Sweet Victory!!!

There aren't really words to describe what we feel right now. I will let the pictures do the talking for me. It is just impossible to explain what it is like to have precious gifts from someone else be handed to you with the agreement that you take care of them from now til forever.

We arrived at the airport and had no problems getting through customs, so that was a huge answered prayer. HollyAnn and David were waiting for us and whisked us off to the van. There was a little boy standing outside of the van with five dozen eggs balanced on the top of his head that he was selling. There were men knocking on the windows with carvings to be sold. There were people everywhere selling everything and men trying to grab our bags so that they could carry them for a tip. It was crazy. We traveled to the hotel with a driver that delivered us safely but was nothing like I had ever experienced. There are not specific sides of the road to drive upon. It is whoever is going the fastest and has the loudest horn wins. Liberia is amazing and beautiful. It is filthy and stinky. There are horns blaring outside our hotel window and we can hear people yelling. Everyone is very polite and eager to help, but they are so hard to understand. I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.

When HollyAnn brought the kids up to our room, Meckie had just woken up. He was a little timid at first but went right to Clint. Maggie just came to me like she had known me forever. Baby E was at Pastor Wesley's house, so HollyAnn went to get him. We brought the kids into the room and just looked at them and marveled at where we are and how far we had to come. They are absolutely amazing. We got out some toys and gifts that we brought, but Meckie wasn't interested much. We played and looked at books and fed baby dolls and took pictures. Maggie loves to look at the screen after the picture is snapped. I took one of the two of us and asked her who it was. She said "Magdalene and MaMa". My heart jumped out of my chest! Then we took a pic of Meckie and Clint and she said "That is Meckie and PaPa". Tears tears tears! Morris came next and that was a sweet introduction. He said he is very proud to be part of our family. Then HollyAnn arrived with Baby E amongst a lot of chaos. Clint had been helping Meckie in the bathroom and sat on the toilet seat and the whole thing broke and fell in. That was a quick $30 to the front desk. Elijah was half asleep and when I took him he just laid his head on my shoulder. Anyone else that tried to take him made him cry. He was not fond of Clint, but seemed to be comfortable with Morris a little more. He is teeny tiny and has very little muscle tone. He is 16 months old and can sort of sit up and kind of frog crawls. I put the size two diapers on him and they are big. He will be wearing 9 month clothes for a while until we can fill him out a bit. Meckie is small too and wears about a 2t, and Miss Mag is in a 4t. It won't be any time until they are all filled out.

After a dinner of fried rice from across the street, everyone got into their new pj's and climbed in bed. Maggie wants me to sleep with her, and Meckie wouldn't even get onto the bed without Clint getting in first. Elijah went to sleep beside Maggie while drinking his bottle. He woke up a few minutes ago and played with a toy and then went right back to sleep. I think I will just stay up all night and stare at them. I might wake up and discover that this was all a dream!

I hope everyone back home is good. It is almost 10:00pm here and I still need to unpack and do paperwork for our Embassy appointment tomorrow. We love you all and will update again tomorrow. Thank you for checking in on us and praying for us. God is so good!