A Decision and More Shots!

We are not leaving in January after all. Our support is going up steadily, we are now at 32% monthly support and depending on the price of our plane tickets we may already be at 100% for our training and airfare. All money sent to Mercy Ships under our designation code of #2626 will be used by us at some point when we need it.

But we definitely do not have enough monthly support for Ray to give his two week's notice on Friday so we are waiting patiently for the next training which is in June.

And then there is the matter of our house. All interest has fallen off and it looks like we will have to go the traditional route and list with a realtor. We were hoping to avoid that and not end up going in the hole financially when we sell the house so you can pray about that with us.

We went ahead and continued with our vaccinations to keep on schedule with our Hep B shots. Last week the four of us had 11 shots, 2 of us had the flu mist and three of us had PPD pokes. Thankfully the two younger members of our family were covered by our insurance but the two older members of the family had to pay out of pocket at the health clinic. We have now paid over $1100 in shots for our family as we prepare to travel. And we have another 5 shots to go (just for Ray and me, the kids are done).

So that is what we are up to right now. We are done suffering and borrowed a bed from friends until we depart. It is much easier to get up in the morning now that I am not crawling out on the floor, ha ha.

Shots, Car Repairs, and More!

This week was full of all sorts of surprises. Some good, some not so good. Thursday we went into Rochester to get some of our shots that are not available in our county and I ended up writing a check that was the equivalence of one of our mortgage payments! The next day our car went into the shop for what we thought were some inexpensive repairs and we ended up making a payment the equivalence of one of Ray's weekly paychecks! Those were NOT good surprises.

Now our checking account has very little in it. I told Ray we should be glad we actually had the money in our account to pay for these things. That is one of the reasons we sold our bed, to help pay for the immunizations we needed (the other reason being that we didn't want to pay for storage for it).

Today we spoke at a church right here in town and were so blessed by their congregation. We were feeling discouraged going into this weekend and the Lord lifted us up. That was a good surprise.

Lastly, during (my) choir rehearsal this evening Miss Anna pulled out tooth number 6 leaving her with a lovely gap in the middle of her mouth. She can now sing the song, 'All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth' and yes she is only 5 years 2.5 months old. That was a fun surprise since that tooth was dangling at an awkward angle that was making Mommy queasy.

Please continue to pray that our house will either sell or that we would find the perfect renters for it. And also continue to pray for our support.

Fall Fun

Before the leaves came down in early September I let the girls have a picnic lunch on the trampoline in their princess tent. The rest of the pictures were a couple of weeks ago when the girls were playing in all of the leaves on the trampoline. They had a blast!

2nd Yard/Porch Sale

Today we had a 2nd yard/porch sale to get rid of our last few pieces of furniture that needed to go. We were able to sell both Ray's and my desks and both Ray's and the girls' dressers along with the remaining rocking chair. The desks and the girls' dresser were very heavy so we had a friend come over early this morning to help Ray carry them outside. There is no way I could have done this. Apparently they had to lift Ray's desk over the upstairs stair railing to get it downstairs and sweat was dripping down Ray's face by the time they got it all the way outside! Thankfully today was in the 50s and though cloudy it was dry.

We know that people are concerned about our lack of furniture but it really isn't that bad. We just owned a ton of furniture to start with. Anytime someone had something they were getting rid of we would volunteer to take it and thus a house full of furniture, some nice, some not so nice. The air mattress we are sleeping on is comfortable, really. The hardest part is actually getting out of bed in the morning and realizing you have to stand up from the floor. Yes, we got rid of two couches and a love seat but we started out with 3 couches and 2 love seats! We had 3 rocking chairs and we had 5 dressers. We collect furniture, what can I say. Someone is throwing out a couch and we go and get it. It may not be in great shape but we stick it on the porch with a blanket covering it's flaws, you get the idea.

Right now we have a couch and a chair sitting out front of our house waiting for garbage day. It is so abused that no one will take it and so we will have to pay for the garbage company to take it away.

We are still waiting to hear back about our house. I really thought two of the families that came through our house last week were interested. I'm not very good at being patient.......

Our support is steadily climbing but not very fast. We are at 45% of our support for our training/airfare and we are at about 19% of our monthly support. We have to be at 75% monthly support to be able to go and live on the Africa Mercy. So there are a few things that have to happen in a short amount of time. Our house has to either sell or we have to find a good renter for it. And we need our monthly support to increase in a very short amount of time.

