dickson week

The Dicksons (Stewart, Lorraine and Rebekah) got here the day before Nolan's blessing and then got to stay for the following week. It is always fun to have them and especially fun this time because we get to keep one of them here permanently now! Rebekah will be a freshman at BYU and we are super excited to have her close by and get to see her way more often. We did lots of fun things over the course of the week, including:

-Spending time at BYU with Bekah and in her cute new dorm room.

 -Went to a little party at Bailey's to find out that Mike and Jenna are having a girl! Super excited for them. 

-The boys went on a 22 mile run in preparation for the St. George marathon.

 

-A group also biked the Alpine Loop.

-We went up for an evening to the Owen's gorgeous cabin and enjoyed the beauty and a great meal. 

-We also spent time with Melissa and Jeff and Madison over the week while they were here visiting too. Caitlin and Madison are true BFFs... every time they saw each other they would run up to each other and say "HI!!" and give each other hugs then they would walk around holding hands and playing. We are so excited for Melissa to have another little girl to add to the mix.

 

-We also did lots of talking and watched some movies and Caitlin and Nolan had lots of fun having grandma and grandpa at our house. Paul and I took advantage of having them here and got to have a date night and do a few things while they babysat so that was nice too! So glad they could come up!

such a blessing

Nolan's blessing day was August 19th. We decided to do it in our home after church that day and were able to have about 85 (YES 85) of our closest family and friends there to join us. (Good thing we didn't do it at church.. we would have had to set up the overflow!) It was a great evening.

Nolan is such a special little boy. He has the most gentle soul and I feel like he is so understanding. He has brought such a special spirit into our home so it was so fitting to be there in our living room where Paul gave him a beautiful blessing to mark the beginning of his life's journey. He blessed him to be close to his family, and to serve a mission one day and to find a wife to take to the temple. My favorite part of his blessing was when Paul blessed him to grow up to be "bold and powerful." Nolan will be so many things in his life, and I can't wait to watch and see him grow up more. One thing is for sure: he will always be loved by his family.

 

I'm so glad it worked out that we were able to have a great majority of our family here in town. Of course we missed those who weren't. After his blessing we had dinner and everyone sat outside and inside and chatted and all the kids played together and it was a beautiful chaos.

Goulding Family Reunion

you know when you are having so much fun and doing so many things that you simply forget to take pictures? Even though said pictures would have captured so much and probably been really great? That was this reunion. Definitely regretting my lack of pictures, but at least I have the memories.

So we had a 3 day family reunion with my mom's side of the family: her parents, their three kids, and all of their kids, and their kids. There were 27 of us.

Wednesday: My parents and grandparents got into town and that night we met for J Dawgs then went to the Orem Owlz baseball game. Cassie sang the national anthem to kick off the game and did an awesome job. The game was fun to watch, especially since we hadn't been to a baseball game all summer! It was Caitlin and Nolan's first game and they did great. Caitlin kept saying "uh oh!" every time she heard the crack of the bat.

Thursday: All of the adults went to the Mount Timpanogos temple together that night and it was lovely. We had some family names that we attended the temple for which always makes it a little more personally meaningful (I think). Afterward everyone came to our house for ice cream.

*sidenote: Caitlin got her stitches out Thursday morning after the 5 day period. She did amazing. She just laid with her head on my lap so still and quietly. It was such an answer to prayers and her lip healed very nicely. I can't really even see a scar.

Friday: We had a family boating day at Jordanelle. The weather was beautiful. We rented a boat and a jet ski and had lotds of fun. We had food and chairs to sit on the shore and then took turns going on the boat. We wake surfed and tubed. Caitlin rode on the jet ski and also tubed behind it and went on the boat. She didn't love the jet ski but didn't hate it. She liked riding with Paul on the tube and liked riding on the boat. But she got really worried anytime someone fell into the water behind the boat. She would yell "UH-OH!" until she could see them again. It was a long day but lots of fun.

