AKWAABA, GREETINGS FROM GHANA!! I'VE MANAGED TO STEAL AWAY A FEW MINUTES TO POST A MESSAGE, THANKS TO MY GREAT FRIEND HERE, JEANIE, WHOSE LAPTOP I'M BORROWING WHILE SHE WATCHES JONATHON (WHAT A GAL!). SHE IS STAYING IN THE SAME HOTEL HERE WITH HER DAUGHTERS LYDIA AND NEWLY ADOPTED AKOS! FIRST, IT WAS ALMOST SURREAL WHEN I FINALLY GOT TO MEET OUR DAUGHTER AMMA AND OUR SON JONATHON YESTERDAY AT THEIR FOSTER MOM'S, ESTHER, HOME. THERE WERE TEARS AND LOOOONG HUGS ;-) I WISH I COULD PUT IT INTO WORDS BUT IT'S JUST IMPOSSIBLE TO EXPLAIN. I LOVE BEING WITH THEM, THEY ARE SUCH PRECIOUS CHILDREN. AMMA IS THE BEST HELPER IN THE WORLD AND OFTEN BEATS ME TO THE CHANGING TABLE SO SHE CAN CHANGE JONATHON'S DIAPERS! SHE IS HAS A VERY SWEET AND KIND DISPOSITION, I AM REALLY ENJOYING SPENDING A LOT OF TIME WITH HER. SHE IS GETTING HER HAIR BRAIDED AS I TYPE THIS SO WE'LL TRY TO POST SOME PICTURES SOOM. NEXT ON HER LIST IS TO GET HER EARS PIERCED, HEHE. OH BOY. SPEAKING OF BOYS....JONATHON IS THE CUTEST THING EVER, WHEN YOU MEET HIM YOU TOO WILL WANNA TAKE A BITE OF HIS CHUBBY LITTLE ARMS. HE IS A LOVE, HILARIOUS, AND A GREAT APPETITE!! LOVES MILK, DRINKS IT LIKE THERE'S NO TOMORROW. HEY REECE, I THINK HE LIKES DRINKING MILK EVEN MORE THAN YOU DO. WE WENT SWIMMING IN THE POOL YESTERDAY AND IT FELT GREAT, GIVEN THE TEMP IS UPPER 80'S WITH VERY HIGH HUMIDITY. AMMA LOVES TO SWIM AND JONATHON FINALLY WARMED UP TO THE IDEA LATER. AT FIRST, HE HID BEHIND ONE OF THE LARGE PLANTERS BY THE POOL AND JUST STOOD THERE WATCHING US...REALLY CUTE. I THINK IT WAS THE BALL THAT GOT HIM TO COME OUT OF HIDING..YOU SHOULD SEE THIS KID KICK THE BALL! NEXT SOCCER STAR MAYBE?? WELL, I BETTER GO AND CHECK IN WITH JEANIE, BLESS HER HEART. THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTINUED PRAYERS!

Safe and sound on the ground.

Howdy! Mo here. This is my first posting on our blog...ever...because...Rebekah is in Ghana and hasn't yet connected to the internet. Sooooo...after a nearly 20 hour long trip, Rebekah landed in Ghana late monday night. Thankfully, it didn't seem as rough as anticipated. She did get picked up by our Ghanian coordinator, Percy, and was taken to the Hotel. Once there, she unpacked and crashed out. She had a big day on Tuesday. Two major milestones were scheduled -- meet our kids at 11am and an appointment at the American embassy at 2pm. Because of the 7 hour time difference, Rebekah called us in Torrance at around 9am our time. With speaker phones in hand on either end, we had our first verbal reunion as the Padilla six. From our end, Shayley, Reece and I heard the sweetest voices. We said our hellos and I love yous. It was nothing short of awesome. Constance, who is 10 yrs old and goes by Amma, speaks very good english but, as expected, was a little shy. Jonathan, who is two years old and goes by Jojo, was able to say ba-bye. The grins on our faces here at home was priceless. We're praying that the process can expedite so I can travel and help Rebekah bring the kids home. Please continue to keep us all in your thoughts and prayers. Much thx! We'll post some pics soon.