Please pray with us as we wait upon the Lord. And thank you so much for those of you who are already partnering with us financially and prayerfully. We are so grateful to you and your faithfulness.

Please Pray

We have three different families/individuals coming through our house this week. Two today and one on Friday. We would really appreciate your prayers as we seek God to find the perfect buyer and situation for our house.

The girls and I had the flu for the past two weeks, fever, chills, and the cough that seems to last forever. We finally seem to be past it.......I hope.

We were able to present our future ministry with Mercy Ships at our church this past Sunday during the kick-off for our Mission Conference. We were so blessed by the reception of our church family and we are so encouraged!

We are at 16% monthly support and at about 33% towards our airfare and training. The second number is hard to nail down because we don't know how much our tickets are going to cost. In an act of faith I went ahead and had money transferred as a deposit for our training in January! Lord willing we are leaving in two months and one day!

Suzanne's post

This post really touched me tonight.

An Update

I realize it has been over a month since I last updated you all on our progress. I will try to do better and give weekly updates......okay, I'll try.

Both our dog and cat are in their new homes and are doing well. We are slowly emptying out our house and packing up our belongings. We thought we had a buyer for our house but that didn't happen so we are back to square one on that.

Our support has been coming in slowly but surely. We are at about 10% of our monthly support and about 30% for our airfare/training fees.

We were able to speak at two other churches besides our own and were really blessed by those congregations and their interest in Mercy Ships and our part in it. We will be speaking at another church next month along with our own church and we are excited about both of those opportunities.

I am continuing to homeschool the girls during this time so that makes life interesting. We started school during the summer so we will be able to take some time off for traveling and not feel like we are losing any school time. The girls just completed 8 weeks of soccer through a Homeschooling league in our area, that was a lot of fun. And both girls are losing teeth like crazy so the Tooth Fairy has been making lots of visits to our house in the past two months! Deborah who is still 7 lost her 11th tooth last night and Anna who is newly 5 has lost her 4th tooth as of tonight!

Ray continues to be excited about Mercy Ships and wishes we could skip the 'moving' and just be on the ship right now. I think for me the process helps me in the whole transitioning thing and I'm glad to have this 'extra' time. As much as I wanted to already be in our training right now I can look objectively at our situation and see how God planned the whole thing out for us for our best.

I really will try to do better and update more often, maybe even with a picture next time!

Edited to add:Ray is still employed as an Electronics Technician and will continue at his job until we leave to serve with Mercy Ships.

A Story from the Africa Mercy

Maomai Dangbenon: Salvation Has Come

It was the middle of the night, and Perlagie couldn’t sleep. The image of Maomai, her three-month-old baby girl, flashed through her mind every time she closed her eyes. A huge tumor the size of the baby’s head was jutting out of Maomai’s neck. Perlagie looked over at her daughter, peacefully sleeping in her hospital bed, and began to cry.

For over a week, Perlagie had stayed in the hospital, waiting and praying for a doctor to help Maomai – but no one came. In the morning, they were being sent home. Perlagie didn’t know what to do.
When Perlagie finally fell asleep she had a dream.

“In that dream, I saw a person, who told me I should be quiet and pray – that salvation shall come.”

The next morning, Perlagie felt confident and peaceful. She didn’t know where help would come from, but she knew God was going to take care of her baby.

***

Maomai was born with a teratoma, which means monstrous tumor. It started out as a small, golf-ball sized lump on her neck, but within three months, the tumor had grown to the size of her head.

Everyone in Perlagie’s village was afraid of Maomai. The grotesque tumor was difficult to look at, and the villagers thought they could be contaminated by it. No one would touch or play with the small baby.

“One time I was in the bathroom, and the baby was crying. People were around the baby, but they would not touch her because of the tumor. They left her crying, alone. Even the members of my family,” said Perlagie.

Perlagie was alone. Maomai was a precious, beautiful baby girl, and she could see that, but others simply couldn’t see past the monstrous tumor. In a country where perceived physical differences mark people as outcasts, Maomai was treated like a monster instead of a baby girl.

“I was very, very, sad. I was not able to sleep,” said Perlagie. “Every day, I was crying. Also, I was not eating. I had no appetite because of the condition of my baby.”



