Father Abraham Wunbiyeli

Today Mary Clare and I attended an ordination in Yendi, Ghana.  It was so incredible!!  I just wanted to share with you some of the really special parts... although having said that, it is the Sacrament of Holy Orders, the whole thing is special!

I have only attended one other ordination, that of my brother, Father Mark Noonan.  On December 1, 2007, my brother became a priest in a beautiful and richly symbolic ceremony at St. Joseph's Cathedral in Buffalo, NY.  It was a completely packed church, filled with family and friends, and it was so amazing to be a part of it.

Today, we were not a part of the ceremony.  We really were ordination crashers, although we did get a last minute invitation from the Bishop, Most Rev. Vincent Sowah Boi-Nai, SVD, Bishop of Yendi.
There had to be at least 800 people there.  Mary Clare and I were privileged to be able to sit with the priests on the side of the alter, so we were able to see everything. 

There ceremony took place outside in the home parish of Fr. Abraham.  It was a huge, massive plot of land with the alter at one end of a field, with the priests and religious, and then the guests were seated in a huge circle with lots of space in the center.  The family of Father Abraham was directly across from the alter, across the field.

The African music was so energetic and captivating.  The beats and the movement, all giving glory to God, so beautiful.  I have to say that I love church songs.  I am not a good singer, and I didn't always think singing was an essential part of the mass, but it really is, and we Buffalo Catholics can learn a lot from our African brothers and sisters in Christ.  The music just filled me up, top to bottom, entered my soul and instead of being made to feel an outsider, I felt welcomed and encouraged to join in the joy.

After the opening blessing and then Deacon Abraham was called forward, a cantor was at the podium and sang the first verse of "Here I am, Lord" and Deacon Abraham was in his family's seating area, with his mom and dad on either side of him.  Then he sang the refrain and the three of them stepped closer to the alter.  They stopped for the second and third verses, then moved forward when Deacon Abraham sang the refrain.  By the end of the song, they were at the alter.  It was so beautiful.

The elements of a Catholic ordination were all there... the laying on the ground by the candidate for ordination, the blessing then congratulating of all the priests, etc., but it was "spiced up" with African traditional dances and music.  After the second reading, a group of dancers brought up the lectionary from which the Gospel was read.  Wow!!  It was like being in a movie!!!  It was all so tribal and authentic.  And for the collection, the choir sang this amazing song, and literally everyone got out of their seats and danced to the center of the field to make their donation.  It was like it was planned and everyone had the same dance instructor!!  800 people  singing and dancing in a soulful, joyful rhythm... so amazing!!

Well, it was 4 hours long.  It was a hot and steamy day with 100% sunshine (although we were under a canopy with the priests!!)  But can I just say, from where I was sitting, I saw no one looking at his/her watch, and no one left before the final blessing.  So awesome!

I was so happy to be able to attend such a blessed event.  Father Abraham's card has a quote on it from Ecclesiastes 3:11..."God makes everything beautiful in His own time"

It is a quote I am going to recite to myself each day.  God bless Fr. Abraham today, and all priests.  We are so blessed to have strong, faithful men who live and share their faith with us, who challenge us to grow deeper in our relationship with Christ, and who do everything in their power to help us get to heaven.  At the end of the day, that's the goal.  Blessed be the Lord!!  xoxo

A Day In The Life...

I thought I would give you an example of one of my days here in Ghana.  There can be, and very often is, something happening that disrupts this schedule, but this is my basic day.  Sister Stan is always complaining about Americans and our need to schedule everything... but the more I see of Ghanians and their fly-by-the-seat-of-their-pants kind of lifestyle, I crave my schedule!!

5am... Wake up, personal prayer, get ready for my day
6am... 1/2 hour Eucharistic Adoration
6:30am... morning mass

