It's been a while!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I realized that I have not been very good about updating this blog.  I am sorry for that, but 4 kids make things quite busy around here!

Well, EJ's first Christmas in the U.S. didn't go as expected - she was sick.  She caught a bad cold with a fever and has been down for 3 days now so she missed the Christmas Eve program and Christmas Day festivities but she seems to be on the mend this morning. (hopefully!) She was pretty sad about having to stay home, mostly because she loves to play with her cousins on my mom's side of the family.  :)  Poor Greg ... he missed Thanksgiving home sick with Cade and now Christmas home with EJ.  We have delayed our gathering on Greg's side so that we hopefully have healthy kids to celebrate there and don't get the little cousins sick.  (Braden now has a touch of it so we will be waiting it out with him, Cade had a cold start last week and hopefully Caris, Greg & I somehow skate through without catching it ... although I don't know how that is possible given the amount of coughing and sneezing that has gone on here in the the last week!)

Overall, EJ's adjustment has been going pretty well.  Some things are great for her - like school & food adjustments.  Some things are really hard for her - like daily routines, staying focused  & having to go along to watch her sibling's sporting events.  Greg & I constantly have to remind ourselves that it's only been 5 months.  We tend to expect a lot and need to be patient with her but it is really hard sometimes.  Hopefully some of those things will continue to get better as she gets more used to us.  She absolutely LOVES school and she will tell you she doesn't like the weekends.  (multiple soccer or basketball games on Saturdays and sitting quietly in church on Sunday are NOT her favorite things!)  I know most adoptive families of older kids will tell you that the happy child you see out and about is not at all the child we see at home when her guard is down.  Don't get me wrong, she is normally happy at home but we also see the other side of things too.  These last few weeks have been especially hard and sometimes frustrating for all of us.  We were told by other adoptive families that we'd hit the point where we'd ask ourselves "What have we done?  We've screwed up our nice little family".  Yep.  We're there.  Just being honest.  We know it will all get better and we have a great support system of family and friends.  Thank you all!

In November EJ had her large umbilical hernia fixed.  She was a trooper and recovered really fast and she loves being able to see a belly button on herself now.  :)

Although she is getting used to it, she is not a big fan of winter and has asked multiple times when the warm weather will be coming back.  ("a LONG time yet" is normally our answer!)  This month we had our official state of Wisconsin re-adoption so after I change her name with Social Security I think our portion of the paperwork in the adoption process may finally be finished.  There will be several more visits with the social worker who prepares reports to send back to Ghana's social welfare department, but that is mostly on their shoulders.  I'm glad to be at the end of the road with the paperwork!

So, that is the quick version of what is going on here at the Dirkse household.  We hope you have a very happy & healthy 2015!

Robin

Go karting with Dad in Wisconsin Dells

A normal sleeping position for our restless sleeper

Celebrating EJ's baptism

Eager to shovel the first snowfall after church ... hasn't shoveled since!

Re-adoption 12/12/14

Settling In and Starting School

I took a whirlwind trip back to Ghana to pick up Emmanuella since Greg & I had just been there for our visa interview appointment.  In the last post I did, we knew her birth mother had been interviewed and then we couldn't get any answers as to where the case stood at the US Embassy.  Well, on Monday morning we got word that her visa printed and could be picked up!  Amazing!  The Bethany Christian Services workers in Ghana went and picked it up yet that afternoon.  On Tuesday we confirmed that everything was spelled correctly and all looked good so I booked my flight back to go get her!  I flew out of JFK on a Thursday night (Aug 7th), arrived in Accra at 1:30pm on Friday, and flew back out with E at 10:30pm that same night.  We arrived to JFK very early Saturday morning (Aug 9th) and then flew to Chicago and arrived at 11:00am.  All of the flights went very smooth and E traveled great - she slept for about 8 of the 10.5 hours on the first flight during the night!  We were greeted by our family and a bunch of great friends that surprised me and all drove the 2 hours to Chicago to be there for us.

Ready for our 2nd flight to Chicago

The gang that greeted us at the airport

Here we come!

Meeting brothers and sister for the first time

1st family photo

The entire Veldboom side and Greg's parents were at the airport.  (Greg's brother and his family live in CA so we'll give him a pass on this one;) 

It's been 3 1/2 weeks now that Emmanuella has been home with us and things are going really well.  She has raised the love in our hearts and the volume level in our house about 400%.  :)  The first few days were really rough for everyone (mostly due to the time change she wasn't getting near enough sleep for those first few days and was not very happy!) but now she has adjusted and is doing very well.

School started yesterday for all of the kids.  Braden started 7th grade, Caris 4th, Cade 1st and Emmanuella is doing Kindergarten even though her age would put her in 1st. She wasn't ready for 1st grade socially or academically and Kinder will be a great fit for her.  I accompanied her to class yesterday and she did great so I did not go back with her today.  (I may or may not have spied on her from the parking lot during her morning recess time ;)  May I just say that teachers are amazing?!  I do not know how they do it all day ... so many needs and levels in each classroom and they just nail it.  Emmanuella's teacher is a good friend of mine so I already love her dearly on that level, but after spending a day in her classroom I have a whole new respect and admiration for her.  These people are truly gifted by God to be doing what they are doing!

Our Elementary students ready to go!

Braden is up early and ready for 7th grade

We had a great last 3 weeks as a family of 6.  I think Emmanuella said it best when we were leaving the house on Labor Day to go out to the lake waterskiing again.  She said, "we just have fun everyday"!  I was glad to hear her say that because it's not all roses for every part of our days - there are many lessons for her to learn and she doesn't usually like being corrected or told "no, we don't do that in the US" or "no, that is not acceptable in our home".  Most things are just cultural/environmental differences so repetition will help with those things.  The minor behavior issues we've had the first week have really subsided with more sleep at night after adjusting to our time zone.  She is a happy, giggly, LOUD and outspoken little girl so it is quite obvious when she is angry, mad, hungry or tired.  I guess that is a good thing - not a whole lot of guess work involved with her!  Her English is really good but we have had a few laughs over it as she learns.  (English is so confusing as so many words are the same but have several different meanings!)  Take for instance on the way to school today - we pasted the Christian School in town on the way to her school which is a public school.  She said "that is not my school", I said "nope, that is the Christian School, it is a private school which means the parents have to pay for their children to go there".  To which she answered, "they have to pay to poop & pee at that school?"  Can you tell we've had many conversations recently about being "private" in the bathroom?  We don't realize how many words we have with dual or triplicate meanings until you have to explain everything to a 6 year old learning it!

