Hello everyone! It is Orphan Sunday, Nov. 7, 2010. An amazing day to celebrate how the Lord has blessed us with 3 more terrific children! Jeremiah and I are adding a post while Matt, Ian, Mary, Lamisi and Linda are at the dog park with Lonnie. We are doing very well, we are very busy and of course, very blessed! We are thankful for so many friends and family that have supported us during this journey and beyond with prayer, meals, help and well wishes through calls and visits. We are adjusting to life as a family of seven, so bear with us and we will get more text and pictures up soon. I am not a modern tech kind of gal, so I will get into the groove eventually. Right now there does not seem to be enough hours in the day- maybe that is why my first post since our trip home is after we changed our clocks for fall back! Love to all!

Lamisi and friends at Beaconhouse, Ghana

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Having fun with the camera at Beaconhouse (our girls on the right).

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Dinnertime! Jeremiah (aka: "Jeri") in green shirt

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Linda and friend!

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Tuesday AM

Big day ahead, didn't sleep well. Will be giving out gifts at the orphanage today then our family will be prayed over by everyone. Our flight out is 11pm GMT (7pm EDT). The kids are excited. Please pray for Amy's stomach symptoms to settle and that our travel and passage through immigration tomorrow in D.C. Goes smoothly. More later, difficulty uploading pictures. Internet service is poor. No water at hotel this AM!
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Matt and Lamisi at playtime

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Monday con't

We enjoyed the afternoon with the kids as they skated and jumped on the trampoline. They spent time with their friends and are excited to come home. Jeremiah is so happy and all smiles. He is definitely a two year old on the go. We are having trouble sending pictures to the blog but are trying. Lamisi and Linda can't wait to see Ian and Mary again. Can't believe we will all be home together in less than 2 days! Lots of love!
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Monday

We've spent some time with the housemoms and the teacher discussing the particularities of the kids. They are eager to come home, Lamisi somewhat nervously. Lamisi and her friends have an obvious connection, it will be a tearful goodbye tomorrow. We also left donations that were sent along with us including supplies for the orphanage and donations for the local church, street children ministry and Mama Laadi's foster home. Your prayer support has truly been felt. More this evening...
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Amy and Lamisi reconnecting

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Matt and Jeremiah being silly with Lamisi

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Linda and her "baby"

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Dad and Jeremiah

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Amy and kids Sunday

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Our First Day Back in Accra

Our flights were great (except we were cold by the exits) and on time. We went through customs and got the hotel no problem. We arrived at Beacon House after naptime and saw Jerry first. He is walking and climbing and so easygoing. He pointed to me as mama and remembered both of us. We saw the girls and gave big hugs and spent a couple of hours visiting with everyone at Beacon House. We took lots of pictures and will do more tomorrow. The girls are excited to come to America in a couple of days. Keep the prayers coming, we have truly felt covered. Love to all!
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Back to Ghana

Hello everyone! Matt and I are leaving for Ghana tonight (Saturday). We will get to see our precious children again Sunday around 4pm (12noon in Cinci). Can't wait to share our adventure with you! Thank you for all your prayers- keep them coming! Blessings, Amy

Mary's last Post

Hello! This is my very last post. It has been fun to be able to communicate to you guys from halfway around the world, but soon I'll be able to talk to you in person! Ghana has been truly amazing. I'm going to miss many things here in Ghana, for instance, riding in cars and taxis with NO SEATBELTS! Now that is something that I'm going to miss! But there's something even more important to miss then riding around with no seatbelts, and it's my new siblings. I'm might miss them so much that I might cry. Oh, we're about to get on the plane! I'll see you later! Mary
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Our last day