While we are doing the above, the kids are getting up and being bathed

7am... Serve breakfast to the kids and eat ours (mostly we eat bread and instant coffee for bfast)
8am...Get the kids ready for school: find uniforms and shoes, dress wounds, medicate those who
           need medication, send them off to school
9am - 12pm... right now school is closed so we keep the kids, break them up into groups and
                       teach them with water/bathroom/play breaks, when the kids are in school we can
                       help with housekeeping chores, work on Sister's Christmas cards, tend to our own
                       business (hand washing laundry, cleaning our rooms, planning for evening classes)
                       and we usually use this time to keep a few students back from school to teach them
                       one on one.
12pm... Lunch (a big fiasco!!!)
1pm to 3pm... Siesta!  The children (and most often me included) take a nap.  It takes a while to
                       get them into bed, but once they are there, they pretty much stay... whether they
                       sleep or not is another issue.  I generally cannot keep my eyes open!
3pm... Divine Mercy Chaplet
3:15 - 4:00pm... Play time: football, What Time is it Mr. Fox, etc.
4pm...2nd bathing of the day
5pm... Rosary
5:30pm... Dinner
6:30 - 8pm... Evening Classes ( I teach the preschoolers.  They range in age from 4 to 8 and I have
                 7 students.  Mary Clare teaches the older kids, and she has 8 students.  The rest of the
                 children are either watching a movie or playing in the courtyard.  Usually I finish classes
                 first because of the shorter attention span, so often I sing songs and read stories to the
                 children who don't receive evening classes)
8pm... Night Prayer then off to bed. (and blogging)
Bucket bath, get ready for bed, sleep like the dead.


Now today we had a visit from Asis Bank in Tamale who brought us about 5,000 cedi dollars (Ghana currency) of food, diapers, water and shoes so morning classes were skipped.  Mary Clare and I took care of the special needs children while the rest helped to clean the house to prepare for the visit. Then we practiced songs to sing our guests.  They arrived around 10:30 and stayed until noon, so our whole morning was different than above.

Saturdays and Sundays aren't much different, although no school both days and on Sunday we all go to church at 9:30, and the kids have special clothes just for Sunday.  It takes A LONG TIME to get ready for church!  Sunday is also the day the cook usually has off, so we help Sister prepare the meals for the day too.

Tomorrow Mary Clare and I are going to an ordination!  I cannot wait to see it.  I have heard it will contain certain elements that are specifically African in tradition, like African music and dance.  We were invited to come by the bishop of Yendi, and I am so excited!  We will have to leave to get there by 9:30, and the celebration is about 4 to 5 hours long.  I will be offering the mass for my brother, Fr. Mark Noonan and all the priests in Buffalo.  I will report on it tomorrow, until then...xoxo

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your families!!

One of my favorite holiday traditions happens on Thanksgiving.  It started out as an act of mercy, then turned into a wonderful annual event and it occurs on Thanksgiving in a bowling alley, of all places!!

When my mom and Aunt Donna were just little girls, my mother's father would take the girls bowling on Thanksgiving to allow my grandmother peace in the kitchen while preparing the holiday feast.
They bowled at Allied Lanes on Amherst Street in Buffalo.  As my mom grew, it continued every year, and as my uncles were born, my parents started dating, got married and had tykes of their own, each year on Thanksgiving, the bowling alley would be filled with young and old members of the Burkard and Noonan families.  This very day there will be a fairly large group of Noonan men and children gathering at a local bowling alley to try to get a turkey on Thanksgiving.  This tradition, about 65 years in the making, is thanks to Vincent Burkard and his sweet act of love to his wife, Cecilia, all those years ago.  Bowl a strike for me, guys!!!

This morning I had a special moment with the young children.  I was sitting on the steps outside in the courtyard, and one by one, the children came up to me for a snuggle and a good morning hug.  It was a comforting and loving moment between the children and I.  I am thankful for that little oasis of peace and joy this morning.

I am thankful for bucket baths!!  Never thought I'd say that sentence... but at the end of the day, with all the sun-baked sweat and dirt all over me, there is nothing like the cool sensation of pouring
 cupfuls  of water all over.  If I close my eyes and pour fast, it's almost like being under a waterfall... almost!!!

I am thankful for water.  So basic, yet without it, there is no life.  I am thankful for the people who bring us water each day, and for those working so hard to help us have running water again.  When I get back to civilization, never again will I be able to turn on a tap or faucet without a sincere prayer of thanks for the ease of running water.

I am thankful for all the support I am receiving from a world away.  It may not be that far in miles, but in life and practicality... it is another world away from this one. Thank you for your love, prayers and support.

I am thankful to God for allowing me to experience all of this in Africa.  I am thankful for all the people He has sent into my life who have helped me to get here.  He is awesome! 