She is adapting well to food in the US also.  There isn't much this girl won't eat although she curls up her nose to nearly all things at first.  Luckily, she is very willing to try most things with urging and finds out she loves them.  Corn dogs, pizza, PASTA, hamburgers, chicken tenders, ice cream, PASTA and more PASTA.  She gained 2 lbs in the first 2 weeks she was here!  (operation portion control is beginning soon;)  So far the only things we found that she doesn't like are green beans, peas, lemonade & applesauce.  If we throw onions on just about anything she'd eat it.

The 3 bio kids are adjusting well also.  Caris is like having another mother in the house.  She likes to help her pick out her clothes and she plays with her often.  Braden & Emmanuella have been also getting closer as she learns to trust that big guy more and more.  They will swim together and play Uno & Connect Four often.  She loves to rough house with the boys ... it's just hard for her to learn where to stop so it doesn't always end well - but she comes back for more nearly every day!  Cade and E get along great but I think he struggled to find his new role in the house the first 2 weeks.  We seem to have our happy little guy back now though and he was excited about 1st grade after his first day yesterday.

Learning to play Uno at Grandma & Grandpa D's house - a Sunday night tradition.  She LOVES the game and would play constantly if we let her!

Learning to pedal & steer ... it's going to be awhile.  ;)

This was about 20 minutes after getting home from the airport - 1st time in our pool.

She loves having Caris paint her nails!

First time skiing with Dad - she has no fear behind the boat.

First time tubing with Caris

E with her friend and neighbor, Kallie.  She has been great to E over the last 2 weeks!

Thank you so much for your support the last few weeks.  We have had people bringing us meals and taking our 3 big kids fun places the last few weeks of summer while we bonded with E at home a little while - we really appreciate it!  Please continue to pray for our adjustment and attachment as a family.  There is still much that needs to happen but we have learned through this process to trust in God even more - he's got our back and will see us through.  :)

Update ... with little information

After going to church today and seeing many people at Braden's basketball tournament this weekend I realized that some of you are waiting for an update as to where our case stands at the US Embassy in Ghana right now.  Truthfully, we have absolutely no idea.  We know that Emmanuella's birth mother did go to the Embassy on Thursday and was interviewed, so that was amazing that they were able to track her down and she agreed to come so quickly.  After the interview was over, the officer handed our POA a slip of some sort that said he would be contacted.  I spent all day on Friday trying to get clarification of what that slip meant and no one,  either at the US Embassy or Bethany, answered my emails with any specifics.  So, we have no idea if the "investigation" that they were doing to confirm E's status as an orphan is completed after speaking with her birth mom or if the interview raised more questions and concerns and the US Embassy is going to continue the investigation for several more weeks or months.  We are completely frustrated at the lack of communication with our own government right now.  We will try again tomorrow.

While this is so frustrating and doesn't seem to make much sense to us, I really have felt peace the last few days.  I truly believe that I had not fully prepared myself as well as I could have (mentally) to be bringing her home last week.  I was also questioning if we had prepared our 3 bio kids as well as we could have for the little "tornado" that will be hitting our house when she arrives.  I feel like when I do go back for her that I now have a better handle on it and I have realized that I am going to need to find a whole lot more patience for many things with her and around the house.  I get it Lord, lesson learned.  Now I'm ready to go back for her.  :)

So, that's it.  Nothing much to report.  Hopefully we will get some answers in the next few days.

Robin

Not as we hoped...

Well, today did not go as well as it did in my dreams and it has been a rough day for us.  We did not pass our visa interview.  We arrived at 7am and waited in the very long, rainy line outside the Embassy.  Around 8:15 we finally got inside and waited to present our documents.  We left around 10:00am without the magic "blue ticket" to return for the visa.  The lady that interviewed us said that we had all of the proper documentation and proof, but that in order for her to process her visa she wanted to interview the birth mother.  We could not have provided her more paper proof than we did, she was set on a face to face interview.  We don't really know what she wants to ask her, but we are assuming that the Embassy will make sure that the birth mother knew what she was doing when she relinquished rights and that she fully understands the significance of that.  We are already legally Emmanuella's parents so that cannot change, the Embassy just wants to make sure that everything at the relinquishment is legit and there was no coercion.  (we thought the proof we brought in should have been enough!)  It's hard to understand the "why's" of it all, but we realize they are just doing their job.  We know of many cases that made it past their interview with the same documentation we had ... it just wasn't our day.  Our agency contacted the Dept Of Social Welfare in Ghana right away and they believe they have located her birth mother and she may be able to come to Accra yet this week for the interview.  (they would see her on any Monday, Tuesday or Thursday)  But, after weighing the odds of that happening plus the visa actually being printed anytime soon we decided that we will travel home as planned tomorrow evening.  Well, not "as planned", we planned to have Emmanuella with us when we booked it all.

We stopped over at Andy & Katie's again after our interview because they are staying only a few blocks away from the Embassy.  We enjoyed lunch with them and it was nice to be able to discuss it all with them.  We got to also share in their joy when their email arrived that their daughter's visa had finally printed.  (and it was handy that our driver was there and could quickly get him over to the Embassy to pick it up!)  They have been in the country for 2 weeks now and have 2 boys back in Montana so it has been really hard for them to be stuck here waiting for the computer program to be fixed.  While we were devastated (and frankly a little shocked) that we didn't pass we could still experience great joy for them.  They are on a plane home tonight and will be reunited with their family tomorrow.

Emmanuella had a hard day all around.  She was tired from getting up early so was already not very happy even before the interview.  You are not allowed to bring food, water, or electronics into the Embassy so even though she had a little breakfast in the car she got hungry inside the Embassy and this girl's mood changes considerably when she is hungry or tired.  Then, after we explained to her that the Embassy did not say "yes", they said "not yet", she shut down even more.  She perked up slightly with some lunch but then shut down for quite awhile again this afternoon.  Tonight was nice though, she played and was happy all night.  (we watched "Frozen" tonight - she liked it but the concept of cold and a snowman to a Ghanaian child is missed!)