Saturday: During the day all the girls went to City Creek while some of the guys went golfing. Then that evening we took family pictures and had a nice dinner in a room at Thanksgiving point. We celebrated my grandparent's 55th wedding anniversary with dessert and a movie that I made for them with pictures of how their family has grown over the years.

Families are great. It's fun to see how so many different people share a wonderful bond. I miss being a kid and hanging out with all my cousins every summer. It was fun to have everyone all together since we hadn't done that for so long. I love my grandparents so much and the family they created.

8 stitches

Our poor little Caitlin. Our poor little rough-and-tumble girl. On Saturday we had a fun morning going swimming and getting lunch at a new apartment complex in Provo with the Turnbulls that our friends' company built and then that afternoon we decided to go to City Creek in Salt Lake. We had been there about 15 minutes and there we were in Nordstrom with Paul trying on some suit jackets, Nolan in his car seat and Caitlin doing her usual thing: just running around. She had been running back and forth to the mirror to look at herself and then she came back to me and then took off towards some jackets about 5 feet away from us. She tripped on the carpet and fell face first into the rack. Instead of hopping back up like usual, she stayed down and was crying. I went over to help her up and when I turned her around all I saw was blood. I grabbed my wipes and started cleaning her face off. She had a bad cut right underneath her lip and there was a lot of blood. We couldn't really tell how bad the cut was but it was about 1/2 inch long and looked pretty deep. We left the store and got a cup of ice and then contacted the mall medic. He gave us an ice pack and said that he thought she would need stitches. She wasn't crying hysterically but she was still whimpering and having a hard time calming down and catching her breath. We went to our car and started trying to decide where to take her. Since the bleeding had stopped and she was mostly calm we decided we could probably make it to the instacare by our house in Highland. We distracted her with singing songs and talking on the phone on the way. She didn't want the ice pack on at all but she did eat some of the ice. (P.S. meanwhile, we had gotten a parking ticket on our car when we came back out, and Nolan was NOT happy in his car seat, so needless to say Paul and I were totally stressing) When we got to the instacare we found that it had closed at 5.. it was 6:05. So, we packed up again and went to the instacare in Orem. We still just weren't sure how bad the cut was and thought we just wanted to get it looked at and maybe glued. (Shows how much Paul and I know about cuts) When we to Orem we had to wait a little while and then they looked at it and said she would for sure need stitches but that they didn't have the right sedation equipment there and we would need to take her to the hospital. Back in the car. Drove back to American Fork hospital to the ER. They got us going right away and checked in. We were taken back to our little room and met the doctor. Caitlin was doing great at this point, calmed down but still wary of the situation and sensitive. At this point, Mike and Jenna were able to come and pick up Nolan to watch him while we were with Caitlin (I could only handle attending to one kid while in the ER thank you very much). The doctor was an older man and very nice. He said that they see these kind of things everyday, in fact this would be his third stitches of the day. But he was also very validating and understanding of our concerns and the scariness of the situation. He said that what he thought had happened was that it was a "through and through" meaning that her teeth had cut all the way from the inside through her lip. He wanted to put in an IV and sedate her then stitch her up. So then came the worst part: trying to get the IV in her little veins. Not an easy task because #1 she's little and #2 when the body is in trauma veins clench up and get even smaller and tighter and harder to puncture... and Caitlin was definitely in trauma and not relaxed at all during this part. Paul had to lay with her on the bed and hold her body down while I stood above him and tried to sing songs and talk to her and do anything I could to get her to calm down and stop crying. She didn't stop. She was screaming through all three (yes.. THREE) tries to get the IV in. Once on one arm, once on the other and finally ending by her hand where he got it. Paul was literally giving threatening death looks to the tech on the second try when he almost got it but then lost it and was moving the needle around in her arm. The guy was sweating bullets. Finally they hooked it all up and then wrapped her arm with an ace bandage so she wouldn't touch it. She calmed down a tiny bit when that was done. Then once the doctor and respiratory doctor were there they gave her the sleeping drug (don't even know what it's called) through the IV and she fell asleep. She could still flinch and spasm at first but then after a few minutes was out. The doctor got in there and showed us the inside of her lip where we could see a small puncture and then 2 cuts where her teeth had entered her bottom lip from the inside. So painful!! And to think we weren't even sure if we needed to take her. It rook him about 10 agonizing minutes to sew her up, while we watched and just looked at her little body laying on the big bed. Everyone was saying that she was doing great and that it was coming back together really nicely and that the scarring would be minimal and not noticeable. He did 8 stitches just across the outside and then they started getting her ready to wake back up. While she was still mostly sedated they gave us all the post-care instructions and told us to come back in 5 days to get the stitches out. Then we waited for her to wake up. She was super asleep but then all of a sudden her eyes just popped open and she was awake and sitting up and wanting the bandage of her arms and wanting to wash her hands in the sink and wanting to go and see Nolan. We had to wait for our nurse but when he came he said she seemed good to go and got all her stuff off and we were able to leave. We brought her home and she was happy to see Mike and Jenna and Nolan and we watched "Beast" for a little bit and snuggled and then put her to bed.
Seeing your children in pain is an indescribable heartache. No matter what kind of pain it is, from a cold to the stitches to (heaven forbid) other more serious things it is so hard to see their little bodies going through things and seeing them try to cope. I almost lost it a few times. When they were trying to get the IV in and I was just watching her look to the side and say "no! noooo!" and cry I got totally choked up and got tears in my eyes and had to look away. Paul saw and started singing to her for me. We took turns being strong. While the doctor was stitching her up and I was watching I almost lost it again.
That night after putting her and Nolan to bed, we were both completely exhausted.. emotionally and physically. I have lived for 25 years without ever getting stitches or a trip to the emergency room (knock on wood) and here was my little princess, not even two yet, having to go because of a fluke fall. So sad. I am very grateful that it wasn't something more serious and that she was able to receive good medical attention. I feel like we have been so lucky and protected to not have her get hurt seriously before this and for this to not be worse. Hopefully her recovery and having her stitches will go well and everything will be fine.

