Well…today we met with a new lawyer for a consult.  She was recommended to us by a District Children’s Officer that had worked with an American couple that we know on their adoption from the Sally Test Center.  Mrs. Odede was very nice and had a lot of information.  She also knows the two women that we are working with at Little Angels and called both of them while we were in her office and she is going to see the DCO that we are working with this afternoon.  Also, she will be in Nairobi later this week and is going to take Susan (from Little Angels) to meet with the National District Children’s Officer in Nairobi who has to give us her final blessing before we can wrap things up with Eden.  She was quite surprised with all that we have done so far and was very impressed with our guardianship/custody and exemption orders.

Little Angels had asked that we update our home study from the US which was completed in 2009.  It’s not possible to do that while we are here and Little Angels is concerned that we won’t be given the go-ahead on Eden without the proper paperwork.  So, Mrs. Odede has recommended that we look in to getting another travel order for Eden (an extended one that lasts even until she turns 18) and then try to get a visitors visa with multiple entries to the US.  This would allow us to come home for the birth of Grace and stay until Grace is over 1.  While in the US, Mrs. Odede said that we can continue with the adoption process, getting our paperwork submitted with Little Angels and waiting for them to grant us permission to adopt Eden.  Then when we return we would have 3 months or less of wait time for the court proceedings to take place and then Eden would be officially ours.

There are several benefits to this plan.  One being that we could all be home together for Grace’s birth.  Another being that we could possibly get a custody/guardianship order from the high courts now and in two years (around the time the adoption is finalized), we would be able to get her I-130 visa since this is a hang-up with the USCIS office.  Finally, it would give us the best chance of being able to finalize Eden’s adoption without spending an extended amount of time in Kenya.

There are also some drawbacks.  This of course drags out the adoption process which we are eager to finish.  We don’t know that we would be able to get this visa for Eden to come back to the US.  And we would probably be gone for several months in the fall of 2013 which would be the beginning of Eden’s second year of preschool and Andy’s first year.  I hate the thought of disrupting their schooling, but I think I could home school them for one semester without them losing too much and they could start back in January.

Anyway, it’s a lot to think about and, as always, hinges on a lot of things going our way.  We need to get with our lawyer, Were, and come up with a plan.  Thankfully we have great prayer warriors out there and we know that God has brought us through so many obstacles unscathed already that we are up for whatever comes next.

On a side note, August was a rough month for us.  I told Ben I felt like it was our ‘hump month’.  We made it through August and I personally feel much better about things.  I can make it until October, and maybe even December if I have to!