While we surely do not understand the reasons behind us not passing the visa interview, we are trusting in God's timing.  We will still go to her school tomorrow morning and drop off all of the gifts we brought but then we will have to leave her at her foster mom's again.  Hopefully I will return to get her in just a few days, but it could also take a while, we have no idea.  In the meantime, we will try to place all of our trust for the timing in Him.

Monday in Ghana

A big hello from Ghana!

Today, for the most part, we had a  low-key day hanging out at the hotel and just bonding with Emmanuella.  (we were only gone for about 2 hours this morning as we went to the Bethany offices to get all of our original documents and go over everything for our interview tomorrow)  Emmanuella is always with us on this trip so it's a bit more exhausting - we are always "on" with intentional parenting.  That's something we haven't really experienced in many years!  Plus, it's so hard to know how to parent her right now when we are away from home and really have no sort of "normal".  Do we correct certain behaviors or just let them slide for awhile, etc.?  For the most part, we let them slide and just try to correct big things, but I can see she is already testing us.  If I say "no" to something or say "please don't do that", she will sometimes do it again purposefully.  She is a smart little girl so I am sure she is testing the waters to see what we will do.  I don't think it will take too long before she figures out that we are pretty consistent and our no means no.  She is so fiercely independant and I am a mom that pretty much has done most things for my kids so it is hard to decipher her good independence vs. letting us help her as a type of bonding & attachment.  In so many ways I love that she wants to do so many things on her own, but she also needs to learn that we will provide for her needs and she can trust that we will help her.  It's hard to know what is right but we'll figure it out as we learn more about each other.  We definitely saw again today that when she is tired she completely shuts down. Luckily, we could get her to take a nap today - she didn't wake up any happier but it only took 15 minutes or so and she was talking to us again.  We had a small glimpse today of how hard this is going to be for all of us, just getting used to a new child in the house that does nearly everything differently than we do.  (this will not be easy for our other 3 kids either who are pretty set in their ways!)

The day contained a whole lot of coloring, puzzles, doing the Barbie's hair, drawing/sketching, some iPad games, more coloring and a bath that gets the whole bathroom wet.  :)  We ended our day Facetiming with the kids back in Oostburg and Emmanuella seemed to understand it better tonight and she was excited to see them again. 

We ate our meals at the hotel today and for supper she finally ordered Banku and Okra Stew ... one of her supposed favorites but she never ordered it before on our first trip.  I gave it a try.  I cannot imagine having a whole softball sized helping of it like she had - it is just like eating sweet bread dough, it must sit like a rock!  She polished it off though and ate nearly all of the stew with it.  (you dip the banku in the stew to eat it and then she ate the meat out of the stew)  Her mood greatly improved after having some food in her belly also!

Our bodies have not yet adjusted to the time change and we are having trouble falling asleep at night.  (Greg fell asleep with E around 9:00 but woke up by 10:00 and we couldn't get back to sleep until after 1am - it doesn't help that we are sharing our queen bed with a 6 year old - I don't know how cosleeping families do that!)  We need to get up very early tomorrow morning to make it to the Embassy in time for our 7:30am interview.  From what we have heard, we have permission to come at 7:30am, but that just gets us in the doors and you wait to be called up to the desk for your interview.  We should be out of there by 11:00am or so and then we plan to head over to Andy & Katie's since they are very close to the Embassy and we will have lunch together with them.  At least we'll have one piece of the puzzle answered tomorrow, whether or not we pass our interview will determine if we are heading home on Wednesday night or rescheduling flights and waiting for a visa!  Please say a prayer that our answers and documents will be sufficient and we will pass this interview tomorrow - whether or not we bring our little girl home on this trip will be determined at it.  

For those who are wondering about how Greg's foot is doing - it was pretty swollen & sore after the flight since he couldn't elevate it at all for nearly 36 hours, but it has returned back to just the swelling it had before and has remained stable since then. (it hasn't gotten worse so that is fine by us!)   It's still not back to normal, but he's a trooper ... even though he forgot to pack his sandals and only has his tennis shoes along.  :)  Now he's coming down with a cold though.  :(

So, prayers are appreciated and if you wake up between 2:30am & 7:00am say a prayer because we are probably at the Embassy trying to pass our interview!  Thanks!

Wonderful day!

This morning Greg & I arose to a big crashing sound in the hallway around 6:45am (it sounded like they dropped someone's breakfast room service delivery in the tile hall right near us).  We decided to fall back asleep thinking there was no way they would bring Emmanuella to us until near lunch time - we remember how "Ghana Time" works, it hasn't even been 2 months since we were here the last time.  At 8:40am we awoke to a quiet knock on our door and guess who it was??  There was a gorgeous little gal at our door!  What a wonderful wake up call to see that face in the morning.  :)

She jumped right into looking for the iPad and going through the suitcases to see what we brought for her to play with.  Unfortunately, since we hadn't been up yet, I hadn't hid any of the things away for surprises for her down the road.  She pretty much either saw or played with nearly everything I brought for this whole trip today!  That's ok, she seems to love some repetition.

We ordered some breakfast (which E said she already ate at home) to be brought to our room.  Guess what?  She ate most of ours like usual.  She definitely liked Greg's omelet with all of the veggies in it over my plain scrambled eggs.  She also wanted tea but I had only ordered coffee for Greg so she tried that instead.  I have never seen a person add that much sugar to coffee ... needless to say, she only had a few spoonfuls! (yes, spoonfuls, she ate it like soup)  Then, we flew a kite in the parking lot ... because it wasn't hidden away and she had it in her head that we needed to.  We were grateful we were able to keep it away from the power lines in the strong winds today!  A little bit of swimming happened - the weather was very comfortable today ... not really that warm and the pool was cold. (we think they must have drained it and started over since the last time we were here because it's actually clean and the water is much cooler)  Then we headed back to our room to finally shower up and do some nail painting and coloring.  This kiddo can color for a LONG time ... that may come in handy on the airplane!  At 3:00 we had a taxi arranged to pick us up and bring us over to where Andy & Katie (the other Bethany family that is here stuck waiting for their daughter's visa to print) are staying.  They are in a very nice home of a US couple and there were several restaurants we could choose from to eat at tonight near there.  We chose to go to "ChurCheese" - it is the Chuck E Cheese of Ghana.  (the lettering on the outside was a complete knock off of Chuck E Cheese too - funny)  Don't really think Chuck E Cheese in your mind though ... this was a tiny room with a few games (most of which were not even in working order), a small carousel (like the ones in the old indoor playlands when we were kids) and a trampoline.  Emmanuella thought it was fabulous! We shared a pizza with Andy & Katie and bought our girls some chicken and fried rice.  The food was really good - even the pizza was pretty normal by my standards.  It was another nice night getting to know them better, they are a wonderful couple with a sweet new little girl to join their family.

