It Was a Tight Race

Phewf....that was so close! 76 total votes....25 for Lily, 25 for Lillie, and 26 for Lilly. So LILLY it is! I must say that no matter how the poll went, I intended to go with Lilly anyway for a few reasons.

1) Steve says I always ask for opinions, then do it my way anyhow, (which is mostly true).
2) There are more letters from Luckyhill in the name Lilly ;)
3) And most importantly, I like how Lilly looks in cursive...lots of curly letters, kinda princess-like....very important! Go ahead try it out; it's a fun name to write...lol.

Lilly is Waving to You

I just got this great picture of Lilly. She's the one in the center waving. Isn't she just so adorable. Look at that smile. Lois found this picture as she was looking at the pictures she took at the school. I just want to give her a big hug and kiss!

Good news. Jessica's adoption is final as of yesterday! She will be going to get her little girl (Sarah Adjua) very soon! We are going to send a book with her to give to Saviour Lilly with pictures of our family, house, dog, etc.


We are having our home study visit on the 6th. Once we get our copy of the home study, we can send off our dossier (Ghana paperwork) and file our I600A (U.S. paperwork).

5 Things You Can't Do When You Have Twins

5. Watch Jay Leno. My favorite time of night...the children all nestled, snug in their beds. When we turned off the TV, we heard crying coming from the family room downstairs. Upon investigation, we found Savannah lying on the Love Sac holding a brick of cheese, 3 raw eggs and the remote to the TV. She was crying because she couldn't get her movie to start. :)

4. Yard Work. You would think this could be manageable because the kids can play on their bikes while you work. But since weeding flower beds means your back is turned, they have a tendency to disappear. Our neighbor 3 houses down came over and informed us they were swimming in their baby pool....stark naked! Their clothes were so wet, we ended up flinging them over our shoulders and doing the walk of shame home with bare bottoms exposed to the world. One passer-by started chuckling and we just said, "don't ask!"

3. Go to the store, especially Wal-mart. Problem #1...Wal-mart doesn't have carts for 2. This means one child can ride where a child is meant to ride, with a seat belt. The other child must ride in the cart portion with no seat belt. Problem #2...The child w/o the seat belt continually hangs one leg out of the cart ready to jump at all times, even though you've told that child numerous times to sit down and hold still. Problem #3...child in seat belt is jealous of the freedom of child in cart and cries to be let out of the seat belt until you relent. There are many other problems....use your imagination....many of them have to do with squished bread, and clean ups on aisle 10, etc. ;)

2. Home Improvement Projects...we placed the toilet where it would be installed just to make sure we had enough tile down before grouting. We stated at least 3 times to both Sierra and Savannah that they were not to pee in this toilet...."it's not ready yet." Yes, you guessed it, the next morning when my friend came over to help me grout, there was pee in the toilet! YUCK!!

1. BLOG...they helped themselves to the cereal while I was blogging...I guess the floor was hungry too, since that is where the majority of the milk and cereal ended up!

Yes, we know what we are doing adding another 3 year old to our family. I figure that my time is already consumed with watching two, what's one more? I ran into a lady at a park who had triplets that were only a year old. I felt for her. I figure it is better to get triplets at the age of 3 or 4 when they can all walk by themselves and are potty trained.

Our Paper Pregnancy

A lot of couples refer to adoption as a "paper pregnancy". There really is a lot of paperwork to do and we are finding it is even more so with international adoption. We have completed all of our paperwork for our home study and should be having a visit soon from the social worker.

I really wanted to have the bathroom finished downstairs before our home visit and thanks to friends who are handy (Teree Bentley and Chris Olson), I think we'll make it! ;)

We heard from Lois the other night. Saviour has been told she is being adopted and is happy about it. We are going to send a book with pictures of our family, house and dog to her with Jessica when she goes to get her 2 year old sometime soon.

While we are waiting for our home study to be completed, we are gathering documents needed for the dossier. We send a dossier of various documents (home study, birth certificates, pictures, medical information, etc.) to Ghana for their approval of us as an adoptive family. We also have to file a form with the INS to get permission to bring Saviour to the U.S. as an immigrant. We also need to get passports and visas....so lots still to do, but coming along.