 

 **The next morning she was pretty much back to her normal happy self. And then she was especially happy when all the neighbor kids brought over this card they made her after finding out what happened.

 

buddies

Caitlin and Nolan are little buddies. Caitlin is still completely obsessed with him. And he actually adores his sissy. Even if he is being a little fussy he will usually calm down whenever she talks to him or holds him or lays next to him. It's really cute how they already share a special connection. She is almost always super sweet with him and when she talks to him she gets this really high voice and says "hiiiiii" and then squeals as she tickles him or touches him. She almost always just calls him "baby" but will sometimes call him "nonan".

 They love their baths together. We wash Caitlin first and let her play then wen she's about done she scoots to the back and we put Nolan in his seat and wash him. She likes to help wash his hair.

 Caitlin is obsessed with Nolan's binky. She sometimes puts it in her mouth but mostly she just likes taking it out of his and sometimes putting it back in. Poor Nolan.. so annoying. He's usually really patient about it.

Caitlin likes for Nolan to go "nigh nigh" with her. So a lot of times I'll lay him next to her when I'm putting her down for a nap or bedtime to read stories and sing songs together.. but then he has to go to his own bed. But she always takes our her binky and says "tisses" before he leaves so she can kiss him goodnight before he goes.

summer days

I feel like during summer all the days run together into a big hot mess and then all of a sudden summer is almost over! We've had fun lately making the most of it, with only enough time to pictures from my phone.

Caitlin has been playing with our fun neighborhood kids a lot. They are so cute with her. We have a bunch of kids that live in the court across from us and everyone just goes from one house to another and plays outside. Its so fun... I love where we live. The kids just come knock on the door and ask if Caitlin can play and then off she goes happy as a clam. The other day we had 6-8 kids playing in our backyard and then came inside for cookies and watching Lion King and I loved it. Another day they all came over and painted Caitlin's toenails and fingernails in our front lawn. Another night she went out in her frog Jammie's to play and cute little Maddie saw her jammies and was so excited because she had the same ones so she had to go change into them right away and be twins with her. Caitlin just adores all of them.