I am thankful to my sister, Linda, who knew this day might be hard for me to be here, with my family so far away.  She sent me here with Thanksgiving gum balls... turkey flavored, cranberry sauce flavored and pumpkin pie flavored gum!!  I will let you know if they are any good.  I just hope Mary Clare and I don't turn into pumpkin pies!! (Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory... Violet turns into a blueberry after chewing a piece of gum that is roast beef dinner and blueberry pie flavored!!)

To my family, I wish you the Happiest Thanksgiving!!!  I am with you in spirit and in prayer. xo

Well, it's happened... I have had my first official driven to the point of tears moment.  I know there will be more, but the first one kind of makes you think maybe you don't have what it takes to make it here.

I have written about the Tamale Teaching Hospital before.  But it seems each time I go, for some reason I get all hopeful that this time it's gonna go our way.  (Spoiler alert:  it didn't this time either)

There are many children... many children here in Sang Village who are in very serious need of medical care.  There are a handful of kids who are pretty healthy and just need the basic medical care any parent can give, save emergencies.  They get bumps and bruises, coughs and runny noses, etc.  We are totally able to handle that.

The majority of our children have serious medical needs, whether physical or mental, that are way beyond our meager medical knowledge.  I know what you're thinking... duh, Sarah... that is what doctors and hospitals are for!  And normally, back in the US, I would say, oh yes, that's right.  Let's make appointments for all of our children and help them to get better.  However, I am not in the US, I am in Africa.  That makes all the difference in the world.

I could, and will, tell you about each child's medical needs, but right now I'll stick to the two we took to the hospital today, I mean 3 days ago... I mean 2 days before that.

Ok, so Ajah is 4 years old.  He has a rash or bites of some kind all up and down his arms and legs.  They are extremely itchy.  One he itched so hard that it created a hole in his skin (this happened before we came)  Now the hole is about the size of a penny and about 1/4" crater in his leg.  It oozes and is so painful.  When we clean it, it takes 3 of us, 2 to restrain him and one to clean and cover his wound.  He screams until he is hoarse.  He has been to the hospital all 3 times we've gone, hoping a doctor will see him.

Elizabeth is 10 years old.  She has skeletal problems that cause her to be hunched along her spine and one of her feet has only 4 toes and is rounded.  Elizabeth has a hole in this foot, smaller than Ajah's, probably half the size of his, but deeper.  It doesn't ooze, but it is extremely painful to walk on, and for someone who already has problems walking, the added pain is too much.  Elizabeth has also been to the hospital each time we've gone.

So today, Ajah and Elizabeth had appointments to go see a surgeon at the Tamale Teaching Hospital.  I got up at 5 to get myself ready, then got up the kids, helped to bathe, dress and feed them, and we were on the road to Tamale by about 6:45am.  After the 1 hour 15 min drive there, we waited about 2 hours only to be told that although we had appointments to see the surgeon, he's only seeing people who got their paperwork last night. (which of course, is a "new rule" we didn't know about)

Two weeks ago Wednesday we were told come back on Friday, on Friday we were told come back on Wednesday, on Wednesday we were told we had an appointment to see the surgeon on Tuesday, and today, we were told come back on Thursday.  THIS. IS. A. HOSPITAL. 

Ready for more... that isn't even the most frustrating part.

So, we call Sister Stan to tell her about this new pushing off scheme, and she asks to speak with the nurse.  The nurse refuses to speak with Sister.  So we leave.  These poor kids!

In the parking lot on the way to our car, we see a doctor who stops to talk to us.  He recognizes the workers I am with and the kids, asks how we are, how Sister is.  We tell him about the situation we just faced in the hospital.  He says, oh, that's too bad.  I resigned from this hospital, I just teach here.  I am late for a meeting.  Goodbye, and that is that.  After he leaves, I am told that this doctor I just met, who basically brushed us off, is on the Board of Directors at the orphanage.  He is on the Board of Directors!!!!  He did not even make the tiniest effort to help.  Even though he is resigned from the hospital, he was there!  He knows doctors there!  He should have helped us! 

This sent me over the top.  If he, who intimately knows who we are and our situation, will not help us, who will.  Tears of pain for these kids ran down my face, because I know there are three kids who are supposed to come to the hospital on Thursday, and two next week.  But for what?  To sit for hours to be told to go and come back in two days?  Why is this happening??? 

