Made it to Brussels

We arrived in Brussels safely this morning. Annie is doing well with Auntie Amber or as she's been calling her Daddy Amber. Here is a picture of her working on a calendar we gave her to keep track of the days we'd be gone. We plan to do some sight seeing today and then on to Africa tomorrow morning. We are getting anxious.

Pioneer Press story

The St. Paul Pioneer Press wrote an article that appeared in this morning's newspaper. It's very nice and we're very appreciated to the PP for this article.WCCO's Turner travels to Liberiato fulfill a promiseBY AMY CARLSON GUSTAFSON Pioneer PressArticle Last Updated: 06/28/2007 06:36:49 PM CDTThis week, Sue Turner will make good on a promise she made to herself more than a decade ago.

The Liberian Struggle: A Country Torn ApartSue TurnerReporting(WCCO) The Twin Cities has the largest population of Liberian immigrants in the country. However, they come from a country ripped apart by war, struggling with basic needs such as water and electricity. Thousands of them are scheduled to be deported this fall.When Georgette Gray came to the U.S. ten years ago, she thought everyone

We're STILL HERE...Lightening DOES strike twice

Well, they say nothing worth doing is easy. We've been waiting for two years for this day, so you can imagine our level of disappointment. We arrived 1hr 15min before our flight was scheduled to leave...but due to American Airlines' incompetence, we still were not able to make our flight. We're going to go out to dinner together, something we don't get to do very often anyway...and try to

On Our Way

We're off. We can't believe it. Annie got to Oklahoma City safely (long story short, Scott missed his flight, every flight was booked he had to drive her to Kansas City to meet his folks half way, Amber came to OK today to get her, Thank you Richardsons and Amber for doing all that!)The next time we post, the pictures will NOT be of us!! Stay tuned, the real journey is just beginning! HOORAY!

YouTube Videos

We will be doing our best to upload some video to the blog while we're gone. But we will put all of our videos on our newly created YouTube account. You can find us athttp://www.youtube.com/liberiankids

A & E's Room Ready to Go

We finally finished it! This is A & E's new room. What's that you say? The rest of the house, packing???? Uh, yea...it's not like we're leaving Thursday or anything.

All About Annie

Today we celebrated Annie's birthday. Her actual b-day is "July 1st in the summer" (as she puts it) but we'll be in Africa on the actual day. We had a blast at ValleyFair in Shakopee, MN.

Still Working on the Room

I know we are taking forever. But Scott ended up painting it because he said it was too blah compared to Annie's bright room so we painted it almost the same colors as Annie's room, blue on bottom, yellow on top and today got a safari border we'll put up. I'm very proud of these wood letters I made, crafty for me ey? They will go over the kids beds. Hopefully we'll have pictures of the

Franchising in Africa that Saves Lives

Check this out: some guys in MN started a franchise in 2000 that offers Malaria medication to the people in Kenya. Here is a piece PBS did on it, it's about 25 minutes long.http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/321/index.html

Letter from Senator Coleman

I am working on a preview story for WCCO about all the Liberian immigrants in the Twin Cities on Temporary Relief Protective Status. That means people who have been here for more than ten years will be deported on October 1st. They will be going back to an unemployment rate of more than 80%. Scott wrote to US Senator Norm Coleman (R-MN) about this and this is the response he got: Dear

We Leave For Liberia

One Week From Today! We received an e-mail today with the latest heights and weights of our children and have learned their last name is Davis, which we will now keep as both their middle names.EMMANUEL DAVIS 2FT 11IN 32 POUNDSAlso check out the spelling of Abigail, good thing I didn't have anything with her name on it, although we are putting an A over her bed and an E over Emmanuel's bedABEGAL

The latest on Liberia from Cheryl

ABIGAIL & EMMANUEL - everything is ready for their family to arrive. The Embassy has completed their field investigation and a room has been reserved at the Royal Hotel.ELECTRICITY - there is a possibility that the area were our foster home is located may have electricity by the end of the summer.WEATHER - it is reported to be rainy and cold although I don't think it is a cold like the average

Annie Time

I am so excited to go to Liberia and add to our family, but I must admit, I know I'm going to miss the pickle terribly. We've been trying to spend special time with Annie before she has to share us! We are sad we will be away on her 3rd birthday but have decided to have an Annie Day the Sunday before we leave which will be her pretend birthday. We plan to go to an amusement park and spend the

Positive News Story Coming to a TV Station Near You!

A few posts back I wrote about a little 9 month old boy named Emmanuel (the name Emmanuel in Liberia must be like John here) who lives in Liberia but is suffering terribly because he was born without an anus. It looks like everything is coming together for him to come to Minnesota for surgery. Here is the letter I received from the surgeon today. I plan to follow his story and hopefully meet

We Leave for Liberia...

Two Weeks from TodayWhat one mom who traveled for her daughter in December wrote me today:"The anticipation of going and meeting your children is so special, and that first day when you meet is indescribable. I couldn't sleep all night, I was so excited! Your children are very, very special."We are still working on the house, the guest room is ready. Everything else is still a process.

Final Travel Arrangements Made

From Brussels to Liberia we have a stop in Dakar. Dakar is a city in Senegal about three countries north of Liberia, also very small. AMERICAN AIRLINES28JUNDEPART MINNEAPOLIS AT 1:35PARRIVE CHICAGO AT 2:55PFLIGHT AA 1096 AMERICAN AIRLINES28JUNDEPART CHICAGO AT 4:30PARRIVE BRUSSELS AT 7:40AFLIGHT AA 88BRUSSELS AIRLINES29JUNDEPART BRUSSELS AT 10:40A--STOP IN DAKAR--ARRIVE

Our Kids Are Ready!

We received word today, everything is complete on Abigail and Emmanuel's adoption! We will go ahead and purchase the tickets and we are good to go, three weeks from tomorrow.Also we learned today, almost everyone in Liberia excepts American Money. They don't however accept travelers checks or credit card, that's a bummer!I had an exceptional lunch today with a woman named Georgette. She was born

Getting the taste of America

I asked my other Mom friends what to give the kids to eat when they come home from Liberia. Here are some of their ideas:The bottom line is, they like their food hot, so when I cooked I just provided hot peppers for her to add to her food. particularly liked soups and stews, along with rice, to which she added her own pepper. Beef and chicken cooked any way are also favorites. was not used to

The choir from Zimbabwe

We were in Oklahoma over the weekend and the choir from the Methodist sponsored African University in Zimbabwe (southeast Africa) just happened to be singing at Arthur and Charlene's church Sunday. They were FABULOUS. Their accent reminded me so much of the Liberian one. They had great rhythm too! We had fun celebrating with Scott's parents who had their