Back in Akatsi!

It's hard to believe we've been back in Akatsi for a little over a week now! It was so good to be greeted by the girls and their beautiful smiling faces on our return. They did just fine in our absence under the guidance of Mama Helen and Mercy. We truly are blessed with excellent staff!

The weather has been absolutely wonderful (in our opinion) and has made for a relatively easy adjustment! It is cool (low 80's), cloudy and rainy most days with an occasional hour or two of sunshine. We wish it would last forever! The Ghanaians, on the other hand, are miserable and praying everyday for the sun to come back out! The only challenge we have now is figuring out how to get our clothes dry between rainstorms!

Today we are celebrating Regina's 8th birthday with chocolate cake and ice cream! She is probably the happiest child I've ever met-always smiling and singing to herself. It's quite contagious! We love her dearly and have so enjoyed watching her grow and improve in multiple ways since her arrival at the Yellow House.

Today is also the last day of school for this term-the girls will have a day FULL of parties! They have a huge celebration at school which they call "our day." Mercy made them chicken and rice to take to school and share with their friends. They will then be home until the beginning of September. I'm sure they'll keep us quite busy!

Please continue to pray for Sarah Sr. We don't have much new information on the situation, but are anxiously praying and hoping that she will return to the house soon.

Thanks so much for your prayers and support!
Now for a few pictures :)

Beautiful Godsway

Fun with chalk!

Lucky

Godsway

Richlove and Sarah Jr

We made finger puppets out of pipe cleaners!
A fun craft for a rainy day :)

Gloria and her bunny

Dina, Lucky and Regina

Our Social worker took some pictures of the girls
during their "our day" festivities at school.

Dina

One of their classrooms

A slightly blurry picture of the birthday girl and her cake!

Lovely Regina!
Happy birthday sweet girl!

Thanks for checking in! Have a wonderful day :)

A few cute videos

Hey everyone! We've been in the States for the past month enjoying time with family and friends, so it's been quite awhile since our last post. We're heading back to Ghana this Sunday and are SO excited to see the girls again! I thought I'd post a few videos while we have reliable Wifi :) 

Enjoy!

Godsway and Lucky :)

Godsway's favorite colors!

She got all the names right except the first one :)

Oh how they make us laugh...

Thanks for all your prayers and support-please continue to pray for Sarah Sr. as we deal with custody issues. We'll keep you updated.

Have a great day!

Kate and Landon

Happy Thursday!

As you all know, Sally and Buffy were recently here to visit us! It was a lovely break and so much fun to show them around! We got to see a beautiful waterfall and feed monkeys among many other things. If you haven't seen them yet, check out Sally's blog for some great pictures!
http://manlovin.blogspot.com/2014/05/ghana-part-i.html?spref=fb

The girls just started school again, so we’re finally settling back into our routine. Their love for learning never ceases to amaze me. After a full day of school, they’ll come home begging for English lessons! It’s paying off though-we rarely need to have Mercy translate for them anymore! They’re doing so well :)

In other news, we will be celebrating Lucky’s tenth birthday tomorrow! This sweet girl is constantly smiling, singing at the top of her lungs and looking for ways to help. We often call her Mama Lucky-she always looks after the other girls and makes sure no one is left out. We love you Lucky! Happy happy birthday!

Thanks so much for all your prayers and support!  You should know that the girls thank God almost every night for all the people in America that love them and pray for them :)

We will be visiting the States in a few short days (14 to be exact) and Teddy and Ellie will be arriving in Ghana just before we leave! We love you are so excited to see many of you soon!

Landon, Kate and all 8 :)

Beautiful Lucky

Richlove (left) and Gloria (right) sporting
 their new shades :) 

English lessons with Buffy

This is their all-time favorite game. We don't
really understand the rules, but it involves a lot of
jumping and clapping!

Much to Landon's delight, I found a recipe
for yeast-free pizza! It was an all-day affair,
but oh so worth it :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Guest Post | Sally & Buffy

Hello!
This is Sally- Landon's sister. My mother and I just got back from our visit to Ghana to spend time with Landon and Kate and to meet their 8 sweet girls! We had an amazing trip- I have posted some of our travel photos over on my photography blog- www.manlovin.blogspot.com and am sharing some things here as well. I have so many photos to share, but I thought for this post I would share one of each of the girls and some group photos :)
Enjoy!

More soon!
Love,
Sally

Around here

April
The girls have just finished the school term, and are excited about a few weeks of vacation! According to them, they did very well on their exams-we’ll see about that :)

We will be celebrating small Sarah’s birthday in the next few days-she will be turning 7! She is so sweet and lovable. She adores monkeys and coloring and is terrified of frogs, Uncle Landon’s beard and a million other things. She wants to be an airplane when she grows up. (I think she meant a pilot) :) Happy birthday, dear Sarah!

We are very excited to have Buffy and Sally (Landon's mom and sister) come visit us in the beginning of May!

Thanks for all of your prayers and support!

With love, 

Kate, Landon and the girls :)

The birthday girl!

Godsway, Richlove and Lucky showing
off their artwork and eating mangos

Big Sarah and her "baby"

Uncle taunting small Sarah with a
"very scary" frog :)

The Choice bags were a huge hit!
Thanks Rosa and the Choice gang!!! 

Sarah being measured on the cute
growth chart my mom sent!

Richlove's lion-they LOVE coloring and are getting
to be quite good :)

Dina demonstrating the Ghanaian way
to carry your baby.

A beautiful sunset

Thanks for stopping by!

April

It's April! For most of you, that means watching expectantly for Spring, but for Sarah Jr, it's just another day to sing her favorite Christmas song :) 

It's RAINY SEASON!!!!!

These last few months have been HOT and DRY. We are SO pleased to welcome what Ghanaians call "the major rainy season"-we hope it lives up to it's name!

Godsway running home from school in a rainstorm.

Sarah and Dina posing in the rain

It has been a busy few weeks. We’ve spent hours upon hours in clinics and hospitals as five of us, including myself, were diagnosed with malaria in the same week! (the downside of rainy season) Thankfully, we’re all recovered now and are hoping to stay away from the hospital for a while. Thank you so much to everyone for your prayers!

We celebrated Dina’s birthday a few nights ago-she turned 11! They are all growing and changing so much! (None of them are sure of their age or birthday, so we guessed and made up official birthdays for them). The birthday girl celebrated by singing and dancing with her sisters and by enjoying her favorite foods; lime ice cream, bread, and alvaro (soda). She is a sweet girl who thinks everything her Uncle Landon says or does is absolutely hilarious. Her English is improving rapidly-she understands most of what we say now and can even translate for the other girls! We’re so proud. Pictures below :)

Lucky, Sarah and Dina

Thanks for checking in! 

We love you all and are so thankful for your prayers and support!

Love, Kate