We are going to be having an adoption yard sale in the early spring to help pay for this adoption. So start gathering things you don't want anymore...we'll take them off your hands. Our 2-car garage is already half full of items for the yard sale that have been donated! Thanks to everyone for your kind words and support of our family. We love you!!!

Madi, the 9 Year Old

Yesterday was Madison's 9th birthday. It was a great day. She had school, even though it was Columbus Day. I took doughnuts in for her class as a birthday treat. After dinner, she opened presents (Lego's and clothes). Steve is soooo happy that he gets to play with Lego's....with all girls, who'd have thought?

We had our neighbors over for birthday cake and ice cream. She wanted a soccer ball cake, so this was my attempt. The phone rang off the hook for her that evening with calls from her birth mother, Amanda, Amanda's parents-Grandma Holly and Grandpa Marc, and her birth father's mom-Nana Pat. It's so great to be able to share these special days with them. We always love hearing from them.

We will celebrate her birthday on Sunday with Steve's family. My mom is still on her mission, but sent her a birthday card and money to go shopping with. It's hard to believe sometimes that it was nine years ago that she came into our lives. She has grown so much and is such a good girl.

Steve's sister got married

Steve's youngest sister Shelly got married yesterday. It was a great day for a wedding. We were worried that it would be raining/snowing, but alas, the weather cooperated. She made a beautiful bride. As she came out of the temple for pictures, someone from another wedding party said, "OK, that bride looks like she is about 12 years old." I told her she is 28 and I don't think she believed me. She married Dave and they seem to be a great match. They get asked how tall they are everywhere they go....so I'll tell....Dave is 6'8" and Shelly is 5'2". I just love weddings and always cry. It was really neat that all of Steve's family was able to be inside the temple together.

I liked something that the man who married them said. He had them look into the mirrors in the sealing room (the mirrors are located on opposite walls of each other). He told Shelly to look at Dave and Dave to look at Shelly through the mirrors. He asked how many images they could see. They answered that they could see many. The mirrors cause this effect, making it seem there is no end. Then he told each of them to look at themselves. He asked how many images they could see. They answered, "only one." He went on to say that is how it is in marriage, when we focus on each other, we see things in an eternal perspective, but when we think only of ourselves, we can only see the here and now. How true that is!

New Information

Here is a picture of Saviour with Kingsley. I think you get a better perspective of her size in this picture. She looks like an older 3 to me. We don't know when her birthday is, but will hopefully find out soon. It looks like they are preparing a meal in the "kitchen" in the background.

We learned from Lois that Saviour speaks English!!! That will definitely help with the transition for her. We also know that she was abandoned by her mother...I would guess due to poverty.

A lot of you have asked when we will bring her here. It will take about 4 to 6 months to get all the paperwork done. Maybe January or February??? Now that we have seen her, we just can't wait.

We decided to use a different social worker. The first one I contacted costs almost twice as much as others. The second one has never sent me any paperwork and has never done an international homestudy for Ghana. The social worker I talked to yesterday was very nice. She said it shouldn't take too long, especially since we have a current domestic homestudy with LDS Family Services. She could come out to our house within a couple of weeks. I was impressed with her over the phone and she has done homestudies for Ghana before, which is a plus.

YIKES...Now we've really got to get finished with our home improvment projects. We are hoping to at least have the bathroom finished downstairs before she comes for the homestudy. We have all the stuff to finish it sitting in our garage just waiting to be installed. We need to grout the tile, install the cabinet, then the plumber will come and install the sink and toilet and fix the tub so the jets work....something got unattached.....hmm....maybe the twins? lol. Then, we just have to cover up the front of the tub to hide the motor and put tile there, hang the light, mirror, etc. and we are done! I'm not saying that Steve isn't a "handyman", but if any of you are, come on over! :)

Triplets???

A lot of our friends and family have commented on how much Saviour looks like Sierra and Savannah. Here is a side-by-side picture of Sierra, Savannah, and Saviour. The picture to the right is of Sierra with a similar hairdo. What do you think??? Triplets born on 2 different continents? LOL :)

Meet Lily

We really thought we would be adopting a boy from Ghana since there are already way too many girl hormones in our house....but it's a girl!!! We are adopting Saviour. We are naming her either Saviour Lillian or Lillian Saviour, but will call her Lily, Lillie, Lilly....not sure how to spell it yet??? Suggestions anyone???