Are we mutants?  Are these children destined to go through their entire life with only a handful of people in their home country who will care two bits about them?  What gives a hospital the right to, time after time, refuse to help these children in obvious need of professional medical care?

It feels like Ghana has turned it's back on it's own.  I'm not sure what you need to be able to get care here, but it's plain enough to see that whatever it is, we don't have it... and I am told we are not the only ones who receive this treatment from the only large hospital in Northern Ghana.

I didn't want to use this blog as a fundraising tool.  If, by my honest observations and witness to life in the orphanage generated some funds for Sister Stan, that would be amazing, but it wasn't the point of my blogging.  However, I cannot sit silently, seeing the children suffer, and the medical community turn their backs time after time. 

It is one of Sister's goals to build a medical clinic here in Sang.  She has the land needed to build it given to her by the Chief of Sang.  Next on her building agenda was supposed to be a convent, but tonight she decided that the medical clinic must come first.  She has some building supplies already for it, but will need more, then she will need medical supplies and machines for it.

If anyone reading this feels the call to help, it would be so completely, amazingly appreciated!  We need funding for our clinic and prayers for the staff to fill it.  We are in such desperate need of medical care.  We have children with serious mental issues that require good psychiatric care, children in need of physical therapy, children who need medicine, vaccines and good, good medical care.  In  I am begging anyone who will listen.  Please help us!

I know it is a corny, way far out there dream, but I'm shooting for the stars with this one, hoping if we build it, they will come... and I am not wishing for the medical community's version of Shoeless Joe Jackson here, although if Florence Nightengale showed up, I wouldn't tell her to leave!!  But that if we had a clinic here, we'd get doctors, either missionary doctors or doctors from the local communities who would come to work out of our clinic. 

You can donate by going to http://www.sisterstanschildren.org to donate, and request the money be spent on medical needs. 

Please.  We need help.  We are approaching Thanksgiving, Advent, and the Christmas Season.  Coming here always renews my gratitude for all the blessings I have been given in my very blessed life.  Would you consider making a donation to the orphanage this Thanksgiving as a way of renewing your gratitude? 

From the bottom of my heart, I thank you.  And, if the only gift you can afford to give is your prayers, we are in desperate need of those too, and are just as grateful for them!

My tears have dried off my face.  Having reported to you, and having had a good venting session with Mary Clare, I've shaken off my sourness.  But my heart remains heavy for these kids.  Thank you for reading this, for thinking of me, and for caring.  xo

Hearts On Fire... and everything else!!

It's not even the really hot season here in Northern Ghana, and I am already sweating about 10 gallons a day.  It is pretty embarrassing, when no one here really sweats much except some water droplets on their noses.  Sister Stan wanted Mary Clare and I to be in a video she was making for fundraising.  Mary Clare took care of the medical treatment that we do, which is pitifully little since neither of us has medical training, and I talked about the education program we have initiated for the children, including English, reading, math, Religion, and the physical therapy we do for the special need children.  Well, let me tell you, when I was watching the final video that we made, I could barely concentrate on what I was saying because I was focused on the sweat streaming down my face during the interview!!!  Lot of good I did!!

The heat can do a lot of things to mess with us we have found.  I find it difficult to concentrate and Mary Clare and I have both felt the exhaustion from the heat almost consuming, although Mary Clare is having a harder time of it that I am.  It is probably due to our wimpiness of coming from an air-conditioned society.  I remember growing up, and although we did have a pool, the heat was just something you had to adjust to.  Open your windows, let the cross breezes in, play musical windows with your fan until you got the air flow perfect, or just plain get used to it.  But it has been years since I've had to just get used to it.  I was so spoiled, there was even air conditioning in the café kitchen where I worked!!

Here's the positive side... the new house has ceiling fans in each room!!  So, grin and bear it and offer it up, right?

Our hearts are totally on fire for these children and for Sister Stan.  They are all so special, each in his or her own way.  I have been able to take some time and get to know these children on a one on one basis.  I am sure those of you with large families can attest to the fact that as a group, many children become a conglomerate of noise and needs, but individually, each just sparkles with personality and charm, some is harder to find than others... but what a great challenge.  Over the next few days, I hope to share with you the children of The Nazareth Home for God's Children.  Then you too can see why our hearts are on fire for them, and maybe yours will be too!

xoxo

Second Chances

I realize that there is a rule of thumb, that you can't have a second chance at a first impression, however, as the co-author and co-creator of this blog, I feel I have the right to make up my own rules.  I fear I may have given the absolute wrong impression of The Nazareth Home for God's Children, and I would like to clarify myself.