Today was our last day in Ghana. We got up and had breakfast at the hotel-our last Ghana style omelette and toast with sausage. Our AC was out all night, so we were ready to leave our room (the AC thankfully came on by lunchtime for packing). We had time before going to BH, so we went with Amy Barton to a nice gift shop and a bookstore to get some items for our kids from Ghana. We want them to feel at home when they come to America! We then returned to the hotel for a quick dip in the pool (always nice in the hot weather) before going to see the kids. We took the girls child story bibles and went to visit with them for the last time. We read and played together and spent some time visiting with all of the beautiful children there. We said our goodbyes to all the kids and staff (they are terrific, too- they taught me to carry Jeremiah on my back). We hugged and kissed on our children and told them we would return soon. I held back my tears long enough to get outside the orphanage compound, as I did not want to upset the kids. Jeremiah and Linda were Ok, young enough to not really get the time concept. Lamisi was sad and cried, it was tough. We are truly hoping to bring them home soon. It feels strange now to be separated. We will keep posting as our process reaches its shining moment when we bring them home. By the way, Ian and Mary were awesome on this trip-the kids at BH loved them and they were really troopers. It was really a HUGE change from America! We headed to the airport and are awaiting our 1st flight of 3 home. We cannot wait to catch you up on everything once we are settled back in Cincinnati. Please pray for the our Ghanian children for peace and health, for all the other kids waiting for their parents to come and get them, and the staff at BH to continue to love and care foer the kids and for their well being, too. We love you all, thanks for your warm thoughts, prayers and support!!
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Our family

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Ian and "Jeri" last day

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Mary's Post 7

What's up?! Only 1 more day till we go back home! Well, actually, tonight at 10:00 pm,(don't know why)we're leaving and we get home at about 3:00(American time) tommorrow. Ghana has been so fun, so nice, and sooooo HOT! There is a lot of things that I'll miss here, but I'm so happy that I'm going back to America so soon! Oh! Let me tell you all the animals that I saw! Well, in Accra I saw a lot of chickens, some goats, 8 lizards, 3 cats, 5 dogs, a strange bird, and a monkey! In Tamale I saw a lot of goats, some chickens, and 3 cheetahs! That's pretty much it, bye! Mary
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Up North Trip

The last 2 days we went with the kids to their family village. For those keeping track, it's near the town of Bolga in northern Ghana. The 7 of us took the 6 am flight to Tamale (1.25 hour), met our driver and liason and drove about 2 hrs. to a foster home where Jeremiah was initially taken. It was there we learned that mama Ladi (foster home director) initially turned away Jeremiah b/c of his poor nourishment and her lack of ability to care for him. However, God must have spoken to her heart and she went and retrieved him. Following this Lamisi and Linda were reunited with him at her foster home, and they were transfered to Beacon House so that "Jeri" could be better cared for. It was amazing to hear all the steps and people God used to bring these children to us.
We then went to the family village where the kids had spent some time and met and exchanged gifts with them and the village chief. As in the pictures, this is rural Africa with mud huts, no plumbing or power subsistence. Likely the family had been living here in similiar conditions for generations. 104.F was the afternoon high, dry and windy. We stayed in a guest house in Tamale that evening, all 7 of us in one room, 1st night all together. All in all it went pretty well. The kids were fading so we dined in our room on soda, bananas, oranges, tuna and left over chicken.
Glad to be back in Accra. Had dinner at the home of a lovely missionary family, looking forward to coming home. Sad to be leaving the children. Will post more tomorrow. Matt

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Mom & Jeremiah

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The village

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Meeting the extended family

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Meeting the extended family

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Kid's family village in northern Ghana

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Kids traveling north

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Mary's Post 6

Hi, everyone!! How is everybody? I am doing great! I will be flying in on Friday, and I will be home on Saturday! This has to be a short post so I can't put a whole bunch-o details. Africa is a nice place with a lot of animals, at least I think so. For example, earlier today I saw 3 cheetahs! Real live CHEETAHS! Is that wild or what!? Well, I really don't have much time so I'll tell you about it later. See ya! Mary
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Mary's Post 5

