We are finally getting our girls!

We get to go and bring them home in less than two weeks! I can't tell you how excited I am. We have been waiting for this for so long it doesn't seem real yet. I'm sure it will when I have SEVEN little ones running around. YAY!!!
The boys love their school but it won't last long because...
We are moving again! I know crazy in the middle of everything else we are moving back to Idaho. Our rental got shot at and now no one will rent it so we are moving back into it. I know that sounds bad but it is in the middle of nowhere and it was an isolated incident so I'm not worried in the least. If I was we wouldn't move back into it.
Well hopefully this post will publish. I've been having trouble with my blog lately. Goodnight!

Hey everybody!

Sorry It's been so long again. So what news?
My boys are enrolled in a great charter school for next year and I'm really excited about that. It's called Ogden prepatory acadamy and it is one of the best public schools around. Plus my friend's kids go there so that's a plus.
We got a swamp cooler. It is very cold. Yay!! I NEEDED the air in the house to be cooler and now it is. I'm so glad.
We are working on ripping out the back yard and making it beautiful. Randy is an expert after fixing up so many different houses. I'm sure it will be awesome.
We have the passport for Josephine but not for Nadia yet. We are still waiting for USCIS approval and then we can get visas for the girls and bring them home. Hopefully before the summer is over. Pray for us.
Well sorry for the short update. Hope all is well with you all.+

Easter!

I love Easter. This year we had a few guests. Russell and Shirley were here visiting on their way home from Provo for Teresa's wedding and of course we had Ricky's girlfriend Brooke here to celebrate with us as well. I wish I had taken some pictures cause we had good food and awesome decorations and of course lots of chocolate. We bought way too much candy and I think I'm going to be in a sugar coma for a week. Yay!

Hey Everybody, I'm Back!

Wow what a whirlwind last couple of months! Sorry it took so long to post after our trip but I had to finish school for this semester so that I don't go on probation! Yikes! I finished it though so now I have a little time for fun! like posting our awesome trip. I took lots of pictures so sorry this page will take forever to load. First here are the girls on the way from the airport. Look how scared they are. Here is Randy at the restaurant in the Congress hotel. Jet lag.

Here are the girls eating fried rice and fried chicken. We had that almost every meal.

Yummy!! I got french fries. Very American.

We got swim suits for the girls the next day and went swimming in the pool at the hotel. Super fun! Nadia loved this water bottle. She carried it around and poured water from the bottle into the lid and drank it like a little cup. So cute!

We went and got Josephine's hair done the next day at the mall. She wanted a ponytail.

She is so patient. She just sat there there whole time.

Nadia and I walked around the mall. She was not happy to be separated from her sis.

After we swam we were so tired.

Nadia witht he bottle again.

Here we are waiting at the passport office.

This is at another hotel we went to.

This family was trying to adopt a little girl named Mary. Mary didn't want to be adopted. They took her back to her family. It was really hard on the people who wanted to adopt her.

More waiting at the birth records office.

Josephine took my camera and was taking pictures.

This is the restaurant at the Airside Hotel. Wow they have good food.

This is at the Waggs hotel. We were playing catch in the room with a soccer ball. Hee Hee!

More pictures by Josephine.

This is the view outside our balcony.

The other way still on the balcony.

So cute!

This is from left to right Nadia's mother, Nadia, Me, Randy, Josephine, and Josephine's Aunt who is also the foster mother. This is at the foster home.

This little guy is only two weeks old. He doesn't have a name yet. The father hadn't decided if he wanted to claim him or not so they can't do the naming ceremony until that is decided. He was so sweet. I couldn't imagine ging birth and raising a baby in that environment.

Well that's all the pictures but I have posted all the videos too on youtube. just type in juliepuckett into the search bar and they will all show up. There are videos from our last trip too so look for new ones.

We are so excited to bring our girls home. I think it will be sometime in June or July. It all depends on paperwork. Yuck!

All the boys are doing great. We are almost done with the birthday rush. Just one more in a couple weeks. Our 11th anniversary is this month. It sure goes by fast!

