Our journey's end

   Eighteen months ago, when Kate and I left our home in Missouri, we had no idea what we were getting into. Now it is hard to believe that we are about to return to start a new life in America. Living in Ghana has been both challenging and rewarding in ways that we could never have expected.

   Its hard to properly convey how far the girls have come. Since the girls were brought to the home over a year ago, they have been attending school and receiving private lessons at home. They spoke no English at all when they arrived, but, through Kate's lessons combined with their schooling, they are able to communicate almost anything without translation. Several of them are already reading simple books. Godsway could not do simple addition when she came but now, it seems, her math skills have surpassed my own... It is amazing how quickly children can learn. It has been great to see the girls catching up to the other children their age who have been attending school for years. We are very proud of them for their hard work and now they are starting to see it pay off.

   Apart from that we have had the privilege of seeing the girls become healthy and strong. In a little over a year they have collectively gained around 2 ft. of height. Their bodies are stronger, their eyes are brighter and their energy level has increased (shot through the roof, actually). We didn't think it possible, but we are seeing the girls laugh more and play harder than ever before.

   Best of all, we have witnessed the girls, along with Mercy and Helen, come to think of each other as family. They look out for each other at school, care for each other when someone is sick, help each other with their work and share everything they own.

   We are sad to leave them, but we know that Helen and Mercy will make sure they are well cared for. We want to thank Teddy and Ellie for choosing us to help in making their dream into a reality. We want to thank friends and family who have supported us in every way imaginable.

We want to thank Riverwalk Church of Christ whose support has been indispensable. We have been spared a great deal of worry and hardship because of Riverwalk's incredible generosity.

Thank you all for coming on this journey with us-we couldn't have done it without you!

We are excited to see you all very soon!

Landon and Kate

making Christmas decorations!

Richlove

Our little tree!

Lucky

Sarah and Dina

Our favorite picture of us and all the girls, taken by Sally Manlove! Thanks Sally! :)

Thanksgiving

Happy (late) Thanksgiving! This year, we were so grateful to be able to spend the day with some wonderful missionary friends from America. We had a great time eating fabulous food (we even had chocolate desserts and pumpkin pie!!!!) playing games and relating to people from our own culture. It truly was a blessing!

We are very Thankful to the Lord for SO many blessings, and you, our wonderful friends and family, are at the top of the list. :) Thank you so much for coming alongside us on this journey. We often feel isolated and lonely here, and Your prayers, encouragement, emails, and support have made all the difference in the world. We love you all and are so blessed to have such a wonderful support group!

It's hard to believe that we have just three short weeks left here in Akatsi! We are so very excited to be back with you all, to feel cold again, have CHRISTMAS and delicious food, and to do many other things. However, we are not looking forward to parting with the girls. We know that we will miss them dearly and we have been trying to step back these last few months and to let Mama Helen and Mercy take charge. The girls no longer come to us first thing when they get home from school, but to Mama, which is exactly what we wanted. We've tried to prepare them in every way possible. It will be a painful parting for us all, but we know that the girls will be well cared for. It's just so hard to be resolute when they look at you everyday with their beautiful brown eyes and say, "Auntie, Uncle, no go!"

Please pray for us, but mostly for them. Please pray that they will be able to look to Helen and Mercy as their family when we go. Pray that they will have fond memories of us, but that they will not miss us or feel abandoned.

All of that aside, things are going well here at the Yellow House! The girls are healthy and happy, for which we are very thankful. Also, We currently have power AND water here!!!! I've never been more thankful for either :)

Thanks for reading!
We hope that you have all had a wonderful Thanksgiving as well!
See you soon :)
Love
Kate and Landon

Davi Mercy and I in matching dresses :)

My new Ghanaian dress!

Small Sarah and I

Regina and Gloria

 

Davi Mercy and Dina

Eating Akple and stew (or fish cereal as Landon calls it)

Godsway

Small Sarah and Regina

Lucky and Regina having a picnic :)

Lucky in her beautiful new dress!

Dina :)

Picture Post!

Happy Monday! It's been a pretty busy few weeks here at the Yellow House! The teachers of Ghana have been on strike again. Thankfully, the strike is over, and the girls went back to school today! They were so excited to be back. Here's a few pictures of what we've been up to.