We came back to the hotel tonight and we were able to Facetime with the kids back home.  They could finally see and talk with Emmanuella!  She had a hard time figuring it out - at first they would ask her a question and she would ask it right back.  I think she thought the computer was prompting her to ask the questions.  ??  She was pretty shy but it was great for us to see their faces and for them to finally see her. (and Grandma & Grandpa D too!)

We had a few "firsts" today for Emmanuella that showed just how many things are going to be new to her.  For instance, we brought along a bottle of liquid handsoap for the bathroom.  We had to teach her how to pump it order to get the soap out.  That's one of the many, many things that will be so new to her.  Can you imagine?  I just can't fathom being taken away from all I ever knew as home to a whole different world where everything smells different, tastes different, IS different!  She is very excited to come to the US and told us she is ready to leave with us, but really, how long until the newness and excitement wears off and she realizes that everything is different and it's the new normal.  Now you get a little idea of why we need to hang at home alone for awhile when we return with her - there is so much to teach and do and her immediate family needs to be the ones to teach her so she learns to trust us and learns that we will provide for all of her needs.  Honestly, I can't wait to show her!


Tomorrow we get picked up around 9:00 and will just head to the Bethany office to make sure we have all of the correct paperwork, etc. for our interview on Tuesday.  Then, we expect the rest of the day we'll just hang out at the hotel.

Back in Africa

Hi Everyone,

Well, after our overnight flight last night we made it to Ghana this afternoon tired but all in one piece.  We got to our hotel around 3:30 local time and settled in to the exact same room we had in May.  It's a nice large room but the a/c is leaking all over tonight and making weird noises so hopefully that can get fixed tomorrow and we don't have to change rooms.  We have a/c, water, internet and electricity tonight so I am NOT complaining!  We also have a bonus light bulb in the little chandelier this trip, 3 out of 5 work now, so there is an ever-so-slight increase of light in here at night.  :)

Emmanuella is going to be brought to our hotel tomorrow so we have a chance to get some good rest tonight before we have her inbetween us for the rest of the trip.  :)  We were able to meet up for supper with another family that has adopted a little girl through Bethany, passed their interview on July 21st and is stuck in country while the US Embassy computer system is down and visas cannot print.  It was great to have dinner with them and get to know them.  They moved out of the hotel today (they've already been here 9 nights so they made arrangements for some free lodging with an American couple who lives here in Ghana right near the US Embassy)  We made plans to see them again tomorrow night.  I like having plans of something to do each day so that is great!  We will swim (the pool is blue this time and not green - hip hip horay!) and play here at the hotel for awhile and then we will head over there by mid afternoon.  On Monday we will meet with the Bethany workers and get more info on how the interview day will go on Tuesday.  Wednesday we hope to bring all of the gifts to Emmanuella's school and visit with her foster mother.  After that it is all up in the air depending on what happens at the interview on Tuesday.  If we don't pass we will fly home Wed. night ... if we do pass we are stuck here until the visas start printing again.

The family we met with tonight has had good contact with the Embassy (they went several times this week to try and get the visa) and they feel confident that the workers there are prioritzing the adoption cases and these will get processed quickly once they are functional again.  The embassy workers plan to work a lot of OT to make up for the backlog - we just have no idea when that will be.  It has already been 2 weeks that the US Embassy system worldwide has had this "glitch" and they claim they are working to fix it with high priority.  It's hard to believe that there is no "plan B" or another way to print (or handprint!) visas in situations like this.  Feel free to contact the US Department of State (http://www.state.gov and click on the small red "contact" button to send a message) to urge them to get this fixed or develop a "plan B" immediately!  There are US citizens worldwide that are stuck out of country because of it - it's already been 2 weeks and they still don't have a fix or backup plan in place.  If we pass Emmanuella's interview on Tuesday, we will be one of those families!

We are looking forward to seeing Emmanuella again tomorrow.  Her smile, her laughs & her energy will be uplifting to us.  She is so fun!  God has already ordained our days here in Ghana and we will trust in Him for our strength, energy, and provision.  Please pray that God moves mountains at the Embassy so that all of us in this adoption process can get our families all together on the same continent!

Hoping the internet is working again tomorrow so I can keep updating.

Robin

So much uncertainty ... so much blind faith!

Sooooooo, yesterday we found out that the US Embassy was going to be closed on Monday for a Muslim holiday.  ???  (they had given us a visa interview appointment for Monday!)  I emailed them and we heard back early this morning that they are indeed closed and our visa interview appointment will now be Tuesday, July 29th @ 7:30am instead.  We looked into changing our flights but it was way too expensive so we are just going to leave tomorrow as planned.  If we pass, there is no way our visa would print already on Wednesday so we know we'd have to change that part of the trip, but we will wait to see if we pass. If we don't pass, we will fly home without her on Wednesday night as booked - if we do pass, we will head to the airport after our interview on Tuesday and try to make the changes to our flights directly at the ticket counter to fly home Friday night. (if that's when they tell us the visa should print) We heard by going to the ticket counter and doing it that way we may be able to get the change fees waived.  So, you'll have to stay posted to know when we are returning - it's a mystery to even us!

Greg's foot is doing better each day.  (for those of you who don't know, Greg got a sliver in his foot on Friday at ski camp and it got infected BAD)  The orthopedic surgeon we saw yesterday extended his antibiotics to cover the whole time we will be in Ghana and said he will see him after the trip to open him up if it's still bothering him.  He reassured us that new infection would not set in or get worse while we are away, the amoxicillin is doing it's job. He made us both feel better about Greg going along.