I'll probably post a few catch up posts if I have time about all the other stuff we've been doing. Yes there is more to my life than the adoption. Although it sometimes doesn't seem like it, It is a bit consuming.

OK I'm posting :)

I finally have a minute to post. I know it's been a month again but maybe I just only have five minutes once a month. :P Just kidding!

I just spent a very fun filled weekend with my sister Kim and my childhood best buddy Anna. We had a great time. I miss them and their kids. I got to see how this house feels with a few more kids and it was great (aside from the fighting) All the kids had so much fun. I think all five kids had a kid that was about the same age to hang out with so they had fun.

Well what has happened in a month? We are going to Ghana for our second trip on march 14th. Russell and Shirley are coming to watch the kids. I'm so glad they are able to do that. It makes this process so much less stressful. We just found out that while we are there the girls get to stay with us at the hotel. We get to stay near their village which is in the Kwahu Mountain region. It looks like it's about 3-4 hours from the airport. I'm so excited that we will get to spend the whole time with them. I can't wait. This is an extra trip that we just found out about. The law in Ghana has changed and we have to be there in person to file the passport application. Once that gets done we will have to go home and wait another two months until we can go back and bring them home.

We started painting. We are only doing a room at a time. We have done the Master bedroom and bathroom. I love the new colors. I especially love the white ceilings. I felt like the brown on the ceiling made everything look really dark. I don't do well with dark. I can't wait to do more rooms and then decorate the girl's room. Yeah! I am definitely painting it pink and putting flowers on the walls.

The boys are doing great. I have decided to stick with teaching for now. The hours are better and Nursing school takes a lot of time away from home and it costs a lot more money. So teaching it is. I've been finding out about a lot of non profit organizations that help volunteer in other countries with teaching. I think that would be amazing.

Well I'll try again posting more often. We'll see if I get any better at it. ;)

Post for the day.

Hey everyone. I have decided again to try to post more often than once a month so here goes. Today I woke up tired because Hunter (I am going to start using their real names It's too confusing to use numbers with so many) who is #5 has decided that he is scared of everything especially his room at night. He has been waking up all night whenever he realizes I'm not still there. I think I am going to switch around the boys and their rooms so he will be sharing. That might help him to know that someone else is there. It will probably take longer to get him to sleep but at least I won't be waking up as often I hope. I'm crossing my fingers.

We are going to start painting the house inside. The people who painted it before we moved in used flat paint. With six boys flat paint doesn't work. I am excited because we are going to paint lots of colors like pale yellow for the kitchen and sage green for the starwell and light blue for our room. I think we are also going to paint the ceiling white which will help lighten things up here. This house although beautiful and prefectly laid out is kind of dark. maybe thats just because it's winter but I think lighter paint will help.

I think I'm going to switch what I am studying. Although I think I would like teaching and I think I would be pretty good at it it just doesn't feel right. My sister talked about being a phlobotemist and I think I would like nursing so I'm going to look into it. I already have all my general studies done so I don't think it would take me too long. I'll let you know. I may change my mind again. That's just how I roll yo!

Well that's all for now. Have a happy day!

I am so excited!

We bought a huge crazy mormon van last night. We traded in our Tahoe and got the van plus $2,000. It is a 2000 chevy something 3500. It is great!. It is dark blue and has 12 seats. I am excited we will have enough seats for everyone with 2 to spare.

We are moving right along with the adoption. We still are not sure when we will be able to go get the girls but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. All our paperwork on our side is done except we will have to be fingerprinted one more time each for USCIS. They are supposed to contact us with details for that. The paperwork for court is all there minus one paper that should be there by Fri. via Fedex this time so it will actually get there. Don't ever send anything to Ghana US mail. It takes forever.

I am still in school but I think I might take a break after this semester just to make sure everyone is adjusting to the big changes. Everyone seems to be doing well. We had strep last week and when I say we I mean every one of us all tested positive in one day. 6 doctor visits and 6 bottles of antibiotic later we are all on the mend.

Here are recent pictures of the girls. Josephine looks really happy.