Water balloons are the best form of entertainment
on a hot afternoon, which is every afternoon here!

Dina is incredible at any sport/game!
Such determination!

Small Sarah, on the other hand, usually
runs away from the balloon :) 

We celebrated Mama and Richlove's birthdays together.
Both are well loved, and such wonderful additions to the house. 

Snails! They're kinda cute, right?
We hid them in the bushes before anyone else could see them.
 Mercy and Helen send the girls on snail hunting
expeditions-they love to fry them up and eat them!

Dina blowing bubbles

Uncle's forts are improving!

This is what the girls do when they're bored: have weddings!
They are absolutely hilarious! Lucky was the bride this time,
 and Regina drew the short straw and played the groom.

Richlove
I love her laugh :)

The Praise Team for the ceremony

The following day, it was Dina's turn to be the bride. 

Beautiful Richlove

The lovely bride! 

They used this skirt as a headpiece/veil.
They're so creative! 

This is our new friend, Sidhu Baba. He's an Indian man
working as a farmer here in Akatsi!

Godsway wrote the sweetest note to Landon.
It says, "God told Uncle to love everyone.
Uncle is a good man.
Uncle is a good brother.
I like Uncle.
Uncle like God. "
She is so sweet! 

That's about all from here! Thanks for checking in! 

Much love to you all, 

Kate and Landon :)

Our hike on Pride Rock! (aka Mount Adaklu)

With only two months left in Ghana, we thought it would be good to go on a weekend vacation to the most wonderful refuge we've found yet; Sky Plus Hotel.  It's our favorite place to relax and recharge when things get crazy at the house. The hotel sits on a summit where it overlooks the entire city of Ho and has a great view of this mountain that strikingly resembles Pride Rock from "The Lion King!

We've spent many an evening admiring this huge mountain, so when we found out it was hike-able, the obvious response was to schedule a trip! The mountain is actually called "Mount Adaklu" and is one of the tallest mountains in Ghana.

This past weekend was our scheduled hike. Unfortunately, Landon was still recovering from malaria at the time, so he wasn't feeling his best, but nothing would stop him from hiking. He tends to be a rather stubborn patient ;) We drove to a little town called Helekpe where we were told that our guide "had gone out, and is coming right now." We've been in Ghana long enough to realize that this means "I have no idea where he is or when he's coming back." So, this little boy named Evons (he couldn't have been older than 10!) agreed to take us halfway up the mountain. It was such a beautiful area! 

Evons and I

We then arrived at this small village where we met our second guide, Christian. We began our long and very tiring hike up the mountain. It took us two and a half hours to reach the top! The scenery was absolutely beautiful the whole way up, but the trail was rugged and quite dangerous at times! We came to a very steep rockface that had a knotted rope secured to the top. Christian quickly climbed it and yelled down his advice, "do not delay, there are many black ants on the rock!" Sure enough, there were swarms of them! We scrambled up the rope as quickly as possible, but we did not escape the wrath of the black ants. I didn't realize how much those bites hurt! Anyways, we made it up two or three of these crazy make shift rock-climbing obstacles, (dodging black ants all the way) and then we arrived at a resting place. Whew. We were exhausted by this point and  asked Christian how much farther we had until the top. Two hours, he said. We had already been hiking/climbing for two hours-we really didn't think we could make it another two. Thankfully we've also learned by now that most Ghanaians don't estimate time well. So after a good long rest, we decided to continue. 

Doesn't this look like it could be straight out of the Lion King?!

Purple mushrooms! This one's for you Parker :)

Upon seeing this pictures, Mercy said, "these creatures
will go inside your nose when you are sleeping and kill you!"
Yikes! I hope to never see one again!

After another 45 minutes of hiking/rock-climbing, we made it to the top! And it was well worth the difficult hike! The view was amazing, and there were monkeys chattering in the trees! Landon caught a glimpse of them, but they stayed pretty well hidden.

Climbing down these rocks was so scary!
It's kind of like rappelling...but without the harness!

We saw so many beautiful butterflies!

We did it!

Who knew chacos could be used to rock climb?!
Both of our guides put us to shame in their worn out
flip flops!

We went back to Sky Plus feeling accomplished, muddy, and so hungry. Pizza and hot showers never sounded so good!