So, continue to pray - there is so much uncertainty about this trip that we are truly going on faith at this point.  Yesterday we also heard that there is a "glitch" in the US computer system right now that has taken down the ability to print visas and passports.  It's worldwide and is affecting Ghana also.  (there is a Bethany family stuck there right now waiting for their daughter's visa to print, they were supposed to have flown home last night and the embassy told them to just stop back everyday to see if it was fixed and the visa could print)  There's another thing to add to the list!  Either way, we get to see Emmanuella again soon ... but hopefully we won't have to leave her again.

Much to do today to be ready to head out in the morning!

Robin

Gifts for Africa

Here is a snapshot of the supplies we were able to purchase with the proceeds from our t-shirt sales.  Thanks to my wonderful teacher friend, Kim Brill, who helped me pick these things out!  We will bring them along next week and bring them as a gift to Emmanuella's school.  These things will be AMAZING to them as they do not have much in their classrooms!  I can only imagine how the teachers will feel to have some new supplies and teaching tools for the kids.  We tried to get items that span most age groups at her school - some things for preschool on up to 3rd graders.  It is so helpful that they speak and teach English at her school!

Thanks again for your support!
Greg & Robin

Flights are booked!

Good Morning!  I have had a busy morning scheduling flights and filing more forms because we have been granted our visa interview for Monday, July 28th!  Many things fell into place this week so Greg & I will be traveling back to Accra, Ghana on Friday July 25th and we will hopefully return with Emmanuella on Thursday morning, July 31st.  We absolutely cannot wait to be reunited with our daughter and hear her giggles again.

Please join us in prayer that we will pass the visa interview on the 28th - there is a very real chance that they will want to check into her case further and they will not grant her visa.  (it happens quite often)  If we are not granted her visa we will have to leave her again and wait while they investigate her case.  It could be weeks or months more before we go back again to get her.

Thanks again for your prayers - we appreciate each and every one of them said on behalf of our growing family!

Robin

Another Hurdle - check!

Good Morning,

Well, we are one step closer and yet still feel so far away.  This morning we received notification that Emmanuella's visa packet can be picked up at the US Embassy in Ghana next week Wednesday.  This is wonderful news and her case continues to be moving quickly through the immigration process - what an answer to prayer!  BUT (there's always a "but", right?) we have been unable to get a passport for her and we cannot go any further in this process without her passport.  There is a passport booklet shortage in Ghana right now so they haven't been able to print any new passports.  Can you please join us praying that they will be able to replenish their passport booklet supply so that they can again issue passports?  Once she has a passport and that visa packet gets picked up next Wednesday I can request a date for her visa interview ... which is what Greg & I will fly back for and bring her home if we pass!

We are so close to bringing her home!  Thanks for all of your support and prayers!

Robin

One Step Closer ...

Hi Everyone,

We just wanted to update you as to where we are in the process of getting Emmanuella home as of right now.  We received our provisional visa application approval in Saturday's mail!  That was a huge step to have done and it was processed only 2 weeks after we submitted it.  There was a spelling error on our adoption order so we weren't sure they would accept it - amazingly, they did and they did not request any other evidence of our case at this point!  Now we wait for them (the US Citizenship & Immigration Service) to notify us that they have forwarded our case information to the US Embassy in Ghana.  Once we receive that notification I can email the US Embassy in Ghana and request that the Bethany workers in Ghana pick up her "visa packet".  When the US Embassy replies back saying it can be picked up they will go and pick up that paperwork.  After it is picked up, Emmanuella will need to have a physical to make sure she is healthy and can be admitted to the US.  I can also then request our visa interview date.  Once they give me the visa interview date we will book tickets to go back!  If we pass the visa interview we can bring her home a few days later when her visa prints.  There is a possibility that we would not pass interview and we would have to leave her there while the US Embassy wants to check into her case further.  (they would be confirming her orphan status)

Some of the families have only waited a week for their notification and we know there is another family that has been waiting almost 2 weeks already.  Please join us in flooding the heavens with prayers for the quick processing of Emmanuella's paperwork.  We would just LOVE to get this special girl home with us yet this summer while it is still warm and the kids are off of school!  We are so ready for her to join our family but really feel like it will still take an act of God to make it happen quickly.

This is suddenly becoming very real to us and my mind is constantly racing with both random thoughts and thoughts of what I need to do to get things prepared for another child.  (another chair at the table, another dresser for the girl's room, clothes for her, hair supplies and products that are completely foreign to me, what will she eat here?, she'll need a backpack, and a bike! what will I pack in her cold lunch? will I go to school with her at first?, socks ... she'll need socks because she is going to be cold here, I need to get gifts and things for E to do for our next trip since it could be soon, etc. - I feel like I can't even put a thought together sometimes!)  I spoke with the principal at school today and they are just amazing there.  She already had several things in place and just reassured me that the resources will be there if we need them.  We are so blessed to have such a great public school system in our community!

With the money raised from our t-shirt sales we plan to bring along supplies for the school that Emmanuella is attending.  I have 2 wonderful Kindergarten teacher friends (one who will be Emmanuella's teacher!) who have volunteered to bring me to the popular "teacher stores" to help pick things out.  While we will for sure bring pencils, erasers & sharpeners (that was about all we saw in the rooms in her school!) they will help me pick out other learning tools that they can hopefully use there.  They really have close to nothing at her school so it will be fun to bring things for them that could be useful teaching tools.

We were able to Skype with Emmanuella for a few seconds on Tuesday morning.  While our connection was awful, we could see she had gotten her hair braided and we could hear her say a few things.  The kids were able to at least say "hi" to her before we lost her.  We sent her a video message on Skype so hopefully she could at least view that from us.  It was great to see her again, oh how we miss her.

Right now we can specifically be praying for the USCIS to forward her information to the US Embassy in Ghana and that Ghana will quickly process my requests for packet pickup and then the interview date.  If all of those things come together it's even possible we could travel in August.

Thank you all for praying for and supporting us!  We'll keep you posted as we find out more.

Robin

Pictures!

Here are some pictures as promised.  We are so pleased to introduce you to our daughter, 

Emmanuella Dirkse! 