 Tuesday (8.7) we went to the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point with some of the Young Women from church. Caitlin loved hanging out with all her favorite babysitters and going around looking at the interesting animals. I definitely need to brush up on my dinosaur knowledge before my kids get older. It was a fun activity.

Wednesday (8.8) we decided to head back to Thanksgiving Point and went to the petting zoo with Cassie. Caitlin liked looking at the cows and horses and touching the goats through the fence. She also took her very first pony ride and LOVED it. She wasn't scared at all and go right up on her little tiny pony and held on to the saddle the whole time. Cassie walked along side while Nolan and I watched from outside the fence. Caitlin was so happy and just walked along and a few times would look down and pat her little horse. When the stopped and it was time to get off she didn't want to but then she nicely said bye bye to her horsey. A couple of the horses made that like huffing/breathing sound that they make and it scared her a little then i told her to say "bless you" because they were just sneezing and so she started saying bless you to every horse and she thought it was the funniest thing. Afterward she kept talking about her "wide" on the horse and that she told them "bessuu".

   

A few more things that we are pretty serious about this summer:

 #1: Dress ups. #2: watching the Olympics #3: our bucketload of tomatoes we are getting from our garden #4: Our little climber dominates the jungle gym. All by herself.

And Nolan is just cute.

Nolan: 2 months

On August 6th, Nolan turned 2 months old! I feel like he is growing up so fast! We all love him to pieces and he fits in perfectly to our family. He is still such a dream baby, I feel so lucky. He is still so patient and sweet and he is kind of a mama's boy. He still does fine going to other people but he always is SO good for me. We are all obsessed and loving having him as a part of our family.
Eats: 
-6 times a day, 5 ounces each time. He is completely bottle-fed now for a few reasons but mainly because he was getting really bad tummy aches and discomfort with my milk. Not sure exactly what was the cause, and it was a really hard decision for me to decide whether or not to continue breast feeding but ever since switching him to sensitive formula he has improved immensely. Hardly any tummy aches and very little spitting up.  We also usually add gripe water to his bottles.
-Whenever he drinks his bottle he always holds his hands like this:

-He's definitely a chunky one which I LOVE. He is wearing mostly all 3 month size clothes. He has some clothes that he wore only once: his first and last time because they were too small. case in point: We put him in this little church shirt for the first time on Sunday and he was showing belly the whole time:

Sleeps: 
-He is still a great sleeper. I actually love the schedule we are on right now so hopefully it will stay like this (unless of course he wants to start sleeping through the night.. I would take that!) We feed him and put him to bed around 9 pm and then he will sleep until anywhere between 3-5am when he eats again and then he sleeps til early morning between 7-8 and eats again and then he will go back to sleep until around 11 for a morning nap. This is nice because then I can get Caitlin up and going and start the day with her and then she gets so excited to go get Nolan up in the morning. He stays up for awhile and then goes back down for a log afternoon nap at the same time as Caitlin. Then we keep him up for the evening before he goes to bed.
-I'm doing pretty well with not being too tired after getting up during the night but I usually have like one day a week that it catches up to me and I get super tired. Nolan is very good at night though.. He usually goes right back to sleep after he eats and sometimes he will even lay in his crib and fall asleep on his own.
-He snores loud when he sleeps.

-He always sleeps in his crib now, for naps and bedtime.
-He doesn't care if he is swaddled or not, in fact he likes having his arms up but he sleeps better if they are swaddled in so we usually swaddle him with his legs out (because he kicks them out anyways) and arms down inside. It looks funny but it's effective.


Play:
-He can push off with his feet really hard. He is also good at holding his head up and doing a "superman" position when laying on his tummy.
-Doesn't mind tummy time for a little while then he gets sick of it.
-Still really likes to arch and also sit up on your lap.

