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.)