Hello everyone!
We are pleased to report that we were finally able to
replace out computer! I’ll (Kate) try to catch you up on what’s happened since
we’ve last blogged. We have so much news, I hardly know where to start!
We have been living in the Yellow House (the Eight Oaks
home) for almost two weeks now, and we are loving every minute! It is the
PERFECT house in so many ways! We have the most helpful, caring Ghanaian neighbors
possible (our hosts)-they have even offered to sleep here when we are out of
town so the “thieves” do not come again. They are wonderful. The house itself is very
spacious and comfortable, and is really starting to look like a home! We are very excited to have eight little girls
running around here and making use of every square inch!
Our bamboo furniture finally arrived yesterday! We’ve been
very busy moving all the beds, tables, chairs, benches, etc. to their proper
places (bamboo is surprisingly heavy and doesn’t come apart!). Pictures to come
soon :)
Since I’ve last blogged, we have found the staff for the
Eight Oaks home. We couldn’t be more excited about them! They are a mother
daughter team: Helen (the mother), and Mercy (the daughter) who is 22 and wants
to be a nurse :). Helen will be coming to the house every day and leaving in
the evenings, and Mercy will live here full time. They will be helping us with
household duties; mainly cooking and cleaning, but will also spend a lot of
time interacting with the girls. Our hope is that Helen will act as another
mother for the girls, while Mercy will fill the older sister role. We are very
thankful to have such wonderful women to help us care for the girls!
An update on the
girls:
We will be leaving for Lake Volta on Sunday, November 3rd!
It is a very long trip, but we would like to take Mercy and our host, Bernard,
with us. They will both have a lot of interaction with the girls, and it’s
important that they are able to see where they are coming from. Also, it will
likely be the first time these girls see white people and they may be very
scared of us! We will be so glad to have some Ghanaian friends along to help
communicate with and comfort them. While on the lake, we will meet each of the
girls for the first time early on in the week, and wait in a nearby town while
the paperwork is completed. We will then come home to Akatsi with all eight of
our precious girls!!! We are very excited and can not believe that the long awaited rescue is only weeks away!
We very much appreciate all of your prayers, and wanted to
give a few specific requests:
Please pray:
-For the girls and for all the children on Lake Volta. Pray
especially for these eight-that God would prepare their hearts for the rescue
and calm their fears.
-For a safe and smooth travel week (especially on the way back
with all the girls!)
-That God would continue to guide and direct our paths. He
is so good-it’s amazing to see how smoothly things have gone so far.
-For wisdom and for continued health.
Much love to you all-you are missed!
Kate and Landon
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| When it rains here, it pours! |
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| Our courtyard! |
Here, they are weaving Kente cloth, which is traditionally worn only on
special occasions or if you are a person of great rank. It is a very intricate process and takes several
weeks to finish one cloth!
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| His progress so far. Please take note of the chicken :) |
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| Trying some delicious coconut water! |
