Travel and Full and Final court decree

For those of you who do facebook, you probably already know. I decided to post there first because it was faster and so many people would see it right away. There are pictures on there too.
Emmanuella is ours, another Boarman.

We flew out Sunday morning and sat at the Washington DC airport for 10 hours before boarding our flight to Ghana at 10:44pm. I used to think I could sleep anyway, anywhere, but now I know that is either not true, or I"m getting too old because my back couldn't handle that plane. Little sleep for Glenn or I. But, we landed safely at 1:00pm and followed the crowd. I think I can finally know what it's like to look different. There were very few Caucasian people on that plane but especially in the airport and from then on. I did feel often that I was being starred at. Such a good experience to know what my daughter will feel at times.
I took a trip to the bathroom and then knew I was not in the US for sure. We went through the customs lines and laughed when the only bag they opened contained only food (macaroni, raumen, etc). The guy was laughing! Coming around the corner I recognized our coordinator from pictures and he escorted us to his car. Can I say hot? After loading our bags, he left for just a few seconds and I took advantage and changed from my sweats to shorts very quickly.  Sweaty, hot, dusty, was our ride and it didn't surprise me as great new friends have warned me about all the luxury we have ahead. Our drive wasn't long to the hotel (kinda like a guest house?) and after dropping the bags, we went and got money and loaded the cell phone a recently adopting mom let me borrow.  We were starving by now so our coordinator took us to a close by sit down restaurant. I got my first complete fish. Complete I say....like good ole days camping. At least I didn't take the coordinators advice and get the goat head.  After our diner, and being bitten about 10 times by bugs already, we walked the short distance to the hotel.  Our coordinator had asked us when we got there if we wanted to see our daughter today. Of course! Because she is two hours away, he had been trying to coordinate a driver to bring her since our arrival. At this point (5:30 our time), it wasn't looking so good but he still said it might happen. Otherwise, we would see her in the AM before court. So we got back and kinda just waited. I got online and we organized the room and showered. I told Glenn at this point it was all so weird. We kept looking out the window not sure if I would lay eyes on our daughter for the first time or not. I told Glenn I felt like I was on that TV show (almost made it?) where people are in a foreign country and are smuggling drugs. The atmosphere and many of the scenes seemed the the same, only we were legal! I think because of all the unknowns, and the true blindness of it all.  The people here are nice but don't explain much. They say, "stand by the tree" but don't really tell you why or how long, etc. It's somewhat entertaining just trying to figure out what is next and we were feeling this way already on the first night. Anyway, we were pretty tired so fell asleep by 8:00....that was a mistake! Awoke at 11:00pm and laid there for at least 2 hours. Finally took a half of benedryl and that got me till morning. I wasn't nervous at all, just not tired.
I was definitely not sure how this would go, I mean, what do you say? if she can't understand you? if you try to hug her will she cry??  These things did go through my mind, but I was so at peace about it all (in my stomach and my mind) but then I kept wondering if there was something wrong with me because I wasn't so anxious. Kinda not about peace because I was so at peace if you know what I mean....
We awoke to the alarm and went down to have breakfast. In the middle of breakfast she arrived. Emmanuella is her given name but we will call her something different, just haven't decided yet. She is 4 1/2. They just came on in and she was smiling right away. She had been pretty coaxed in the car she would be meeting us and she looked pretty relaxed. I gave her a hug and she just kept on smiling. We sat her down and offered her some food. How many people get this moment? I'm sitting here thinking, really, this is my new daughter? and now I don't know what to say? So many thoughts and it's all so surreal it was a little awkward the first couple minutes but she seemed fine. Ate some pineapple and as my annoying self always does, got the camera out and started on the pics. She seemed fine with that too though so yeah! 
She was eating her pineapple and then started to cough (I could tell she had a little cold). She got up to walk outside (manners!!) and I had called her back (because I didn't know why she got up) and she came over and I could see the motions that she was going to throw up. I grabbed the napkin close by and was inaugurated with mucous. I'm sure with the long car ride (she had been up since 4am), not feeling well, and then cold mucous on top, she couldn't keep it in. It bonded me right there though. We left shortly after to drive to court. She opened up immediately and became so playful. She called us mommy and daddy right away. Clapping our hands, playing with my phone, singing, etc. I thought...this girl is not shy, I love it! She loved Glenn immediately too and sat on his lap for a little of the ride.
After driving by the Embassy the previous day, I had different expectations of court. But, when I got there I felt like I was back in one of those roots movies. It's just there on the side of the street (you can see the ocean from it though), not much protection and you walk in and wait. We sat down without being told anything (we just followed and sat) and then sat. We waited probably 2+ hours with never knowing what was next. People would come and go, but I never knew why. There was no judge, and didn't seem to be much going on? Emmanuella entertained herself with our paper and pen for a while. She was copying the newspaper letters and counting up to 100! She loves to count and will count everything.  She does know some English but it's not all sentences. Sometimes we think we don't understand her because she is either talking too quietly, or because of her accent. But sometimes she is just talking in sentences in her language and laughing almost knowing we don't have a clue what she is saying. Most people here have a heavy accent that I really have to focus on. They all seem to speak English though, (even the newspaper the people were reading in the court was in English).  She finally told me she wanted some "tea" so the coordinator got up to go get her some. They were gone seconds when the lawyer (we had briefly been introduced) motioned for us to follow him and we went through a door. It was there that the judge sat. The lawyer panicking called the coordinator to get her back here fast! The judge was very nice though. When Emmanuella arrived with her juice the judge asked her why she hadn't greeted her? and smiled. The lawyer read over the petition and said a few other things and then the judge responded with "yes, full and final decree". YAY!!! the whole process with the judge was a few minutes and then we were done.We were then told to stand by a tree (it's cooler) so we did for a bit. I was glad because it gave us a few minutes to take in the environment. There were women selling eggs (in a basket on their heads), bananas, coconut, etc. There was an old dark blue bus (with the solid sides but a small slit at the top so you can breath) with prisoners parked right in front of us. Daddy gave Em (some nerds). She spit them out--I think because she didn't like the crunchy inside. She closed the box and used it as a musical instrument shaking it back and forth.
The rest of the day we've spent hanging out. I wish I could give you all the details but there are simply too many. It has been so much fun. We have definitely fallen in love and when you meet her you will know why. She is full of personality. She loves to sing, she has amazing rhythm, she smiles all the time, and just acts like she's known us forever. She's not afraid to tell us how she feels (pizza was the wrong food to order for dinner--she doesn't like it apparently). We seriously can't imagine it going any smoother (so far, we know....). I was a little worried how we would entertain her in this small room, but she has entertained us. She has been asleep for a bit now and it's just precious to see her laying there with Glenn (he's pretty tired too).