Eight Oaks: so well loved

The girls have been home for one week today. Already I can barely remember a time when this space was not filled with their voices and personalities.

Dina, Sarah, Gloria, God’s Way, and Lucky have effortlessly settled into life at The Yellow House. Their joy is contagious and their presence makes us all indescribably happy

Mercy and Helen exceeded our wildest expectations. Mercy is adored by her sisters—last night she left for a few hours and when she returned it was to cries of “Davi Mercy!!” as five little people ran out the front door to welcome her home. They call Helen “Mama” and she is usually found sitting outside making akple or stew and laughing as they play and do their chores. Bernard, aka “Papa," comes over about three times a day just to check in and make sure things are running smoothly. Celestine, also "Mama," has been largely responsible for buying all of the girls’ clothes and supplies. We would have been SO LOST without her. These girls are so well loved!!

I also wanted to include just a few more pictures of the house. Our dining room table was finished just in time for our return to Akatsi and is used for everything from eating to playing games and coloring pictures. Our carpenter also finished cabinets for the kitchen and the hallway sink a few weeks ago. We are so pleased with how everything has turned out.

At this moment, we are planning on returning to Yeji on Monday to meet and bring home the last three girls. Please continue to pray for smooth travels and no complications with paperwork or anything else on this trip!

<<Also--I apologize if the pictures are weirdly formatted. I do not know what the problem is but I cannot bear to spend another second messing with it! Computers are not my friends.>>

The girls were so incredibly ecstatic/nervous about the plane ride.

During the normally-silent take-off, our plane was filled with the sounds of little girls shrieking and laughing uncontrollably. We attracted a lot of attention.

They were so excited about flying to begin with that I thought their heads might explode when the flight attendant brought JUICE and CRACKERS!! Cute story: bottled water is pretty luxurious here, so most of the girls carefully saved theirs for later. We have spotted Gloria wrapping hers in a blanket and carrying it around like a baby doll.

Their first morning they woke up before the sun was out and immediately started doing their chores. Kids in Ghana always sweep in the morning. A child gets his or her own broom on their fourth birthday. This is Dina.

Gloria

Sarah. Those eyes!

God's Way.

Breakfast on our beautiful table.

front room, finally complete!

finished kitchen!!

Mama Helen

Davi Mercy has taken it upon herself to make sure we become truly Ghanaian. As such, we have been eating African food for three meals a day. This is akple with light soup. Akple is a fermented dough made from cassava: you tear it off in little chunks and dip it into the soup.