Of Flight Delays and Lost Teeth

What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us. What we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.
- Albert Pine

First and foremost, we have to apologize to everyone that was expecting routine updates.......we were expecting to provide them! There are a number of reasons, excuses, and justifications we could provide, however, the truth is entertaining four children in a foreign country when only two of them speak English is really hard. (Okay, the internet is painfully slow here too, but having it at all is a Blessing, so we can't complain about that one).

As you probably know by now, our flight from D.C. to Accra was delayed (24) hours so we spent the night in a hotel courtesy of United Airlines the first night of our trip. Again, it's hard to complain as they were very friendly, provided plenty of meal vouchers, and we had the awesome experience of meeting a couple on their way to visit their daughter and her family (their grandchildren) that live on a Mercy Ship off the coast of Africa providing free healthcare to the citizens near the coast of Sierra Leone.

It's hard to describe the emotions of listening to the grandmother regarding what her daughter's family, and the numerous doctors, nurses, and other healthcare providers do for the people of Africa in that region. We saw pictures of numerous children that were born with their feet backward, and that had walked that way for years before surgery to correct them. We saw pictures of women that had endured goiters that covered almost all of their faces for nearly their entire lives, rendering them nearly blind and forced to scavenge for food after dark, yet were the most beautiful women you could imagine after surgeries to remove the growths.

On and on the stories went, heartbreaking at one point, and so Glorious in the next, pictures of people who truly know the meaning of thanks and happiness. The smiles on the faces of children and adults alike after medical and dental surgeries was so uplifting, it was like looking at pictures of what Heaven must truly look like. To compound the Glory of her stories, all of the medical professionals pay to stay there. Not one medical professional is paid. Her daughter and her daughter's husband sold everything they owned in the United States to move their and provide the services that they provide. Needless to say, it was humbling, and overwhelmingly uplifting, to hear her stories and share in their journey to see their grandchildren.

It was quite obvious in speaking to her that her daughter had gotten her desire to help others honestly as the grandmother had given birth to (8) of her own children and her and her husband had been foster parents to (82) others. It was hard not to feel like our delay was almost meant to be to help Michele and I know we were following the right path.

Arriving in Accra was thrilling, but also somewhat discouraging. Truth be told, we were not prepared for the level of poverty there truly is here. That might sound naive on our part, but things we had read and discussions we had taken part in with friends from Nigeria indicated that Ghana was one of the more developed and economically prosperous countries in this area, thus I think we convinced ourselves it would be somewhat like say, Dayton (lol!). This is not Dayton! We are going through the school of hard knocks regarding all of the "helpful" people that then demand money, or the taxi drivers that we've been taken by because we didn't know any better regarding appropriate rates. We're hoping we learn before we're out of money!

Okay, I'm sure you're ready to hear about the boys! They are beautiful, they are loud, they are good-natured, and they are lacking nourishment! We call them their "weekday" names, Koby and Kwame (Daniel and Deric), as we have discovered that Daniel and Deric are their "school" names. Koby has told us their entire school names, which includes their last names, but we aren't certain as to exactly what he is saying so we'll have to wait to include those in our updates.

They are extremely affectionate, especially towards me, but they enjoy both of us holding them and call us "daddy" and "mommy" all the time. Koby sobbed himself to sleep the first night, but he appeared to be "over-tired" and last night was much better. Last night was more difficult for Jordan, however, as sleeping most of the flight caught up with him and he didn't fall asleep until about 5:00 a.m. Accra time, thus giving him about (3) hours of sleep before breakfast! He's being a trooper though and has been in the pool with Koby and myself most of the day!!

Koby loves to swim with me holding him while Kwame is not comfortable in the water, but loves to sit along the side and put his feet in while mommy sits by him. Alexis is working on her tan (lol!!). The weather is beautiful here, not nearly as excruciatingly hot as we anticipated. There is a great breeze and the sun feels great! It stormed hard the first night we slept and the lightning was spectacular.

As for the boys eating, it is borderline unreal! I have never seen anything like it given their size versus their consumption! Kofi (the director of the orphanage in Kwahu that met us at the airport with the boys) shared with us that the boys' mother could not afford food for them so prior to being turned over to the orphanage, they would both have to beg for food to eat. This meant that some days, they did not eat at all, and other days they ate only once if people would give them food.

Kofi shared that this is normal for so many children here and that the poverty here is very bad. Their mother just gave birth to another child and it too will end up in the orphanage as she did not have money to even pay the hospital bill so they would not release her to leave until Kofi helped her out financially.

Kofi is currently working on (2) orphanage constructions simultaneously because, as he said, "the children keep coming and coming". It is so humbling to listen to Kofi describe the things he is trying to do for these children, as well as talking about the number of children from Ghana he has placed in the United States the past year-plus. It's hard not to think of all the things we do for "us", and yet there are people like Kofi whose whole life is dedicated to helping others. He is truly a Saint.

Finally, for now, you're probably wondering what's with the 'Lost Teeth' portion of the title. When we started spending time with the boys and they began to get more comfortable with us (which didn't take long!!), Koby shared with us that his front tooth on the bottom was very loose (he showed us since we couldn't understand what he was trying to tell us).

Today at the pool, he was on a floatation ring when he started looking around in the water. We asked him what he was looking for and he looked up and smiled and his tooth had come out!! It was so incredible that we got to witness that with him and Jordan, Alexis, and I searched and searched the bottom of the pool to try and find the tooth, but unfortunately we couldn't. It was still, however, an incredibly fun moment and Koby smiled and smiled showing us and his little brother Kwame numerous times!

For a teaser for next time, we've met other people here from the United States that are in our hotel and also adopting, and Koby and Kwame have a habit of peeing whenever and wherever they have to go (lol)! Of course that seems to be a cultural thing as we've seen men doing the same thing outside our hotel and on taxi rides. Anyway, we have to go so our hotel room doesn't get destroyed......soccer is on TV!!!

We'll have to add pictures later as that truly is a function of the internet here!