    Meeting Dad for the first time at Emmanualla's school.

Giving her a coloring book that she spent many hours coloring in detail!

                           

Ready to hit the pool for the first time ever!

The giggles were nonstop in the pool.

Above the treetops on the Canopy Walk in the Kakum National Forest

Happy girls after finding out we passed court!

Could she be any cuter??

Flooded roads on our way home from court in Eastern Accra.

Family selfie in the car after court.  This was her silly face. :)

We Passed!!!!

Day 9 in Ghana - Court Day!

We had a wonderful night sleeping with E - she fell asleep quickly and was a little angel having to get up early in the morning and get ready for our 6am pickup.  If there was any day that we wanted our driver to be on time for our pickup it was today because we had a 2.5 hour drive to the Eastern Accra Region where our case was to be heard.  The goal was to get there by 9am so that we'd see the judge in his chambers before he headed to the courtroom to hear the regular cases.  Well, true to fashion, the drive came at about 7:15.  He claimed we still had enough time to make it by 9:00 and the way this guy has driven all week I actually trusted that ... until we hit the traffic.  It was really bad today, as I guess every weekday is horrible here.  What was a 30 minute drive on Sunday to pick up our social worker on the way was almost 1 hour today.  You can say I freaking out on the inside.  We have no wiggle room and needed our case to be heard today!  When we picked up Naa, she said we would for sure be late but we will just wait for the judge to be done with his other cases and he'd hopefully see us before he went to lunch.  So, we arrived at the courthouse at about 10:30 and we waited outside the courtroom.  E did great - she was happy coloring, playing "hand jive" games with me and snacking.  The lawyer representing us showed up and introduced himself and said he would go in the courtroom and get us on the judges list to be heard. (so, we assumed we'd be heading into the courtroom instead of chambers ... cool, doesn't matter to us where this happens!)  I don't know how many of you were up at 6:15am Central time and said a prayer but it worked.  At 11:15, only 45 minutes of waiting, our lawyer came out and said it was done - the Full Adoption Order had been granted and they will forward the paperwork to Bethany.  That was it!  We didn't even go in front of the judge!  Our social worker said that the judge would have already reviewed our paperwork prior to today and must not have seen any reason to even see us.  (she also thought he may have been in a hurry to get out of there since there was no power and even the ceiling fans weren't working!)  The best part about it was E's reaction - she was jumping up and down and hugging us and was so happy.  So were we!!!  We kept saying "Emmanuella Dirkse, Emmanuella Dirkse - you are officially our daughter!"  That was so great to see after a few rough days in the middle of our trip when she was a bit quiet when she was around us.  The rest of the day was also fun.  We stopped at the mall on the way home to grab a late lunch and E was again just wonderful.  She claimed she wasn't hungry and didn't like Chinese food but when it came she ate off of all of our plates and I'm sure ate twice as much as I did.  :)  She was singing, dancing and coloring in the car the whole ride.

Then it was time to bring E back to her foster home.  While that was tough, she made it easier for us.  She kept her same lovely, upbeat spirit she had all day and she seems to understand well that we will be back as soon as we can for her.  There were many blown kisses as we pulled away but no tears for this was not a goodbye, just a "see you soon".  :)

We returned to the hotel to shower and pack and we are heading to the airport in a few minutes.  Ironically, the internet is back up for the first time in 8 days.  Funny Lord.  ;)

Can't wait to get home and start the next part of the process to get Emmanuella home.  Once we have a copy of the paperwork from today we can apply for her US Visa.  If/when our Visa application is approved E will need to have a checkup and be cleared by a doctor and they set up a "Visa Interview" at the US Embassy here in Ghana.  (all the while the Bethany workers here will be getting her a passport and bringing her to her appointments, etc.) We will most likely fly back for that Visa interview.  If we are approved at the interview they will print her Visa about 2 days later and we can bring her home.  If the Visa is not approved and the US Embassy wants to review her case more we will be put in what is called "Administrative Processing" and won't be able to bring her back until that is completed ... which can take weeks to months.  So, the next process is to pray for Visa application approval, then Visa interview approval.  We hope to have her home in early fall if all goes well.

I don't have a way to put any pics from my camera on my iPad so I will post a few pictures tomorrow when we get home.

Thanks everyone for all of your love and support during this process - it's not over yet!  :)

Robin

Monday in Ghana

Day 8 in Ghana, Monday May 26

Today was supposed to have been our original court date but because of a national holiday here (I think it's African Unity Day??) we now have court tomorrow.  That left us with today as our sight-seeing day.

We were picked up at the hotel at 9:15am - they said they'd pick us up at 7:00 but our driver ended up stopping to have 4 new tires put on his car in the morning before he came to get us since it was a long drive today.  That wasn't too bad because it gave us time to meet the other family that flew in late last night.  We had a nice talk with them in the lobby before they headed to breakfast.  It was great to meet them even though our time was short.  (they got to meet their daughter today - yay!)  

We drove about 2.5 hours and saw some different countryside which was really nice for a change.  We headed to do the Canopy Walk in the Kakum National Forest.  OSHA would not approve of this place at all.  First, I believe we climbed roughly 9 million uneven steps to get high into the forest (keep in mind it's also 8,000 degrees outside, the amount sweat dripping off of us was crazy)  After the hike there was a rope bridge about 250 ft in the air. (that's a total guess, I'm bad with judging that kind of stuff.  Google the Canopy Walk in the Kakum if you are interesting in seeing it)   It was really fun and a neat experience.  We were also famous there ... several people wanted to take pictures with us (the white people) and I had a middle school aged girl ask if she could get my number so we could be friends.  :)   She said she liked my hair ... a frizzy, curly mess wet with sweat - lovely.

After that 2 hour canopy walk experience we loaded back into the car (thank goodness for working a/c in the car for a chance to recover!) and drove another hour further (mostly along the beautiful coastline) to see the Almida Castle.  The Almida Castle was built orginally by the Porteguese, then it was taken over by the Dutch and then sold to the British.  The tour was very interesting, full of history.  It is still hard to hear of how horrible the slave trade was, the conditions were unbelieveably inhumane in that castle.  After that great tour we were finally on our way to pick up E!

