From My Travel Journal:Day 3

So the plan for today is/was to go visit little "A", do some shopping at the Art Market and then take our donations to Fern House for sorting. Sounds like an easy list but once again I have to set aside my Americanized attitude of "hurry up and get moving" and get on Ghana time. In the morning, Emmi and I woke up to what we thought was a parade outside our hotel. We heard drums, trumpets, singing and lots of cars and trucks honking their horns. As it turns out it was a political rally and quite lively at that. I love the passion of people in West Africa and how everything turns into music and celebration. We opened our window and ultimately sat on a balcony and watched it. We knew our driver would not be there for a while as traffic was backed up.

We took a walk down the street once the traffic slowed down and got ourselves some ice cold Fanta and fried bread dough. I don't know how else to describe the treat, but it is dough that is fried in oil right where they sell it. I thought it was the most wonderful snack to start our day.

Once our ride showed up, I wanted to load our donations in his vehicle. For whatever reason he thought tomorrow would be better so the stuff stayed at our hotel room. We made our drive to see our precious girl, who was sweet as always, but very tired. She had a hard time sitting up and she kept drooling a lot. I feared she had more "seizures" (we saw some what appeared to be seizures the day before) and this was the after effect. But I took all the cuddles I could get and I snapped a picture which may become my all time favorite thus far. During these visits, I am falling in love with this wonderful little one and starting to feel like her Mom. But as wonderful as that sounds, the hard part is that I have to leave her behind every day. Visiting my child feels so unnatural but holding back my feelings feels even worse.

Next was shopping. I felt horrible leaving her in order to buy things, but we didn't have a choice. This place tells us how long we have to visit, and we are grateful for every minute. I found adorable dresses for my girls and dress shirts and footbal (soccer) jerseys for the boys. It was so nice to buy for my 3 girls now knowing little "A" s size. Even though I wasn't with her, I was able to get something for her.

We returned to the hotel and I called the Fern House to see if anyone was there. We took a taxi to the church and they had someone go with us, as it's still impossible for me to direct anyone how to get there. We loaded all our donations with us (stubborn American didn't want to wait until tomorrow, LOL) so we must have looked like crazies standing at the side of the road with a rubbermaid bin and bags full of baby clothes.

We sorted the donations, Emmi filled the shelves with things. We had such a lovely time discussing various things as we got some things done. While the shelves were fuller, Mary reminded me that 4 babies are expected to be born in the next month. The newborn clothes will definitely be needed. And as we stocked the shelves, we learned that women must bring all their own supplies to the hospital when giving birth. Even things like bleach and medical supplies. Can you imagine that? Another thing that Emmi and I wrote down to be thankful for.



We stayed late into the evening, talking and visiting. Emmi learned how to dance the Azonto dance and the little ones were helping her learn it. To me it's amazing how the little ones have the sense of rhythm and the ability to move their bodies. But Emmi was holding her own, and we had the best laughs.