Hey! I am back to blog! Let's see, oh! I remember now! I was just going to say my perspective of Ghana. Alrighty, here it is. First of all, even though you probably know, it is, of course, very hot, and it has been like that every day. 2nd, it is very nice here, and I love the palm trees! They are very pretty. You know, I really like all of the plants.3rd, most of the kids at Beacon House are really nice, and when I say most, I mean everybody except the boys that always bug me. Well, their nice, in a way, but man, they can be realllyy annoying! Grace Henry, if you are reading this, how are you doing? Are you feeling okay? Do (did) you enjoy the snow? Just to let you know, I miss you tons! Emma Griffin, also if you are reading this, I miss you a lot too! But don't be sad, I'll be back soon! Mary Claire, thank you for blogging! It's great to hear from you! And Lucy, I'm sooooo excited that you got Chloe! That's really great! Please, tell all of my friends that I miss them and that I'll be back soon! Mary
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Children's church

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The BH boys helping change a tire

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Ghana primer

Have learned a little about Ghana, though lots more to know. It's recently independent from England (50 yrs) and relatively democratic. The political primer I received makes me think there are more similarities than differences to the US. Apparently there was nearly civil war over the last election with the major parties being social democrat and capitalist democrat (dem's & rep's). Mixed with this is tribe or clan rivalries.
The country is obviously very poor, though there is private wealth here. Unlike the US, very rich and homeless live together: large gated homes with people living on the street outside the house walls. Though people are poor, goods and services and housing are relatively expensive. Accra is the capitol, 5-8 million people. We've been traveling by taxi which are abundant.
The people are very friendly to us and I think generally favor Americans. When telling people we are here adopting local orphans and taking them to America, the response is always positive.
Looking forward to traveling to rural villages tomorrow which will be another side of Africa for us. Also looking forward to meeting the kids' family. More later.
Matt
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Court Again

Matt went to court at 7am this morning and spent about 5 minutes with the judge. We were granted an interim order with permission to travel. It means that we can finish the process to bring them home (hopefully in 2-3 months, but we will not be granted full adoption rights for 2 years. We may or may not have to do this in Ghana in 2 years, but we will cross that bridge later. Pray for the rest of our paperwork to be swift so we can return to Ghana to get the kids ASAP! I (Amy) helped with school today and got to work with Lamisi a bit. Matt did some flash cards with Linda. While the kids ate lunch and napped, we took a quick trip to the Accra Mall (very western) and ate lunch and got Lamisi sandals that fit. We then returned to pick up Lamisi, Linda and Jeremiah to go to a market. There were lots of wonderful Ghanian crafts there. Everyone wants to sell you something and you have to barter. We picked up a few small items and a wall hanging and will go back without the girls and Jeremiah for some gifts for them. Jeremiah did great tied on my back. We took the kids back to Beacon House and played a bit before our evening goodbyes. We met the Barton family (of the Bartons in Africa website) for dinner. It was a really nice chinese restaurant with Ghanian staff. They had lots of good info, since they have been in Ghana and working with Beacon House since June. They also said they have pictures of the kids for us-yeah!! We will be preparing tomorrow for our trip Wednesday to the village where our children are from, as we need to be at the airport at 5am.It will be hot and dry instead of hot and humid-some variety! Missing you all and still having trouble with pix!LOL
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Re: Lamisi at church. Her personality has similarity to Mary Beth's

------Original Message------
To: Blog Ghana
Subject: Lamisi at church. Her personality has similarity to Mary Beth's
Sent: Feb 8, 2010 1:08 PM

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Mary's Post 5

Hey! I just
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Mary, Lamisi & friend. The kids are getting along well.

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Lamisi clowning around!

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Some of the younger BH kids at church

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Ian & friend; the pool is popular with all the kids!

