April 18, 2010

Samuel Jesse Gibbs became ours at 9:30a on Friday, April who knows.... haha. Every day kind of runs together. But HE IS OUR FOREVER SON!!

Quick recap - don't have too long....
1) Sammy's birth-mom was so nervous during court - she wanted him to become ours just as much as we did.

2) We visited his village - just like you picture - the clay huts with grass tops, many people came to greet us - the whole village, his whole family. They were so PROUD that THEIR grandson, great-grandson, son, nephew, etc was now an AMERICAN BOY! We got to spend time with them and were humbled by their generosity and kindness. Before we left - they wanted to give US a gift- from this very poor village, all the grown men were chasing a chicken to give to us (worth almost $30 USD - more than 2 months worth of income for them). It was quite comical watching them all run around trying to catch a chicken - which we HAD to take. I was kind of praying that they wouldn't hand ME the live chicken, but was ready for it. =) (but they didn't - they just put it in the trunk - alive w/ the legs tied...)

3) we had a 20 hr bus ride - those are always fun. We had to change buses unexpectedly half way through and the funny part was, as they were unloading all our luggage, here came over 30 goats (alive) from the luggage bins too - they unloaded them all and reloaded them all into 1 big 15 passenger van after they took out all the seats....maybe it was the lack of sleep, but it was about the funniest thing I've seen in my life.

4) I hit a Ghanaian man - a grown man. During the middle of the night - at one of the scheduled bathroom stops, a group of Ghanaians asked "obruni (white person) is this your child. And I answered yes. This whole time, the response that we have gotten is - "AWWWW, so great, an American boy..." but this time we got - "NO, he's NOT your son. You cannot buy this boy - he is OURS, you can't take him" and then a grown man grabbed Sammy who was in my arms and I decked him... and Jesse just looked stunned that he didn't even have to do anything - I really did beat him to the punch. Then we got right back on the bus (and I cried like a big baby!)

5) We went swimming with our son today - his very first time and he loved it... attachment is going great with all of us now. He is definitely strong willed, but so sweet. And he's sleeping right next to me as I write this. =)

xoxo,
b