Greg & I were a little concerned about how well things were going the last 2 days.  She had been giving us a lot of silent treatment which we don't know her well enough yet to know if that is just her response to being tired or that she was just not having fun or enjoying us.  When we finally arrived at her house tonight she came running out with huge hugs for us.  That felt so good!  We had a few hours at the hotel eating supper and playing with her and she is now sleeping like a baby right here beside us.  We gave her the picture book that I made for her tonight and showed her all of the family pictures, our house, etc.  She went pretty quickly over the house and pictures of "things" in the book but any page that had the other kids on she was intently looking at them and saying their names.  I asked her tonight what she most looking forward to in the U.S.  - "playing with Caris" was her answer.  Awwww!  There was a picture of the trundle bed that is in the girls room and she was really intrigued by pulling out the drawers and sleeping right there next to Caris.  (she sleeps right next to the other kids and her foster mom now so I think that will be comforting for her to be right next to Caris like that)

Tomorrow morning will come early for court.  We are being picked up at 6:00am and it will take about 3 hours to drive there.  E picked out one of the dresses that I brought along from home to wear (which was actually my nieces dress!) instead of wearing the new African dress we bought for her at the art center.  She had a good time putting all of the options out on the bed and making her choice.  Hopefully it will be an uneventful night of her sleeping here and we will pass with a full adoption order tomorrow.  

All in all, it was probably one of the best days we've had here ... and we get to fly home tomorrow night - although saying goodbye to E tomorrow night will be sad,  we also can't wait to see Braden, Caris & Cade on Wednesday after school!  This not having all of our kids together for the summer is not going to be easy ... but nothing that is worth doing is easy.

Robin

Sunday in Ghana

Day 7 in Ghana, Sun May 25

Our time here in Ghana has a lot of downtime in the evenings with no internet and only 3 channels on the t.v. ... one being Telemundo so that really isn't an option either.   We have normally been back to the hotel around 5pm with nothing else to do for the evening.  Greg & I have both agreed that besides not being able to communicate with the kids as much as we'd like, it really has been good for us.  We haven't talked this much in years!  (tonight we joked that it's the 15 year anniversary trip we didn't know we wanted - Hawaii sounds a little better to me;)  If the internet had been up Greg would have been working for a few hours each night and I would have been blogging, emailing & checking Facebook.  Instead, we've typically gone to the upper deck of our hotel, had supper some of the nights up there and cooled down in the evening breezes until the mosquitos come out.  (although we really haven't seen many bugs, just 2 enormous roaches in our room that Greg bravely used my flip-flop to kill)  Then, we've headed to our room to shower up and play some cards and I've typically typed up a blog that I can put up whenever we get to a Wi-FI location.  Our room light is really low, we literally only have 2 really dim light bulbs so we have to squint to see our cards at times - it just adds a little flare to the game.  ;)  (PS - did I mention that I've actually won a few hands here?? You know that's amazing if you've ever played cards with me!  I'm keeping the scoresheets as proof for Greg's family!)   It's highly unlikely that the internet will be fixed at all while we are here since Sunday & Monday are holidays and the repair person won't be working and then we are gone to court all day on Tuesday, we'll stop back to shower and grab our bags and then we head to the airport.  I guess that is ok, Greg & I will have time to talk through and process nearly everything before we get on the plane without any of those "pesky" internet distractions.  I am hoping to sleep hard on the plane this time!  (I only slept about 2-3 hours on the flight here, but Captain Phillips was a good in-flight movie!)   So, after all of that, I guess what I'm saying is that this may be our last update until we touch down in NYC early Wed. morning.  So, please pray hard on Monday night that all will go well in court on Tuesday.  We have to be there by 9:00am and we hope to be seen right away in chambers before the judge goes to his regular court.  Please pray that we are granted a FULL adoption order, not a temporary adoption which would mean we have to come back in 2 years to finalize.  This should all be done before most of you rise on Tuesday morning! 

There is another Bethany family flying in later tonight and we are disappointed that we won't get to see much of them or share any time traveling or sight-seeing with them.  We will be gone sight-seeing on Monday while they meet their daughter and then we are picking up E and bringing her to our hotel to sleep over with us on Monday night.  Hopefully we can connect with them Monday night even though E will be here.  Supper or something together would be nice.   

Today we got up early (5:45am - that's 12:45am in WI!) to get ready for church.  (the a/c kicked back on sometime during the night so we actually slept pretty well)  Our driver was to be here by 6:30am to pick us up.  Turns out he was early and arrived by 6:15.  They like to keep us on our toes here!  ;)  That was fine, we were ready because there wasn't much we could do ... no water this morning to shave/shower or anything.  We took about a 30 minute drive to meet the Bethany social worker, Naa, at her church.  She attends a very nice Presbyterian Church and we were greeted warmly outside by her pastor.  The building was really nice and Presbyterians in Africa are much the same as in America ... they arrive late and all want to sit in the back of church.  :)  The service was actually very similar to ours at FPO, just a little longer and the praise songs (although there were few) were a bit more lively.  (they did sing normal hymns also that were unfamiliar and all sounded the same to me)  It was good for us to again be the minority in a setting like church, it helps us to know how E will feel back in Oostburg.  The teachings were very biblically based and Greg & I had to listen very carefully in order to understand the service.  Almost everyone speaks English here but their accents make it very hard to understand at times.  It was a great experience overall - we are glad we got up early for it!

After church we were dropped back off at our hotel to eat some breakfast and the driver went to pick up our guide, Patience, and E to bring them to the hotel for us to head to the beach. (our hotel is very close to the ocean so it just made sense to do it that way)  What we thought would be about 1.5 hour wait ended up being a 5+ hour wait for them to come back because they had car trouble.  While we are glad we weren't along on the ride when the car broke down, it really cut into our time with E today because our driver and Patience had to pick up the other family at the airport in the evening and that all takes time to drive around the city.