Happy Father's Day to the Best Dad Ever - We Love You!!

I'm leeeeeavin' on a jet plane!

A 747 to be exact. Yes, I'm off to the beautiful country of Ghana, tomorrow evening!! By some miracle the Embassy in Accra replied to my email 2 days after my request for an I600 appointment to be scheduled on June 23rd. I could not have been happier when I saw the email in my 'In' box. Were my eyes fooling me?? No, they weren't, and the icing on the cake was that they gave me the appointment on the date I requested. Thank You Lord!! Prior to yesterday when I rec'd their email reply, I was convinced that I was probably not going to Ghana very soon, especially after what I had heard from other moms in the same situation as I found myself currently in. So I had stopped packing, put away the papers, and 'hung up the phone' so-to-speak...while trying to find some kind of peace in the scripture verse that says (on my previous blog post), Be still and know that I am God, Psalm 46:10. So here I am, the afternoon before I leave, knee-deep in packing, shuffling around all the documents (and more documents) to take, charging all the batteries(video, phone, camera), and checking and re-checking my baggage weight so I don't go over 51 lbs(can you say crazy-making??). And that's only part of the fun, ha. I did receive some exciting news today from our friend Jeanie who is in Ghana right now also in the process of bringing her little girl home. She emailed me to tell us that they visited the foster home that our kids are staying at right now (transition home for kids being adopted) and that they were SO happy to get our notes we wrote to them. She also sent pictures so I wanted to share this one with you, proud mama that I am. They are just precious and I am so anticipating when I can finally hug them and tell them that I love them in person. Well, I've got much to do before I leave so time to go. I will do my best to keep you updated here on how things are going in Ghana. So stay tuned... ciao!

Have decree, will travel...soon!

We found out this week that our adoption decree was issued so now we can start to make plans to travel to Ghana, hoooooraaaay!! I also drove downtown Los Angeles yesterday to personally pick up my I-171 H form (a.k.a. orphan petition approval form). Note to self: do not drive downtown L.A. when the Lakers Victory Parade is going on!! I guess I should've figured it out when I saw all the police cars and helicopters circling above, dah. But we made it, 2 kids in tow, home safely with our precious approval form. We will keep you posted here as to when we (I) will be traveling. Stay tuned!!

Thank you for your continued prayers as we seek the Lord's wisdom and timing in our plans to travel. There is much 'up in the air' and out of our control at this point in the process.

Be still and know that I am God. Psalm 46:10

American Girl Party with Shayley & Friends

Big Day...Reece Graduates From Pre-School!

Another pic of our little girl in Ghana

As you can probably imagine, pictures of our little ones in Ghana are hard to come by these days. But here is a picture of our little girl holding baby Avena who was adopted by our friends in Northern Cali, Amy(pictured left) & Ben. Thanks for the picture Amy!

Happy 8th Birthday Shayley!!

Prayer Requests...and PRAISES!!

Ok, the good stuff first...
*April 24 - USCIS (US immigration)approves our application for orphan adoption.
*May 14 -We receive the great news that we rec'd a final adoption to officially become parents of Constance & Jonathon, big YEAH, YaaaaHoooo, WooooHoooo ;-)
*May 28 - Rebekah receives her birth & marriage certificates (you have no idea how happy I was to see the UPS guy after what I went through to get these things).
*June 3 - Received Visas to travel to Ghana - hooray!
*June 5 - USCIS promises me that our notice of approval will be put on top of 'the stack' to be mailed out asap - thank you Ms.Pilgram!!

So as you can see, it's been a pretty exciting past couple weeks. Never a dull moment eh.

Now for some prayer requests...
*Please pray that we would receive our adoption decree soon (there was an error on the first one so they had to re-issue it)- then I can make plans to travel to Ghana!
*Pray for Constance & Jonathon - their continued good health, peace and happiness about the news of their impending adoption, and God's provision for both their needs and the other children & caregivers at Christ Outreach Orphanage.
*We're waiting to hear from a couple organizations that we applied to for adoption scholarships and we're praying for a favorable response, hopefully soon.