side of the ocean but they deserve their own post.

From the West Wing

Here are a couple pics we received this week from our team still stateside (who Don has lovingly named "The West Wing"!)  

~  Our second container was loaded up and shipped containing tools and business supplies, the Sparling family's household goods, and a truck!

 "The West Wing"  Way to go guys!

The Gyolai family (Jamie & Sarah on left + the 3 girls) is actually on their way as I write to join us here in Ghana.  They will be landing in Accra tomorrow night.  We are thrilled to have them joining us and look forward to the Sparling family joining us early December.  (We miss you guys!  Come soon!)