Perlagie and her husband wanted to get Maomia help. They took her to a local hospital, but there was no surgeon to perform her surgery. Perlagie didn’t become anxious or fearful. She confidently left the hospital, trusting God to bring healing and deliverance from the tumor.



When Perlagie returned to her village, her sister-in-law told her about the Africa Mercy, a hospital ship filled with doctors and nurses, which had come to Cotonou. She had just returned from the ship after being treated for an eye problem and thought they could help Maomai.

Perlagie brought her daughter to the Africa Mercy and was screened by the medical team. It was obvious that she needed immediate surgery. But the tumor had made it difficult for her to feed, and Maomai was very underweight – too underweight for surgery. The Mercy Ships medical team placed her on a feeding program and scheduled her for surgery in one month. Mercy was on its way. The salvation Perlagie had dreamed of was becoming a reality.

A month passed, and it was time for Maomai’s surgery. The morning of surgery, Peralgie worried it would not be successful.

“I started crying. Some nurses and translators told me the operation was possible with God. The doctor will be successful with surgery, the tumor will be removed, and the baby will be healed. They gave me that hope,” said Perlagie.

After six hours of surgery, Maomai’s tumor was removed. It weighed 375 grams, 15% of her body weight. The monstrous tumor was gone, and the beautiful baby girl remained.

Maomai spent over a month recovering in the hospital. Still struggling to maintain her weight, she had to be fed through a surgically placed feeding tube.

The nursing staff encouraged Perlagie to use the feeding tube. At first, she was hesitant. Perlagie distanced herself from Maomai. But as she grew more comfortable in the hospital, things changed. The nursing staff taught Perlagie how to use the feeding tube. As she took ownership of Maomai’s care, their relationship thrived.

“Initially, we were worried about her,” said pediatric nurse Ali Chandra. “But now she’s been here for over a month, and she’s blossomed. Perlagie has completely bonded with Maomai in the time they’ve been here. And it happened as we started teaching her [to use the feeding tube]. She’s doing really well,” says Chandra.

Maomai has continued to grow stronger since her surgery. Not only has she gained weight, she’s gained vibrancy.

“Maomai used to be this kind of listless baby, and now she’s bright. She’s doing more age-appropriate things than before,” says Chandra.

Psalm 13:5 says, “I have trusted in Your mercy; My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation” (NKJV).

Perlagie knows this to be true. She trusted God to take care of her baby, and He brought her salvation. Perlagie is rejoicing in His mercy.

“I thank God, and I thank each of you, for all you have done for me. God is healing and still working. I have seen my salvation in this child,” she concluded.


Written by Megan Petock
Edited by IOC Editing Team
Photography by Debra Bell and Megan Petock

It is official

We are not leaving in 2.5 weeks for our Gateway training. We will be leaving in a little over 4 months, January 4th to be exact.

It has been very frustrating for me and I was hesitant to post about the whole thing because I just wanted to sit and cry. Our support is very low still and we didn't have enough for our training class. Our house has not sold yet though we have had several leads that we followed through on. But the Lord's timing is best.

After thinking this through for the past three days we have come to realize that waiting for a few more months is not a bad thing. This gives us 4 more months to speak to more churches and 4 more months to either sell or rent out our house.

We will not be going to Benin but will fly directly into Togo where the M/V Africa Mercy will be in February 2010.

So though I am sad we won't be attending our Gateway training with the new friends we met in Texas in June I am excited to see God at work in our lives as we wait on Him.

Please continue to pray for us as we seek God's will in our lives and pray that we glorify Him in our lives.

Yard Sale and Anna's Classroom

We just had a 3 day yard sale to help get rid of a lot of our 'stuff' in preparation to leaving for our training in one month! The yard sale went really well and our house is emptying out.

Anna's Kindergarten teacher on the Africa Mercy just posted pictures of Anna's classroom on her blog, click here to see them. Anna is very excited about going to school on a ship. We have completed 5 weeks of homeschooling so far this term but just took off this week because of our yard sale. We are also taking next week off for Vacation Bible School at our church.

We won't be on the ship until the end of November but it's nice to see aspects of it before we go.

Schedule Clarification

We are leaving New York on September 14th to head on down to Texas for our Gateway training which starts September 19th. We won't be on the Africa Mercy until mid November. We are planning on driving back to New York and flying out of the Rochester airport after our training is finished.