Sister Stan and the workers at The Nazareth Home for God's Children are loving, caring people who are saving lives even as I write this and you read it.  Sister Stan is full of compassion and heart-wrenching devotion to these beautiful gifts from God.  There is no abuse or maltreatment of children at the orphanage.  I am sorry if I gave that impression.

Each culture has it's own identity and way of life that can often be completely different than one's own, shocking even in it's diversity.  The Ghanan people have their own way of doing many things different from mine, including disciplining children.  It is so different from my own that I didn't... don't really know how to proceed in helping the children to behave.  It can be frustrating blending cultures, understandably, and hence my blog from yesterday.

I know I was in Ghana in January, at the old home, but then I was a guest, now I am a worker and it is a completely different experience.  I am being entrenched in all things Ghana and orphanage... it's a lot to take in in just a few days time.  We are involved in each aspect of daily life here and it is fun and exciting, sad and scary, heart-breaking and joyful... a complete mishmash of emotion!!!

I am confident in the days and weeks ahead, Mary Clare and I will find our groove.  We may not use the Ghanan approach to disciplining, but we will be able to help these children I am quite sure.  Sister Stan says that these are not "regular" children.  She is always reminding me that the children here have mental instabilities, physical handicaps, developmental delays and medical issues.  They need security and stability.  They need all the love and patience you can give, and then more.  I am glad she is always reminding me, I need it!

This wonderful woman has dealt with one disappointment after another, yet she keeps pushing on for her children.  She sees each one as a child of God.  I need to follow her example and find the Child Jesus in the heart of each of these children, then act accordingly.  A tough job... it may take me a year to tackle that one!!  But with God's help and Sister Stan's witness, I just may do it!

Please continue to pray for Mary Clare and me!!  We will pray for you!!!  xo

I Am Really Here!!

I have arrived in Ghana. 

Our trip here was not too bad... none of the drama of weather and waiting from last time.  Good thing we went last week, and not this week.  From what I hear, Buffalo is getting a pounding of winter weather.  God is good, Sabu!! (Out of Africa... if you've never seen it, you should... Meryl Streep and Robert Redford, it's a good one!)

I have a lot to catch up on.  First of all, I have a new traveling partner, Mary Clare O'Brien, who is so amazingly strong, resourceful, and always willing to help in any situation.  She has been through some new experiences above and beyond going to Africa, including pretty intense first aid care and aiding a young girl having a grand mal seizure.  I am, every day, more and more impressed with her, and more and more grateful to have her here with me.

The orphanage has a new house!!!  It is quite grand in comparison to their old house.  The children are in a completely fenced-in home with a beautifully huge kitchen, dining hall and play area, they also have a library, play room, plenty of bedrooms and bathrooms, and a beautiful chapel.  Many thanks to all who have helped to get the children into their new home, in particular, I must give thanks to The Soldiers of Christ, a homeschooling high school group, the Children of Mary homeschooling group, all of my family and friends for their help in an amazing and hugely successful fundraiser held at St. Aloysius Gonzaga Church in Buffalo, NY this past May.  There have also been fundraisers and mission appeals all throughout the country, in Chicago, North Carolina, the UP in Michigan, and others, I am quite sure.  I am joyously overwhelmed by the generosity of people who hear about a need, and rise to the occasion to meet that need.  Sister Stan will probably always be in need, but I can assure you of her gratitude and prayers for each person who gives, no matter how much.

I have been thinking about another movie lately, The Mission, starring Robert de Nero and Jeremy Irons.  It takes place in an Indian village where the Catholic Church is attempting to evangelize the people there, and Spaniards are trying to capture the Indians for slaves.  It is another movie I recommend, the music and cinematography alone are well worth the time, but it is on the violent side, so those of you with children may want to preview it first.