Likes:
-His bath. I usually put him in the tub with Caitlin in his seat and he is so relaxed and so good. He totally calms down once he's in there and just enjoys it.
-Smiling. He started giving really good smiles around 5 weeks and he has the cutest little grin. He smiles all the time, and sometimes we'll just look at him and he's grinning for no apparent reason. He's a happy boy.

Dislikes:
-Burping still but he has definitely improved.
-(well.. I dislike) baby acne. It's seriously one of the the saddest things when babies get it and we've been battling it the whole last month. Thankfully it's almost gone now. Nothing like stupid red bumps to ruin my handsome baby's perfect chubby cheeks.
-His car seat. I've heard it could link back to his tummy problems and not liking the angle it put him at but he cries whenever he is in it. He's getting a lot better but still not a fan. 

Other: 
-Had some big firsts this month: his first plane ride (he did amazing), his first time away from mom and dad (came way to soon but he did great nonetheless), his first time to meet Grandpa Dickson, Aunt Rebekah, and the Mead family (he now has met all his immediate family).
-Also wanted to note that his hair seems to be getting a little lighter but his eyes are still blue and getting more blue everyday so I'm crossing my fingers they stay this color!
-Stats (taken on 8.14) weight: 13.84 lbs. (79%) length: 23.8 inches (76%) head circumference: 15.75 inches (71%)

anniversary

We celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary this year and celebrate we did! Rather than limiting ourselves to only July 27th, we basically chalked up every fun and extravagant adventure to an anniversary celebration. So, our 5th anniversary included: a trip to Ghana, side trips in New York and New Jersey and Texas, and then once we were back we went to see the Batman movie (on the actual day) and the day after got a couples massage and sushi! Excellent! (If anyone is wondering, we decided to count New Jersey as our "state" for this year, in keeping with our tradition).

In all seriousness, 5 years is a big milestone, but not one that was hard to get to. I absolutely love being married to Paul. He makes everyday fun. He is my best friend and my greatest supporter and I love everything about him. We had a long talk about how amazing our life is and how blessed we are and how we could have never even imagined 5 years ago where we would be today. Then we talked about where we thought we would be 5 years from now. Life is so amazing how it takes all its twists and turns and even though it's not always easy I feel so incredibly blessed to have Paul as my partner through it. Sometimes it feels like we have been married forever and sometimes it feels like it just happened yesterday. Where does time go? Glad I have forever.

Ghana (part 2)

For the second half of our trip we met up with a bigger group that was there with the Forever Young Foundation (Bob Gay and Steve Young's charity). The singer Alex Boye was also there as part of the group. We spent the rest of our time with them doing humanitarian work and traveling around a little more. The group was pretty diverse and everyone was really nice.
WEDNESDAY:
-We drove to another village, Nkawkaw (pronounced: en-coco). Taylor served during his mission here and this is where African Equity (the charity that Paul and Taylor are on the board of) owns the school. They bought it 3 years ago and now were doing some additional work on it.  We helped mostly finish painting the school and it looks awesome. It's bright green and yellow and all the kids were there playing and being outside. The kids were all really energetic and super outgoing. Apparently there wasn't even school that day but they had all come anyways in their uniforms to be with us. They all wanted to talk to us and we even got them to help paint by the end! During dinner that evening all the lights went off. When the power grid for the area gets overused all the electricity in the whole town goes off and you never know when it will go back on-- maybe an hour maybe a day. The boys said this used to happen at least once a week during their mission. The hotel we were staying at had a generator they tried to turn on for us but we all left to go to a fireside that had been set up by the local members.
-It got HOT this day. I was so surprised to find that Africa was not as hot as i thought it would be, but only because we went during "the rainy season" so it was not as hot but still super humid.
-When we got to the church we found all the members there in the darkness, singing hymns using their flashlights. I admired their dedication. They found a few more lights to use and it got to be semi light in there for us to start. The fireside was nice,  and the main lights stayed off the whole time but I liked what one of the speakers said: he talked about when he was little growing up and the power went out all the kids would meet under a big tree and play games by the light of the moon so he said he was thankful for the power outage because it reminded him of good times playing. He said we should always be grateful for what comes to us in life and I thought this was such a poignant story: this man in Ghana that has far less in his regular life (let alone no light) than I have ever had is teaching me to be grateful for even less.
- One of the big lessons I that was re-iterated to me on this trip is something that I am constantly working on: learning to savor the moment and enjoy pieces of life and recognize the special moments no matter how mundane. We all get so caught up with things so it's easy to let things pass by on our search for the next moment but it's important to savor.