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About Ghana

We have been filling you on on our journey, here is a bit of general info. It is in the low 90s and humid every day. The season is called hermetan (spelling not sure) and it is windy in the afternoon. It has not been too buggy, but we use bug cream and take anti-malarials to be safe. There can be mansions next to homeless and near shanty type homes by where we are. Ghanian money is cedis and to US 1 dollar is like 1.4 cedis. Lots of cars have Jesus and pray messages, it is largely Christian with a muslim influenced government. The main language is English, as there is many tribal languages. The kids at BH all learn English and Lamisi speaks pretty well. Linda is more quiet. They already call us mommy and daddy regularly and comfortably and Jeremiah says mama. There are lots of street vendors - we have bought bananas and boiled eggs that way. We have air conditioning at our hotel, but there are rolling power outages every day. The water is not filtered, so we boil it in an electric teapot and buy bottled. IT is hot, so you drink a lot. BH has a good filter for drinking water, so we refill there sometimes. It is laid back here, so service is slow and things can run a half or one hour late regularly. We will report more tomorrow, besides school we are taking the kids to market (a local vendor/craft area. Love to all!!!
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Church and family time

Today we went to church with the BH kids. We stayed in the kids area, since it was another chance to be with them. The building was under construction and open with chairs and a roof, no windows. It was about 2 hours long for the kids and the adults were still going-maybe 3 hours or more. It was really hot and they bring water bags for the kids. Most of the kids at the church are from BH. Even the little ones like Jeremiah go, all the kids walk there holding hands and the older siblings carry their younger ones. After Ian decided to stay at BH to play with a friend he met and the rest of us went to get gifts for our trip north to meet the kids' extended family. We found nice gifts and also a market with some regular groceries. We bought cheese and olives, pita and a couple other treats. Lots of things are expensive like the cheese block was eleven dollars, olives nine, 2 bags of skittles for ten dollars and baby formula for twenty dollars per can. We went back to the hotel and then to BH to pick up Lamisi, Linda, Ian, his friend and Lamisi's. Jeri ( the house moms call Jeremiah this) was napping. We swam for a couple hours and felt refreshed from the heat. We took all the kids home, hugged on our children and headed back to the hotel to do laundry and eat. Tomorrow morning Matt goes to court and I am going to help at school. Ian and Mary can catch up homework! Pray for the adoption to be a full decree! See my next post for some basic Ghana info!
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Mary's Post 4

Alright, let's try and finish my story. Okay, here goes. I ran out of the sandbox and guess what? Some little girls began to copy me too! I was like "Oh brother, not them! I can't take any more of this!" I was like that because I totally had enough! So I ran to my dad screaming "Dad! Dad! Tell them to stop! Please!" And they said the exact same thing. Uummm... Let's just stop here. Good Bye! Mary
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Mary's Post 3

Hiya! I am back! So let me finish what I was talking about on Mary's Post 2. Let's see, where was I? Oh yeah! So I was running, and the 3 boys were chasing me. I ran into the kitchen and ducked behind a bench. And just my luck, they didn't notice me. They ran right past me and went back outside. So I got up and went out and those little boys were waiting for me, just as I expected. I decided that I had enough, so I went away and said "Mommm! They're still copying me!"And they said "Mommm! They're still copying me!" She told them to stop, but they didn't listen. Then I got an idea. I led them to the sandbox, but then, for some random meaning, they started to punch at me, but believe me, I put an end to that. Yeaahhh, I tell you later. Au revoir!

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Sun. AM quick post

Have been enjoying reading your comments, thanks for posting! We're preparing to go to church with all the kids, expect it to be interesting. Pool time yesterday was great, even Jeremiah swam for an hour. Lamisi was sad when we left her for the evening, expect it to be hard for all of us when we leave on Friday night. Please pray for a full adoption decree from the judge tomorrow morning. Matt
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Dad & Linda pool time!

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When in Rome...

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Big Sister!

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Mary's Post 2

Hi! I am back for some more blogging! Today, we got up, got ready, ate, and walked to Beacon House to pick up Lamisi, Linda, and Jeremiah. When we left, we changed into our bathing suits and went to the pool. Lamisi is a pretty good swimmer. We had a pretty good time. We got out after that and changed back into our regular clothes. We went back to Beacon House to drop off the kids. We stayed for a little bit, so I decided to go and play along with the other kids when I noticed 3 boys that I met the day before. I was like "Oh no, I better run." I thought that because yesterday, those same boys were copying me and it drove me crazy. The boys were all like "She's back!Look, she's back! So I started to run and of course, they followed me. Well, I better log off now, I'll tell you more about it later. Bye! Mary

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On the way to hotel pool

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Our hotel is very nice!