We need to sell or rent out our house before we leave for Africa so that is our biggest prayer request at this point next to raising our support.

We have found homes for both our dog and cat and are now getting ready to have a yard sale next week to get rid of a lot of our 'stuff'.

We basically have 5.5 weeks to downsize from a 1900 square foot home that we have lived in for the past 11 years into 8 duffel bags.

Presenting at church

I asked Deborah and Anna what I should write about this week in our blog and Anna told me I should write down my adoption story! I had to tell her I wasn't adopted so then she wanted to know how I got here, don't I have a story? I assured her I had a story but it wasn't as exciting as hers :-) I had completely forgotten that Deborah at age 4 had also thought everyone was adopted. What a fun age :-)

So instead of writing down my adoption story I thought I would share about today. We did our Mercy Ships presentation at church today. We showed a clip from one of the DVDs that Mercy Ships had given us to show and then Ray spoke about what we would be doing. I was standing next to him along with Deborah in case Ray choked up and could not continue but God answered my prayer and Ray did just fine. Anna chose at the last minute to not come up front with us and sat with our good friends.

We were very encouraged by the response of our church family.

I am posting a picture of our display table. The girls want to know if you thought the dolls were the girls at first glance :-) I was going to have the girls wear their African clothes but they are much too small for our growing girls and we will have to wait until we return to Africa to buy new outfits for them. So I put the clothes on their dolls.

Anna's Story Part V

Anna had a rough time flying home, she screamed every 15 minutes on both big flights from Monrovia to Brussels and then from Brussels to Washington, D.C. We found out she had an ear infection too. Daddy and Deborah had flown to meet us at D.C. so we had some family time together before we flew the rest of the way home. Here is a picture of Anna and Daddy meeting.

The girls really seemed to connect right from the beginning and were a joy to watch together. And then my Mom, brother, sister and several of my sister's children stayed up very late to welcome us back to our home airport. Both of my girls slept through the whole thing and didn't wake up until the next morning! They were both exhausted! Here they are giving a kiss and then pretending to sleep in the Washington D.C. airport.

Anna's Story Part IV

Anna's caregiver (not the same woman who had taken care of her first) brought her to me and we chatted for about 30 minutes while Anna sat on her lap staring at me. I tried to interact with Anna but she was not impressed with me. At that point the caregiver said that she would let us get to know each other and she just walked out of the room! For some strange reason I thought we would have a nice slow transition but it was not to be.

Anna immediately started screaming at the top of her lungs and so I started to walk towards her. Anna turned around and started running away from me screaming. I had no idea what to do and I had an audience. There were about 5 other people present all watching to see what I would do and of course I didn't know. I finally just ran after her and scooped her up in my arms and tried to comfort her. I knew she was scared but there didn't seem to be anything I could do about it at that time. Finally she calmed down enough but then she seemed to transfer the anxious attachment she had with the caregiver to me. After that she would scream if anyone tried to take her away from me. This went on for a good 7 months after we got home too. We worked very hard on getting a healthy attachment with Anna and it has paid off!

Anna's adoption was tricky because her adoption wasn't actually done yet when I went to Liberia. I had appointments at the US embassy, a paper that needed to be signed by the Ministry of Health, an interview by someone sent from the embassy to see me and then another appointment at the embassy. It took an entire week but the adoption was complete in time for me to fly home one week after I had gotten there.

Both of these pictures were taken the day we left Liberia, we were all dressed up ready to go to church.

Anna's Story Part III

So in October of 2005 I got back on an airplane, left Deborah for the first time ever but in the capable hands of Daddy and two beloved cousins Caitlin and Cai. I met my friend in Washington D.C. where we flew the rest of the way together to Liberia.

We had some interesting experiences in that the person who was supposed to meet us at the airport thought we were coming in on a flight arriving two days later! My friend's daughter's aunt was there instead and took us to her relative's house. Liberia had just come out of the war so there was still no electricity infrastructure but if you had a generator you had power. The house we went to had a generator but they couldn't get it going except for about one minute.
The bathroom looked really nice but there was no plumbing hooked up to the sink or shower but there was a barrel of water in the bathroom to flush the toilet with. That was fine, we were good. The cockroach crawling up my leg gave me pause but I was still okay. But then we were half asleep on the best bed in the house and I felt something in the pitch black crawl along the pillow. I just said something just crawled on my pillow when my friend let out this scream!!!! The cockroach had decided to crawl over her face. Can I just say I was glad that wasn't me?