Anyways, in the movie there are efforts on both the Church's side and Spain's, to bring their knowledge, traditions and way of life into the village to change the ways of the people there to be more like them.  And for the past couple of days, I have been thinking, am I trying to do the same?  There is a way of disciplining here that Mary Clare and I are finding difficult to participate in here.  It is with threats of beatings, mostly not followed through on because the threat is enough to scare the children into good behavior.  It is done all throughout Africa, this way of getting children to behave.  But now some of the older, mentally challenged children do not understand the subtlety of the threat, and actually hit them.  I keep on thinking of finding other ways...American ways...of helping the children listen, but they do not understand time-out or behavior charts.  I can tell a child to leave the room, escort him out, repeat and repeat, and then a worker comes over and says, "listen, or I will beat you," and the child behaves!!!  Yikes...can I even say that to a child?

Yesterday we were at the hospital... do you remember the horridness of the Tamale Teaching Hospital?  Hours and hours of waiting just to be told to come back tomorrow.  Anyways, we have 2 girls who have severe mental issues, Felicia and Fransisca.  These girls were among the 11 children we brought to the hospital.  Well, the girls couldn't sit for 15 minutes with Mary Clare and I.  We had to constantly restrain them.  They were biting at us, squirming out of our hold, screaming, and here's poor Mary Clare and I trying our best to be patient and loving.  This went on for at least 4 hours!!!!!One would walk away and then drop to the floor screaming if we stopped her, and the other would hit and shout what sounded like very real curses on us.  Seriously, I was totally asking God what He was up to, how much did he think we could take.  And this was happing among a different girl having a seizure, 2 small boys trying to walk off, one boy who was permanently attached to me, and strangers, TONS of strangers looking at us like we were from Mars...and they wanted us to go back!!  Then, Emmanuel, our driver, comes over, threatens the girls, and they sit like angels... OH. MY. EVERY.BAD.WORD!!!!!!! I could not believe it.  Maybe we should find out if they give classes on the disciplining thing!!

But it is not just the behavior of the children, it is teaching them, organizing their world... we think it is good to come to them and "Americanize" them, but what if it's not?  They naturally go to the bathroom in the fields, take baths outside for all the world to see, eat with their fingers, and the list goes on.  I have to believe that what we are doing is for their benefit.  That learning a trade, becoming a part of the "world at large" is good for them.  But I think about that movie, The Mission, and I think, "what's it all for?" (one of my dad's favorite lines) When we leave after 6 months, a year, two or three years even, will we have made a difference for the better in their lives??  I hope so.  But sometimes the thought keeps me up at night.

Did You Ever Have The Feeling...

My grandfather is famous for repeating the saying "Did you ever have the feeling that you wanted to go but still you had the feeling that you wanted to stay?"  I am feeling that right now, on the eve of my return to Ghana.

I have decided to go back to The Nazareth Home for God's Children for one year.

 I feel ready to go.  Back in January, I questioned the path I felt God was asking me to go down. I couldn't see how to accomplish it, what was He really asking me to do?  Maybe I still don't know the endgame, but I do know the next step.  I have given up most of my belongings, a surprisingly easy thing to do for me, and have committed myself to one year in Ghana.  I will be learning how to manage the orphanage, working with the staff and older children to bake things both for the kids and to sell on the roadside to help generate money for the orphanage, teaching and working with the children with special needs and helping Sister Stan with the secretarial work involved with running the orphanage.  I will be busy!!  I am either totally at peace with the thought of being there tomorrow, or I am in denial... either way I am not freaking out!!!

However, I also feel a sadness in going, that I want to stay with the wonderful people I have surrounding me in my life.  My family and friends... it seems so foreign to get up and leave for a year.  This detachment is harder.  Saying good bye to my family and close friends tonight was really difficult.  And the thought of something happening to them while I am away, too far away to be of any help to them, is almost crippling.  So I have that feeling of wanting to go and wanting to stay. 

In the end, it seems like a good place to be, though.  Looking forward to an exciting and challenging journey, and at the same time looking back at the people I love.  But I realize that the people I love support me and have my back so that I can go forward.  Their prayers and love will carry me through the difficult days, which I know I will face.  And they will be with me each day in my prayers for them. 

I am looking forward so much to seeing those beautiful little faces, now a little older, seeing their joy, holding them and loving them.  So, on I go, back to Africa, this time with a new traveling companion, Mary Clare O'Brien, a recent homeschooling high school graduate.  Back to Sister Stan and her children. 

Once again I find myself on the precipice of major change.  It is an exciting place to be!!  Next post will be from Ghana!!!!!  xo