Birthday Presents....

Well I know this is the first post of the year.....I thought of posting on New Year's Day to reflect on the year - but now seriously - who needs me to recap it when you can just read the last year's worth of Julz Blogging - or Julz Blabber :-)

So Brody's birthday is coming up January 16th. I'm so happy, but so sad at the same time. We aren't going to be with him when he turns 4. 4, can't believe he's 4!!! I'm happy because at least our adoption is "final" in Ghana, so he's our boy...... now for the fun. We've sent a few gifts :-) Big question - has he ever celebrated his birthday before? Who reallly knows the answer. So what did we get him? A soccer ball & pump incase it loses some air on it's way over, 2 new Disney Books ~ Finding Nemo & The Jungle Book, a coloring book of Dora The Explore & Diego pictures with crayons to go with it. We also sent a couple of party flavors - blowers & big ball balloons for the kids. In our card to him I wrote "We Love You" in Twi :-). I also sent a letter to Edward (the kind man whom has been so helpful) asking him to take photo's of Brody opening the gifts & that I hope what I wrote in Twi makes sense!!! I included a photo of the 3 of us, I added an adorable photo of Brody to a picture of Scott & I from last year!!! It's adorable. I wrote on it "Abusua" which means "Family" in Twi.
Brody understands English, and speaks some, but he's of course more comfortable with Twi, as that is what is spoken more around him. Granted English is the main language in Ghana, Twi is still a strong language there. I've found a great "Learn Twi" CD that the Department Of State uses when they send workers to Ghana. I'm going to get that soon.
Well soon I hope to post photo's of his birthday!!!! Stay tuned. Lois received the package today and will be sending it on Monday to Edward for delivery!!!! I'm so excited to see what he thinks of everything!!! It's so much fun.

Update: Still waiting for the decree. We did find out that Edward can file the I600 Application for us. That is a huge win. Scott has been making some headway with his contacts in other African countries ~ they were all in Ghana together, but have moved on to other countries ~ we are really hoping that we can get some sort of real time line on them processing the visa. Once the visa is approved we will receive a notification via email apparently from the US Embassy in Ghana, with an open invitation to come get the VISA!!! OH MY GOSH ~ how awesome will that be. Once we have that we sort things out here with work, the pugs & get our travel arrangements done! Then we head to Ghana (probably on Delta - new direct flight from NYC to Accra just over 10 hours)we meet our boy ~ we go to the US Embassy and they finish the paperwork. Somewhere in the middle of all that, I think while we are there, they complete the medical (yes again) and a field investigation on his family. Then we come home, and all of our family & friends will be at SFO to great us.....yes that's an open invite!!!! We want everyone there!!!

Cheers for now!!

Julz, Scott, Brody, Butch & Bella