THURSDAY:
-We attended a  "celebration" hosted by the school to thank us for our work. They had some cultural presentations. They had songs and some dances with drummers. All the moves in their dancing are different symbols to mean something so they tell a story. One boy came out and did a dance and turns out the moves meant he was asking for money so sure enough a few people got out of their seats and gave him some!
-They had also asked Alex to do a song and he asked all of us volunteers to come up with him and it was one of my favorite moments of the trip. He sang R. Kelly's "world's greatest" (which I LOVE to begin with) and we all clapped and danced and started bringing the kids up and dancing with them. We were all so happy and having so much fun I loved it.
-We headed back to Accra to go to the Mission Reunion that the boys had set up but because of traffic we got to the mission reunion 2 hours late. The people there are seriously the most patient people ever.. They all just stayed and waited and sang hymns and then when everyone was settled we started. A few missionaries bore their testimony and told a few mission stories and then Sister Gay spoke and then Pres Gay. He told a few really touching stories from people he had visited with as a general authority and then he told a story from the mission: He and Sister Gay were traveling to a town called Bo in Sierra Leone and the road was horrible and they got in a car accident in which their car rolled 3 times. When he stopped rolling thankfully everyone was still alive but the window glass had shattered on Pres. Gay and he looked down to find his arm with a huge open cut and bleeding a ton. They made a tourniquet to try to tame the bleeding and then they had to wait for the next car to pass because they were completely in the middle of nowhere. A car came after about 10 minutes and gave them a ride to Bo. At the small hospital, they said they could not give him stitches because it was such an open wound but they could at least try to disinfect it. They took him into the "operating theater" (as they call it) and the doctor started disinfecting with shots. It was at this point that he noticed his missionary tag and said "Are you from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?" he said "Yes I am" "Well then can I tell you a story?" "Yes" He told him that awhile ago, an elderly couple from that church came to this hospital and donated all of these supplies to us. He said that he wouldn't have had the gauze or bandages or disinfectant to treat him with if not for them. President Gay said that story reminds him that everything he has in his life came through the service of someone else and the scar on his arm is his constant reminder to always serve and bless other people's lives.
-After the mission reunion we were able to meet up with Anderson Oule and his wife Justine. What a beautiful couple. They are from Ivory Coast and they were the couple that helped keep Paul alive on his mission during the war there. They would bring them food and helped them escape. Such sweet people. When they heard Paul was coming back they knew they had to come see him so they traveled 9 hours by bus just to come spend the afternoon with us. They were so sweet and special and Paul was so happy to see them. It was a neat reunion and one that we won't soon forget. Paul is forever grateful to them.
-Alex Boye did his concert that night and it was rockin! Alex did a great job of talking to the people and making jokes and obviously singing. Everyone loved it! He really is an amazing singer and so energetic all the time. He is a great person it was super fun to get to know him.

