Getting Crafty

My crafty project for the last few months has been this quilt made mostly of Ghanaian batik fabric. It was a big undertaking but since we have a lot of time on our hands during evenings and weekends with not many activities to partake in, I managed to complete it. It felt like a big accomplishment and I'm quite happy with how it turned out. It will be a gift for Alan's boss and his wife who have been great friends of ours and are really like our second family since we're so far away from our own. They'll be relocating to Kenya sometime this summer where it does actually get a little chilly so hopefully they'll get some use out of it.

Eli's First Birthday Festivities

Last weekend we celebrated Eli's 1st birthday Southern style. I made a Southern inspired meal and we had some close friends over for lunch.

Eli had some sense that something different was happening but of course he had no idea it was his birthday, or even what a birthday is! That didn't stop him from enjoying his birthday meal which was BBQ chicken, mac and cheese, creamed corn, biscuits and sweet ice tea.

He ripped up his birthday sign I made for him but I don't think that reflected how he felt about his birthday.

But I think most of all he enjoyed his first bite of sweetness. I made special cupcakes and after initially throwing his on the floor, Eli tasted the buttercream and the rest was history.

Eli opened his first birthday presents which included toy guitar, a Ghanaian shirt and short outfit and a little cart and horse toy.

It was a wonderful day and we'll definitely have great memories from it.

1 Year of Joy

Alan and I have been scanning over old pictures of Eli lately (and obviously by "old" I mean taken in the almost 1 year he's been with us), as we found a few CD's with photos my dad has taken of him when we've all been together. Eli is approaching his 1st birthday this Monday and I guess it's only natural to look back on the year and reflect on how much our lives have changed and how much joy Eli has given us. Here are some pictures that we especially like that reflect the 12 months we've watched him grow.

Almost here!


A few hours old...


1 month...



2 months...


3 months...



4 months...


5 months...


6 months


7 months


8 months


9 months...


10 months...


11 months...



And, next week we get to post his 1 year old photo (he won't look much different than his 11 month one but still...we will mark the occasion with cake all over the face).

Passover

We hosted a little Passover seder at our apartment Friday night. My friend Gilda and I organized it and we had 2 other families whom we did not really know but who we heard wanted to join in on our seder, as well as a friend of Gilda's daughter who is studying here in Ghana. So it was a seder full of new people and full of children! With Eli, we had 5 children which was more kids than our tiny apartment was really meant for plus the 9 adults. We felt a little tight to say the least and it didn't help that the 7 and 10 year old boys were bouncing off the walls!



We managed to get a little seder in thanks to Allan, Gilda's husband, but most of the evening was devoted to tons and tons of food. This was my first time hosting a seder so it was fun to plan the menu which featured these roasted chickens that we roasted on top of half filled Guinness beer cans. Afterwards we realized beer is not kosher for Passover but that certainly didn't stop us from devouring them!





This is Clare, age 3, doing circles around Eli who remained pretty oblivious to her and was much more entertained by the TV which the 7 and 10 year olds insisted remain on and at a loud volume throughout the evening.

Fingerprinting Nightmare

As the previous post indicated, Alan and I are preparing to hear news of our next destination and since a likely option involves moving to another country which will require work permits, Alan and I have started the preparation for applying for one, even though it may not be necessary in the end. We wanted to expedite the process. One of the required documents is a criminal background check through the FBI, you know, just in case we're wanted criminals. This would be the easiest thing in the world if we lived in the country where the FBI is located, but since we live an ocean away where fingerprinting is not even a regular part of law enforcement, it proved a little tricky. But, it just takes some resourcefulness and creativity to make things happen here. The background check process involves submitting an application and a full set of fingerprints to the FBI. But, after learning that the US Embassy here does not do fingerprinting and fearing the thought of even approaching the Ghana Police Department for such a thing, we decided we'd fingerprint ourselves. How hard can it be to stick your finger on an ink pad and press it on a paper? I called the FBI to make sure this was a legit method and they said it was fine but that they didn't recommend it. Now I know why....

Last week, Alan brought an office ink pad home and we printed the online fingerprinting document and we got to fingerprinting. About 2 hours later this is what our counter looked like and I was covered in black ink.



It was extremely difficult to get a perfect set of fingerprints that were not too dark, not smudged, and that were complete rolled fingertip imprints. In fact, it was so difficult and frustrating that a few tears on my part slipped down my face as I imagined us not acquiring the work visa because I could not correctly stamp my fingerprints! So after all of this, I finally got a few replicate pages of fingerprints and submitted about 6 with my application in the hopes that one page would provide a decent set for the FBI. I wrote a little post-it note explaining to the FBI that I live in West Africa where a reliable source for fingerprinting doesn't exist. Hope they understand. Alan had less difficulty but I presume this is because he's had so much fingerprinting experience...you know, being a member of the Colombian drug cartels.