But this story is about Anna so let's get back to it! The next morning my agency sent a driver to take me to another place I could stay at and where Anna already was. And there she was! She was sleeping out on the porch so I went inside and waited for her to wake up.

Anna's Story Part II

Then came the loooooooooooooooooooooooong wait. It seemed everything went wrong from day one. Everything that could go wrong did. Paperwork was done incorrectly, birth certificates were done with the foster parents listed as the parents! That makes it difficult to get your child status as an orphan with the US government which would make it impossible to get a US visa back to the states. There were inconsistencies in the paperwork and since our baby was 4 hours inland, every time something needed to be fixed someone had to take the 4 hour drive back into Ganta to get the paperwork redone and then travel back.

So this was a very frustrating 10 months for me from the time of referral to the time I actually was able to get my baby and it was 19 months from the time we had started the adoption. By then we had to be refingerprinted for what seemed like the zillionth time. Not only had our fingerprints run out with the US government, our homestudy had run out too and we had to get it updated with more fingerprints at our local police station. I think by the time we were done getting our two girls we had had our fingerprints done 11 times!

Now I really didn't want to go through what I went through before with the whole getting my baby home thing so we had requested Anna (Baby Walakehwon) to be escorted home. But by September of 2005 I was really starting to get upset about the adoption taking so long while I knew others who had started after us had already had their babies come home.

A good friend of mine who I had met through the adoption of Deborah and their two girls from Liberia was traveling to Liberia to do an independent adoption of two more children. Our husbands agreed that we could go to Liberia together to complete our adoptions.

Anna's Story

I told Anna I would tell her story after I finished sending out all of our support letters even though her Adoption Day isn't until October.

Anna's story basically started where Deborah's ended. The day after we completed Deborah's readoption (legally changing her name) we started our next adoption in March of 2004.

We went back to the same agency because we really wanted our children from the same area and this particular agency was the only one we knew of who was getting their children from Ganta, Liberia. We received a referral in June 2004 of a two week old baby boy whose mother had died in childbirth. But two weeks later got another phone call saying the little boy's aunt came and got him. So that wasn't our baby.

But then our agency got sort of stuck. Laws in Liberia were changing since the year before and more paperwork was required. The agency had no more foster homes to take in any other children so we had to wait until some of the kids were adopted before they would take any new referrals.

I was patient up to a point but was losing hope we would ever have a referral when we finally got a phone call in December 2004 saying we had a 3.5 month old baby girl. She had been in custody since she was 2 weeks old but she was an abandonment case and they could not find any relatives to sign the papers. They had had a police investigation looking for this baby's birth mother and no one could find her (or at least no one was talking about it). They met with the Tribal Chief and he gave his permission for this little one to be adopted. So the first pictures we got were of Baby Walakehwon with her caregiver Yah, Baby Walakehwon with the Tribal Chief and another picture of Baby Walakehwon sucking her thumb. The really funny thing was that the baby boy we had been referred in June just 6 months earlier was also named Walakehwon, a common name given to orphans.

Deborah's Story Part IV

So here I am with Deborah's caregiver and our adoption worker in front of the hotel in Accra, Ghana just a few hours before we left to come back home.

Deborah never cried until she woke up on the plane after napping. We found out after getting home she had a double ear infection so she must have been in a bit of pain.

Ray met Deborah and me at JFK and I was never so happy to see him there! I was so exhausted and just glad to be home with my baby and husband.


Deborah adored Daddy right from the beginning and she is still very much a Daddy's girl.

Then Ray, Deborah and I flew the rest of the way home together where my Mom, sister, brother-in-law and their family met us at our home airport.

July 16th, 2003, one of the happiest days of my life!

Deborah's Story Part III

In June of 2003 as war started to break out again in Liberia the US consular started granting visas. At this point the airport was closing and opening in Monrovia as war took over the country. Our agency couldn't get an escort in place as quickly as we needed that to happen so they asked me if I would fly to Ghana to wait for Deborah to be flown to me. After my past experience waiting in a hotel in a different country than my child(ren) while war was going on I refused. We had no idea if the war would escalate at this point and there was no guarantee they could get my baby out of Liberia while the airport was closing every other day or so.

