Introducing....

Benedicta Byrne-Cox

Veronica Byrne-Cox

We were granted an interim adoption order this morning at about 7am with permission to travel. Yeah! Now it is passports, I600's and emmigration visas. We have only just begun! We had a great day...obviously.

Keith went to court this am and i slept in. In fact I was still asleep when Keith came back to tell me we had our girls!

Then we went over to Beacon House and I cuddled with Veronica while Benedicta was in class.

Benedicta's class was on a fruit break when we got there and she ran up to us and hugged us and was her happy little self again. I was a tad worried about it. After school and lunch was nap time. While the girls took a nap, we (and the other adoptive family) went to the big Accra mall...it is a nice western style mall with a food court! Yeah! We did a little bit of shopping and then went to pick up the girls.

Again, I must warn any parents coming here to meet their kids....bring a toy watch for them....apparently that equals love and they cost like $20 for a stupid Barbie watch at "Game"...a south african store at the Accra Mall.

We got the girls and took a taxi to the Art market...which is little stalls of people selling crafts....here is where i would put the pictures if Keith or I had actually taken any....ouch. We are back to our old ways. We are going to go back before we leave (probably) to pick up a ghanaian nativity set which was super cool. So we will take pictures. B was sooo good at the market. We told her ahead of time that she could pick out one thing. We went and she started with I want this, i want this and I reminded her one thing. So we walked around and looked at things for about 45 minutes, then she picked out her one thing. She was very, very, very well behaved. Tomorrow we head to Bolgatanga. It will be really nice to have the girls to ourselves for a full 24 hours.

This entire trip we have been totally in the grip of His grace. Every little logistical thing has fallen perfectly into place...from frantically looking for a hotel and finding the one we are using - to finding out one week before we left that Keith's job has an adoption reimbursement benefit! Our girls are so completely a perfect fit for our family - it is amazing. Everyday I thank God for my family and now I have 20% more children to be thankfull for.

I know we are only half done with our trip.....and I have discovered about 5 days is as long as my heart can take being away from my other babies. We have been so blessed to have our super awesome babysitting neighbor/ extended family....so I know that the kids barely miss US at all! In fact, they probably won't want to come home on Saturday! We are doing skype, but it is so hard to watch Benjamin trying to grab my hand on the the other end...although skype is great for peek a boo and blowing kisses. it just can't substitute for the real thing!