FRIDAY:
-We drove to Cape Coast in the group vans. Cape Coast is 100% a fishing village. The smell of fish permeates the air and there are nets and boats and fish everywhere. Their fish nets are amazing: each one is intricately hand sewn and they are huge. All the people dry their nets out over the roof of their house and there are boats everywhere with bright colored flags, it truly is SO beautiful seeing the sights and colors
-First we went on a Canopy walkover the rainforest which was really cool. The bridges were made of rickety wood and suspended high in the air so it was pretty exciting to say the least. And then of course Paul and Taylor had to spice things up by making the group do things like going across backwards with our eyes closed, etc. The scenery was beautiful though, when I wasn't performing with my eyes closed.
-We then drove to the Cape Town slave castle. There are three main slave castles and they are where basically all of the slaves that came from Africa were brought and kept before being shipped to America or parts of Europe. It is a huge white-washed building and actually very beautiful in architecture. It is so sad that a building this pretty could have housed and facilitated such a horrible thing. We took a group tour through and saw the men's and women's dungeons and the tunnels they would take them out through ending with the "door of no return". We also saw where the governor of the castle lived, and then went into the cell and saw the marks made on the floor by chains and it was pitch dark and so stifling hot. They would starve people in there until they died. It was a solemn experience to see slavery from this perspective. It was interesting to think of a slave's journey before even getting on a boat... the whites were finding blacks to work with them to capture slaves. The blacks were turning on their own people and tribes were fighting with one another and trading humans for gold and alcohol and other goods. They would hand their own people over to the whites and then the whites would drive the new slaves all the way to the coast and keep them in the castle. It's horrible to think that their life really ended at the point of capture: captive and betrayed by their own people, forced to walk for miles to the castle, then once they were there put into a small room with up to 200 other people and then forced on a boat and then made a slave in their destination. A horrible and humiliating chain of events.
-After the castles we went to lunch at a restaurant and resort area. The restaurant is out on a dock along a river. At one end the shore come up to the patio and there are alligators than come and sit on the shore! So for a small fee they will take you out and you can go and touch the alligators! They even let us feed them! Only in Africa could you get away with a huge liability like that. I wasn't scared to touch it but i did get scared when i was feeding it and it was coming towards me with mouth open.
 

 

 

 

 

 

SATURDAY:
-We stayed at the "Coconut Grove Resort" and it was really pretty: right on the ocean with tons of palm trees and spread out little buildings with the rooms. We woke up Saturday morning knowing it was our last day in Ghana. Our trip was actually the perfect length: we both felt like we got to do everything we wanted and we were ready to come home. 
-We attended the funeral for William Billy Johnson. He was the pioneer and first member/missionary of the church here on Ghana. Funerals are a very big deal in Ghana and there are a lot of interesting customs and practices that are involved. Missy and I wore our African outfits that Ado's friend made for us. She took our measurements on Sunday and had them made 3 days later! They fit almost perfectly and are so pretty!
-We stayed for only part of the funeral as it was going very long and the sound system unfortunately wasn't working well and we had to get all the way back to Accra for our flight. It took forever to drive back because of traffic and in all the stress of packing and getting ready I had really quickly emptied the backpack that Paul had been using over there to give to Wama and we realized when we got to the airport, now an hour + later that I had accidentally left his phone in the backpack! We had no way of getting a hold of Wama either because we had given back the Ghanaian phone we had been using so Paul had to borrow a phone from a random security guard and called Wama and told him to get off the bus he was on and find the quickest way back to the airport. We waited anxiously for about 40 minutes for him to arrive before we could go through customs and security. We tried calling him along the way and it was super windy and noisy so we couldn't hear him and when he showed up at the airport we found out why: he had found a guy riding a motor bike and offered to pay him if he would take him as fast as he could to the airport! It was hilarious when he pulled up with this random guy with the two of them on the bike!

We boarded our flight a little while later and flew away from Ghana. I have absolutely no regrets about going on the trip and I am so thankful for the opportunity that we had to go. I'm so thankful that Paul and I were able to spend so much time together and make so many memories and that know I more fully understand this important part of his life. I definitely have a new perspective on some things and a deeper appreciation and gratitude for lots of things. The people of Ghana really taught me a lot. I loved our trip so much. I loved all the things we got to do and the people we met. It was priceless.