They're here!

Nana Yaw and his mom arrived in Iowa this morning around 11:30am! We couldn’t have asked for a more gorgeous day of weather for the first time that they set foot in the Midwest!

First order of business….Nana’s name is pronounced similar to the nana in banana if you say it fast and quick. And, Yaw is pronounced ‘yow’ like the professional bball player Yao Ming (from China). Got it? His mom says that she always calls him by his full name….Nana Yaw. His mom’s full name is Mercy, but her friends and family call her Esi (pronounced Eh-see) which is how she introduced herself to us. Nana Yaw has one younger brother (who will be 14 in April) and one younger sister (8 years old). They live in Accra, Ghana. Here is a beautiful picture

of them:
Nana’s dad who they all call ‘daddy’ works at a cocoa plant in Ghana. Esi works at Ghana customs in the airport. Esi was a foreign exchange student in North Carolina in 1979 and lived with a family there for one year. Her first observation at our house was that we had a ‘very large cat’! She also liked how we let the kids play on their own and wander into the other rooms. She said that it seems American children grow up learning to be much more independent from a young age, and she liked that.

I also believe that Esi loves pictures! She commented on our family picture on our fireplace right away, and also said that while she is here she wants to develop her photos she has been saving on her camera because it is very expensive to develop photos in Ghana. I asked Esi if she was anxious about leaving Nana Yaw with us for so long, and she said that now that she is here and has met us, she is very comforted and can ‘relax’ about it. :)

Nana Yaw is the typical teenager…he has a facebook account, his own laptop, loves Gatorade, and likes to watch ESPN (which they do get on TV in Accra). He is VERY well-mannered, soft spoken, and smiles a lot! It will be so much fun to get to know him as his personality is revealed.

I am very nervous to cook for Nana Yaw and his mother! For lunch we had chicken salad sandwiches, Doritos, fruit, and banana bread. Esi loved the sandwiches. We talked a lot about food and I asked her what her favorite American dish is…..and she said she loves the chicken here. I remember Jake saying from his trip that the chicken in Ghana was not as good as it is here, so I will have to remember to make lots of chicken. We are having a big NCAA tournament party here on Friday, and our friend Julian (he is also a coach for All Iowa Attack) offered to cook dinner for everyone. He and Esi planned the menu this morning while he was here and it sounds like he is going to make fried chicken, spaghetti, and something called ‘greens’ which I have never heard of. After they finished planning it out Esi clapped her hands and said she was so excited! I will have to watch Julian make fried chicken so I can learn how to make it!

JJ is on cloud nine right now, strutting around the house and grinning from ear to ear. He LOVES having company over. Last night we were reminding him that Nana Yaw was going to come and stay with us, and he put his hands up in the air and said “Solomon?” (which he actually says ‘som sum’). He was asking when Solomon was coming! It seems like we have been talking about Solomon forever, and now to be having a different person coming before Solomon was probably quite confusing to him! We reminded JJ that we would all be going to Africa to being Solomon home around summer time….we always say it on his terms, 'once it gets warmer out and when we can go swimming'. He just nodded his head and said ‘clock’ and pointed up to the clock. Yep, that day will be here pretty soon! :)

More later!