Ghana getting the girls

Just warning you there are lots of pictures... sorry if it takes a long time to load.

Here we are at the airport on our way. I think this is the JFK Airport. Ricky thought all the "Duty Free" signs were really funny.

Here he is on the first flight notice he is still smiling.

This is what you see when you enter the airport in Ghana after 14 hours on the plane... Akwaaba!

First things first we had to go shopping. We go to this shop everytime we go to Ghana. It is at the Shangri-la Hotel. The shop owner is very nice and always gives us a good price. 

This is in the Airside hotel with Josephine's Aunt Victoria and Nadia's mother Mary.

We had some more show up to have some fun. We were going through the donations that I brought and they had a great time trying some of the dresses on.

Here we are the next day on the way to the wedding! I am in the back.

Here are the other two "new moms" they both have other kids too.

 

Having fun with crayons while we wait.

Nadi lost a shoe.

This is Kofi's sister she helped to translate during the wedding. We are taking gifts to the bride's home.

 She accepted the gifts and they were married. It was a beautiful ceremony and a great party afterwards. We all danced and drank lots of soda.

Here we all are before we left.

 Here is our awesome driver Eric. He drove us all around Cape Coast for the weekend and took us back to Accra when we were done there. And now for the Biriwa Hotel....

Isn't it the most beautiful place ever? It is only $50 per night. This is the view from our room.

This is our room.

 We went to the restaurant in the hotel. This was on the ceiling. There were probably about 6 scattered accross the ceiling.

Nadia didn't last long. She was so tired.

 Josephine loved their fried rice and fried chicken.

 

The next day we decided to hit the beach!

 So much FUN!!!!

Then we went to Cape Coast Castle.

It is the youngest Slave trade fort in Ghana. There are three. I thought it was important for the kids to see. Randy and I went there on our first trip to Ghana and it is really something to see. We are taught all about slavery in school but it is different to be there and stand in the places where it happened.

 

It was funny this lady stopped me and said she had never seen a white lady carry a baby on her back. I still hadn't gotten the hang of it yet. I can do it the right way now. It's actually really comfortable and convenient.

Here is the beach at Cape Coast Castle. There were so many people swimming and there were so many piles of nets like this one.

After we toured the castle we went to dinner at the Beach Castle restaurant. It was really good and this guy sang the whole time. He was actually really good.

The next day we went to the Canopy Walk at Kakum National Forest. It was really cool but lots of hiking.

Then we went back to Accra and to my favorite restaurant there.

 I of course had fried chicken and french fries. Yummy!!!

This is after our long flight home. Can you tell? The girls were so tired.

Nadia was glad to be outside looking for the car.

The boys love their new sisters.

Jacob loves playing soccer with Josephine. 

Nadia loves the swing.

This was our first Sunday together. The girls loved church.

We managed to get our pumpkin carving done right before Halloween. The girls loved dressing up as princesses and getting lots of candy. The boys all were something different than I planned.

 Jacob: Harry Potter, Nicholas: Knight, Caleb: Ninja, Hunter: Jack Sparrow, Matthew: Bee.

We were so busy having fun I forgot to take pictures. My good friend Eva took some that I will have to swipe.

All in all we are having fun and everyone is adjusting well. I'm not sleeping much because Nadia wakes up at night for a little while but it's just like having a new baby in lots of ways and I have lots of experience with that.

Hope all is well with all of you. I will try harder to post more often and more pictures.

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. ;)