We fasted Thursday and Friday and went to the temple on Friday evening. We were praying to know if we should adopt Dorothy, Saviour, or a boy we hadn't seen yet. As I was sitting in one of the rooms of the Salt Lake Temple, I looked down and glanced at the slip of paper I was holding listing the name of the person I was doing the temple work for that evening. (For those who are not members of our church, once we have completed our own temple ordinances, we then serve in the temple for those who have passed on who did not get the temple ordinances while alive.)

The name on my paper was Lillie. Suddenly I knew. My heart started beating so fast and I felt the Spirit pour thoughts into my head. I knew we were going to adopt Saviour and we would call her Lily. When Kingsley described Saviour over the phone to Lois, he told her that her spirit was so much like his niece's. His niece was adopted by Lois and her name is Lillian. We haven't met Lillian yet, but Lois said there is something about her that draws people to her and that you can feel the Light of Christ within her. The thought also occurred to me that a lily is a symbol of Easter and this little girl is named after the Saviour....the reason we rejoice at Easter.

In another room of the temple, I began to remember the words to the song, "Consider the Lilies of the Field". I am posting a video of the Mormon Tabernacle choir singing this song. It's always been one of my favorites. As I thought about this song, I realized that Heavenly Father is watching over all of us. He knows and loves Saviour and he knows of our desire to build our family through adoption. He is taking care or each of us. I know He will watch over our "Lily" until we can bring her home!!

How Do You Pick?

So, we are trying to select which child we should adopt. This is so much harder than I thought. I guess I just figured that seeing a picture of our child would give me goose bumps. One little girl stood out to me. Her name was Precious. She is on the left. I think it was her smile and the light in her eyes. But I kept thinking as I looked at her that someone was going to adopt her, but not us. The next day, Lois called and said that someone had seen her and knew right away they were supposed to adopt her.

We looked at some of the other children and an 8 year old, Dorothy caught Steve's attention and an 11 year old, Patience had Madison's eye.
Then Lois emailed me another photo. It's a little 3 year old girl, named Saviour. When I pulled up her picture, I immediately thought she looked like Sierra and Savannah. Then, I heard the rest of the story. Lois just got home from Ghana. While she was there, she showed Kingsley a picture of our family. The next day, he wanted Lois to take Saviour's picture for us. We have not met Kingsley, but from what we have heard, he is very close to the Spirit and receiving spiritual promptings is a daily occurrence for him.

Lois called me later and told me that she had just spoken to Kingsley and he said, "I am not saying whether she is or isn't Saviour's mother; I am saying that she (meaning me) knows who Saviour's mother is." He also said that he knows Saviour is supposed to come to Utah...No pressure, right???

Steve and I have been fasting about this and are going to the temple tonight. We hope our searching will bring the answers. We haven't even seen any pictures of boys yet...lol.

We Are Adopting From Ghana

I guess it's time to start blogging to share our Ghanaian adoption journey. We decided to adopt internationally back in July. We saw a show about child slavery in Haiti, which led us on a path to international adoption. We decided not to adopt from Haiti, due to some challenges in Haiti right now slowing down adoptions there.

As Steve looked at options, he called me from work one day and said, "How about Ghana?" I joined an Adopt Ghana Yahoo group and sent out an email introducing our family and asking how we should go about adopting from Ghana.

I got a reply from someone in the process, named Jessica on July 23rd. She guided us to a school/orphanage called Luckyhill. We came to find out that Jessica lives in Utah too and that the person who will help us here in the U.S., Lois, lives in Heber, UT. Lois adopted from Ghana 10 years ago. She adopted Lillian who was the niece of a man named Kingsley. She has remained in contact with Kingsley all these years. After Kingsley married, he and his wife Gloria started a school for children in Ghana. The goal was to provide education to those who otherwise may not obtain it due to poverty or other circumstances. There are now 300 children attending the school and approximately 80 of them are orphans.

After speaking with Jessica and Lois, we felt that we were being led by the Spirit to Luckyhill. All the pieces were coming together too easily. As we fasted and prayed to know if this is what we should do, we felt strongly that this is the direction we should take. So.......

Now we are beginning the process. We have seen some pictures of some of the orphans and are going crazy at the idea of having to pick just one. :(
They are beautiful children and we would love to bring them all home. Our neighbor said we should just buy a 15 seat van and fill her up! LOL.