After they finally came we headed to the beach.  E gave us the silent treatment again in the car but by the time we got to the beach she was ready to play.  That girl has no fear - she loved the huge waves and kept trying to pull us out further but the waves were big and strong.  Even when she'd get swept away and go under she didn't really seem to care - she's crazy.  (she didn't like the salt water very much though!)  We spent about 1 hour playing in the surf and then headed back to the hotel to shower up and get her some supper.  She ate in our room and then we had to bring her back home already.  She got really quite again in the car and wouldn't talk to us at all.  Before we knew it she was sound asleep on Greg's lap.  It was absolutely adorable.  :)

I'm cutting this short because Braden finally got us on Facetime and we only have 10 more minutes of Wi-Fi before we have to leave.  :)

Love to all,

Robin

Saturday Adventures

Day 6 in Ghana, Sat. May 24

**I can't tell our daugher's name yet or show pictures until after we pass court so I am going to start referring to her as "E" - that will be much easier in writing and those of you who know her name can insert it. :)

Last night was rough.  I was sick all night with the "Ghanaian revenge" and we can't really even figure out why.  I haven't eaten much at all while we were here (it's a great kick start to the diet plan!) and what I have had was very safe and plain.  Greg has been more adventurous and he feels fine.  We've been very careful about water, even when brushing our teeth, no ice in our drinks, etc.  and we are washing our hands often.  So, as the sun came up I needed to decide whether or not I should leave the "safety" of the hotel today.   Our plan was to pick up E and head to a mall where she could jump in some bounce houses.  Luckily, our driver wasn't coming to pick us up until 10:30 (which actually ends up being 11:30 by the time they arrive ... it's called "GT", Ghana Time:) so I had some time to decide.  I ended up downing some Imodium for my breakfast & going for it and I'm so glad I did.

When we picked her up she was napping and it took a long time to wake her - she sleeps tight!  She was also not talking to anyone in the car ... we think she was really tired and she also said her stomach didn't feel good.  On our way into Accra our guide said we would stop at the Art Center first before the mall.  We had no idea what that was but we were up for it.  (although we were a bit worried it was an art museum and we didn't think our crabby little girl was going to have a change of heart looking at a museum!)  As it turns out, it's a big area of all little shops where we could purchase souveniers of African culture.  We got out there and after a while E perked up.  Imagine what you think of as an African market and that was pretty much it.  People coming at you from all sides wanting you to look in their shop, excessively hot, very overwhelming, etc.  But, we got some great items to bring home and even bought E an African dress she can wear for court on Tuesday if she wants to.  We were very glad to have our guide from Bethany with us - she was really good at bartering.  (Rod Dirkse, you'd be proud of your son today!) It was so hot there that I started to pass out - you know that feeling when you get the tunnel vision and can't hear anything?  Yep, that happened.  I sat down for awhile and got water and we were luckily getting into the car shortly.  E was so sweet, she took out her little hankerchief and was wiping the sweat off of my face for me.  :)   

After the car ride to the mall I had cooled off and felt much better.  On the way to the mall E has asked if we could get ice cream.  ("Please Momma you get me ice cream?"  in her little accent. How can you say no?)   That sounded perfect to me! The 3 of us all ordered strawberry ice cream which hit the spot and seemed to sit well in my stomach.  After ice cream E jumped in the bounce houses and on the trampolines there in the middle of the outdoor food court.  She had never done anything like that before and she just loved it - the trampolines more than the bounce houses.  (we told her that we have a trampoline in our backyard but I'm not sure she can fathom that)  She was a sweaty mess jumping in those things but she didn't seem to care at all.  Being there was interesting - they had workers at each station taking care of the kids for you and all of the parents sat in chairs under a tent.  I'm pretty sure some of the parents even left them there and went shopping!  I had started out following her around and taking some pictures and then realized that I was the only parent out there.  I quickly sat down so I wouldn't stick out more than I already did.  :)  The children here in Ghana are amazingly well behaved and independent.  E looked at me often for approval while she was jumping but quickly made friends with a few other girls there and just followed their lead and followed them wherever they went.  She didn't care at all that I was sitting in the shade and just watching- thank God!

By the time E was done jumping it was getting late and was time to bring her home.  On the car ride back to her place she was much more talkative and pleasant than on the way there.  (although she did again complain that her belly hurt so I hope she feels ok tomorrow)  

Greg & I returned to the hotel hoping the internet would be fixed.  We knew the chances were slim but we had a glimmer of hope because all week they've been telling us Saturday.  No luck, it's still out.  And... the power is out so we are on generator power so there is no a/c again tonight.  At least the water is on and we can shower after our sweaty day at the market.  I'm learning to count my blessings!

Tomorrow we are going to attend EARLY church with two of the Bethany workers, they claim they are picking us up at 6:30am for a 7-9am service at a Presbyterian Church they attend.  Then we'll stop back at the hotel for a little breakfast and to grab stuff for the beach.  We'll go pick up E and bring her to the beach ... another first for her.  (she told us once she was going to go but it was raining so she didn't)  At least that is the plan ... but we go with the flow here.

A few observations about Ghana:

1.  Although it is very sunny, no one wears sunglasses.

2. People prefer to shop locally at the "markets" along the streets rather than shop at big stores.  And the markets never close - there are people in the streets all night it seems.

3. People are very friendly, not in a hurry, and seem happy all of the time.

4. Very few people own cars but there are taxis and small van-like buses everywhere packing the streets.  I'm glad we have a skilled driver to do the navigating between all of the cars!

5.  Greg spotted a Milwaukee Panthers and a Green Bay Packers t-shirt on some men in the market today.  :)  Go WI - keep sending your clothes, they are wearing them!

6.  By US standards, the food is incredibly cheap - and the portions are enormous.  We asked our guide today if it was normal for people to eat just 1 or 2 meals per day because of the portion sizes.  She said no, most people eat 3.  I guess walking around in this heat must burn tons of calories if they can eat like that 3x a day!

7.  There are many tow trucks here and they all remind me of Mater, from Cars.

E sure has a sweet personality.  We are enjoying getting to know her but we are ready to head to court on Tuesday and get the process going to bring her home to the US.  Our time with her is coming to a close (a few hours together tomorrow and then Monday evening and Tuesday morning for court)  but it has been great.  It has been emotionally exhausting for all of us (including E) so we really feel that seeing her the 4-6 hours a day like we have been is good.  I think that more than that would be hard for everyone.  

Hopefully you can all meet her sometime this fall!  :)

Robin

PS - Dirkse/VanderJagt Family: I needed to come to Africa in order to win a game of cards ... I have a 3 night winning streak going!  :)