Sunday, September 26, 2010

WE ARE HOME!

I have SO MUCH to blog about and share with you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Right now I have about 25 minutes to crank out a quick post and give a victory shout that we are home and all accounted for! All together AT LAST! We had a beautiful and teary-eyed welcoming at the airport when we arrived yesterday, and by 6pm we had rolled into our driveway, ready to have some food and fellowship with family and friends. Justice did awesome on the airplanes, and has adjusted perfectly and easily to coming home. It’s quite apparent that he has been used to so much change, and the transition for him at home has been extremely easy so far because of that. I HAVE SO MANY DETAILS TO SHARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! Right now I just wanted to post a few pictures of our reunion in Ghana, and the excitement of getting to go to the airport with our son!

When we arrived in Ghana we were greeted by Yaw’s family and of course by a little boy with a great big smile who was full of excitement!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Our flight got into Ghana at 7:30am, but Esi told us Justice had been up since 4am because he couldn’t sleep! She said she had heard him rustling around in the house, so she got up, sensed his excitement and said, “Let’s start packing!” So they packed up his stuff at 4am! Justice even arrived at the airport with his bags, all ready to go (and we still had almost 2 days before our flight left for home). :)

Unfortunately, my pictures from Day 1 and some from Day 2 accidently got deleted by a sweet and curious little boy who likes to press buttons on the camera (we learned our lesson the hard way) but lots of good pictures survived. The one I am really missing is the picture I took of Jake and Justice right when we got into the Ghana airport. The smile on Justice’s face just took my breath away! Here is that same smile, going strong on Day 2 of us in Ghana….

I have a few more posts of our time in Ghana that I will do later, for now here are just a few pictures of the night that we got to head to the airport! Oh, it was so exciting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You can’t even imagine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Here we are with Kofi, right before we hopped in the car to head to the airport. Thank you for all your hard work Kofi!

And here is Justice pictured with Yaw's family at the airport right before we checked in. Esi and Nana have a little spot carved out in their hearts for Justice now too. They were so excited for him to start his new life here, but I could tell they were going to miss him a lot! The best thing about them caring for Justice for us the past few months is that they got to experience and understand the beauty of international adoption and Esi now says, "Adoption is SO good!"

And the moment we waited 2 years for.....boarding the flight to head to the United States of America!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In Ghana you get to board the plane outside, so it is such a cool feeling to walk up to the big, huge, plane.

Right before take-off....

Our flight from Ghana to Atlanta was just over 11 hours. Justice did wonderful....we slept for about 7 1/2 hours. In the morning we switched spots so he could look out the window. He was glued to the window for about an hour straight. He kept asking me if we were moving and he kept saying 'the plane is going slow'.


When we got to Atlanta we had to go through customs & immigrations and it took almost 1 hour and 20 minutes. We ended up missing our flight because we didn't give ourselves enough time in between arrival and departure to get through everything.....I have more to post about all that, but it all ended up working out. Here is Justice eating his first American meal (he chose chicken and rice).

And that is all you get for today! I am hoping to post our homecoming pictures sometime tomorrow once I get a chance to sort through them all. For now we are all doing well, and just so excited to finally have our family ALL TOGETHER!

14 comments:

the crawfords said...

Welcome home!!! Great pictures so far! Can't wait to see more!

Caitlin said...

So awesome! I got so excited when I saw you had posted. :) Congrats!!!

Cindy said...

Welcome Home! As a family that just chose to adopt from Ghana I am looking forward to reading more abut your trip.

Renee said...

Welcome home! So happy for everyone and can't wait to hear more :)

Kellie said...

It was SO great seeing you, Jake and Justice this morning. He has such a wonderful smile. Can't wait to hear more about the trip.

The Last Crusade said...

So exciting!!!! LOVE the pictures! Can't wait to hear about your trip!

Dillinger Family said...

I am so excited to hear all about it! WELCOME HOME!!! Beyond happy for your entire family right now.

Nate and Natalie said...

YEAH!!!!!! Welcome home! So excited for you guys and love the pictures, especially Justice's first American meal, classic.

Christy said...

Tears. :) Welcome home, Justice!

Unknown said...

Welcome home, congratulations, and thank you for paving the way!!!

heididh33 said...

YAY!!!

Stoltz Family said...

I am SO happy for you guys! Words can't express the joy I have in my heart for your family:)

Mindy said...

YEAH! Yeah! YEAH!!!!!

Angie said...

wiping my tears...
I am so happy for your family! It is such a privilege to read your story--thanks for sharing it with us.