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Walking from hotel to Beacon House

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This is Beacon House

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Snack at the hotel pool

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Ian's post

So far, Africa has been great! I like the hot weather. The kids are a perfect fit for our family. It has been a wonderful experience. The kids at the orphanage are suprisingly athletic. I think the trip has been great! I am a bit uncomfortable with the water here. The hotel is very hospitable. That is basicly all I have to say about our trip so far. Ian
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Mary's post

Hi! This is Mary. Africa has been such a great experience, but in my opinion, it is waaayy to hot! But in the meantime, it has been great! Lamisi is just like me, even the whole family agrees! Beacon House is a great place and all of the kids are very nice and polite. It has been fun to hang out with the kids. Outside of Beacon House, there is a trampoline(even though no ones allowed to use it) a slide(its a little broken, but I still use it) a sandbox, and a jungle gym! Even the 3 year olds can climb up the jungle gym and sit on the top! Still, some of them can hang by there knees! That's basically it, See ya! Mary
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Puzzle time!

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More about Ghana

Yesterday was court day. Matt has to go back Monday, so pray that she gives a full adoption decree. She only wanted the men to come back, so I do not have to go nor the kids. That is good, since it was a small hot space and a 2 1/2 hour wait. The bathrooms by the court were an adventure. You have to pay to use them-more if you need newspaper to wipe. I brought TP, but still had to pay the 20 peswas(20 cents) per person. It was a long walk, too. After court we went back to Beacon House. The driving is interesting- only street signs and lights in the main city, so everywhere else you honk to let cars know you are there. It can be one crazy traffic jam. People sell stuff on the street while you are in your car. They run up between lanes of traffic selling fruit, DVDs, cell phones and minute cards, whatever! We needed an adapter plug and actually got one from a guy selling them running between car lanes! It is very hot and humid, we are close to the equator. Our hotel room has air, but not the hotel or Beacon House. We visited with the kids at Beacon House in the afternoon, they love people. All of the kids will just hop in your lap, hug you or hold your hand. Their are about 35 kids between 2 months and 14 years. Lamisi and Linda are coming to swim at the hotel today. It is nice to be able to walk to BH from our hotel. More to come, we have to type on Matt's phone and we are having trouble with pictures, but will keep trying to send. Love to you all.
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Ian, Amy & Jeremiah

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Jeremiah throwing his bug

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Linda's first smile

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Our first meeting!

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Pics will be coming!!

We went to court today, unfortunately had a partial hearing and have to return to court on Mon. We are at the judges mercy and whim, they seem to hold much power. We are getting to know the kids more each hour, and them to us as well. Today we are purchasing pane tickets to go North to the kids native village (tues/wed). Jeremiah is a content baby, did great in the 90 degree court room. Linda is a bit car sick, though perked up after arriving. Linda is so inquisitive about our home and America, very lively and affectionate. Ian and Mary stayed at the orphanage while we were out and are blending in nicely. More to come...
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We met the kids!

It was a wonderful day, beyond words really. It is evident God chose these children for us. Lamisi, 9, is warm, smiley, inquisitive and looking forward to coming to her American home. Linda, 6, took a bit to warm up, but is already a daddy's girl. Jeremiah is a friendly toddler who loves Mom and Mary. We spent a lot of time with them today. Tomorrow is our court date, pray for a full adoption decree. Will post more tomorrow.
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Welcome to our blog!!

We are finally setting up a blog as we are on our way to Ghana in 3 days. We will do our best to post about our upcoming trip as a way to keep all of our dear family and friends informed. Hopefully we will figure out pictures, too! We want to share the journey, as so many of you have already been an integral part of us getting to where we are. We thank the Lord for you and all of your love and support!!