While I was away for 3 weeks in Africa Eden had the audacity to go and grow up on me. She is now using “sentences” regularly. Meghan overheard her looking at my picture last week saying “Dada, home, please”. She has started to talk in the third person and refers to herself as “Edie”. If she wants me to not carry her anymore she’ll say “Edie walk”.
Eden loves to mimic everything we do (without being prompted). If I slap my knee, so will she. If I clap twice, so will she. If I groan loudly, so will she. Its very cute.
Eden was upset with me when I first got home yesterday. She gave me the cold shoulder for half the ride from the airport…but then for the last 10 minutes she was very talkative, wanted to show me everything, giggled uncontrollably, and wanted to hold my hand. (Andy sat on the other side of me just staring and smiling at me the whole time). Then this morning when we got up she didn’t want anything to do with me. She wanted “Mama” to feed her the oatmeal, take her to the bathroom, give her juice, etc. But then 30 minutes later she was her bouncy self and was bringing me things, etc. I hope she doesn’t hold this temporary grudge for too long!
- Tags: eden
- Category: Uncategorized
September 23rd, 2010 at 5:28 pm
Congratulations on such a beautiful family! We are in the early stages of adopting 3 young children from Bungoma Kenya, and have been informed by the US Department of State that the US is not issuing visas to children adopted from Kenya and brought to the US. Can you shed a bit of light as to how you were able to bring Eden home? Thank you. Anne
September 23rd, 2010 at 5:55 pm
First off, get a lawyer in Kenya. It is much easier to have a Kenyan navigate the legal system.
We were able to get Eden a temporary visitors visa to come back to the US because Meghan was pregnant at the time. We also had not technically started the adoption process yet, otherwise she never would have gotten the B2 visa. We are going back to Kenya in April to finalize the local adoption. We can get away with a local one because I work there too.
Once you have a local adoption, the US will grant a family visa for the child after 2 years of custody.
I assume if you start an international adoption you will be in limbo until the US opens them up again. So if you can, I suggest a local adoption + 2 year wait.
I’ll write up a summary some time soon about what lessons we’ve learned so far. Once things are further along (or complete) we can do a final one for all to learn and benefit.