Much to my surprise I got a phone call in early July of 2003 saying my baby was in Ghana and come and get her!!!!! Strangely enough my agency didn't think I needed a yellow fever shot to get into Ghana and I didn't have it yet! I managed to get it before leaving for Ghana but was very nervous since I was supposed to have it for 10 days before I left and it had only been 4 days. The customs inspector studied my yellow immunization certificate for several minutes before letting me through! I don't think I had full immunity until I arrived back in the US.

I was only in Ghana for 24 hours, a true pick-up trip since all of the paperwork was already done. I flew in at 10pm on a Monday night and was leaving on the same plane the following night at 10pm. Deborah was brought to me around noon the day I was leaving so I had a short while to spend with Deborah's caregiver (pictured with Deborah up above) who was absolutely wonderful and then we left to come back home.

Deborah's Story Part II

We had all of Deborah's paperwork done within two months! But we were waiting for her US visa to be administered and the US consular would not grant ANY visas during a period lasting over 7 months. We tried to have Deborah escorted home during this time and sent paperwork and baby clothes over to Liberia with the gentleman who was trying to get her visa.

We found out that Baby Yei had grown quite a bit and none of the clothing we had sent over fit her!


Here she is at 14 months old taking her first steps at Equip in Ganta, Liberia.

Deborah's Story

In honor of Deborah's six year anniversary yesterday I am going to share her adoption story.

Our journey to adopt started back in 1995 after we had been married 3 years. First (1996-1998) we tried to adopt by going through classes to adopt through our county. Secondly (1998) we attempted to start working on an independent domestic adoption and thirdly (1999-2001) had a failed adoption of twin girls from Sierra Leone which involved a 10 day trip to Senegal where we ended up coming home empty-handed.

Finally in 2002 we attempted yet another adoption but this time from Liberia. We were presented with Baby Yei (Deborah) whose mother had been struck and killed by lightning while Baby Yei was on her back at only 4 months of age. Baby Yei had a burn scar on her chest from the lightning.

Packing

These are three of the paintings I bought in Liberia when I went to get Anna back in October 2005. We had them framed and hung them in the girls' room.

I realized after taking down all of the pictures and emptying all of our shelves in our front room downstairs that maybe I should have taken a picture of what the room looked like before I packed it up. So I have started to take pictures of other rooms BEFORE I pack up.

It seems so strange to pack up our house after living here for 11 years. So many memories, bringing both girls home to this house. And somehow packing up our lives into six duffel bags..... I'm still not sure how that is going to happen.

I promised......

Last year our friends helped (actually did most of the work since we are clueless) gut our bathroom and put in a new floor, walls, ceiling, fixtures, you get the idea. I promised the girls they could paint our bathroom cabinet after we finished painting it! So the cabinet sat for over a year in our bathroom with only primer on it. Finally it gets the finishing coat of paint last week and I let the girls decorate it afterwards.

The girls' paint is water based and easily washes off but doesn't it look fun? And don't you think it will help sell our house?

Before and After

Oh look, now you can see his eyes!

BillyBob got groomed today and looks magnificent.

Yes, we really are going to live on a ship!

Two weeks ago Ray and I drove down to Texas to attend a week of classes titled Intro to Mercy Ships. We really felt God wanted us to serve with Mercy Ships but weren't entirely sure even though we had already been accepted to live and work on the ship. Our confirmation came soon after we arrived when Ray turned to me and said, "I think we are really supposed to do this" and I realized that I had the same thought. I had asked a few people to pray for unity for Ray and me before we left home and we are definitely united in this!

Our week at the Mercy Ships headquarters was full of information and getting to know some of the people we will be serving with. We are so excited to be serving the Lord this way but also scared silly about all of the changes coming up and decisions to be made. Whether to sell or rent our house, finding homes for our pets (Praise God we already have a home for BillyBob! Thanks Redmans) and of course our support. Almost everyone that works on the Africa Mercy is a volunteer which means we have to raise all of our support.

We have committed to serve with Mercy Ships for at least 2 years with a possibility to serve longer.

My first post

Deborah and Anna Easter morning next to where we have been measuring them since they came home!