Sorry for the delay in updating you all.  We didn’t get back from Nairobi until dinner time on Tuesday and I ended up getting sick Tuesday night and spent all day yesterday in bed while Ben was on duty with the kids.

Here’s a long recap of our trip/embassy visit:

We made it to Nairobi in record time, the kids were great in the car and we had a yummy lunch at Java House (a very American coffee shop chain) that had a play area for the kids.  We made it to our hotel which was very nice and hit the swimming pool.  There was a “Mischief Pool” (kiddie pool) which the kids loved because they could stand up in it.  Then we took late naps, went to dinner at the hotel and then to bed.  We got up and packed early then left the hotel at 8 for our 9:30 appointment anticipating traffic and other delays.  About 4 minutes from the hotel our car died.  We called the hotel and asked them to send us a taxi (which took 45 minutes to arrive) left our car with some random tow truck on the street and took off for the embassy.

We arrived in time and went inside where we waited for 2 hours.  At 11:30 the kids started losing it so I asked if we could leave and have our appointment when we got back.  They said they would go ahead and squeeze us in.  The man asked what we do in Kenya and why we wanted to go to the US.  Then he told us he wanted to confer with the “adoption expert” (who we have spoken with multiple times already).  When we went back to the window he said, “We can’t issue visas to children who have not been adopted, so I can’t issue you a visa at this time.”  It was very annoying because he didn’t even give us a chance to present all of our documentation that we brought along.  He just told us that we had to leave.

We walked to the Java House again and had lunch while the kids played.  Ben called the contact we have at Little Angels and told her that our visa was denied and we needed to push the adoption through ASAP.  She said that on Wednesday the committee was meeting to review adoption cases and if we had all of our stuff in by Wednesday morning she would present our case to the committee.

By the time we finished lunch our car still wasn’t working.  We thought it was a battery issue, but the battery wasn’t charging so they decided it was an alternator issue.  They said the car would be ready by 3 so we packed up the kids and got a taxi to a nearby mall.  We found a nice play area for kids with a bunch of Little Tikes houses and slides.  This entertained the kids well past their nap time until about 2:30 when Andy fell off one of the slides and scraped his face on the rug.  Then the kids started to fall apart and then we found out that the car still wasn’t fixed and wouldn’t be ready until the next morning.

At that point Ben called every hotel he knew of in Nairobi and they were all booked.  Fortunately, we know a great travel agent here in Eldoret and Ben called her and told her what we needed and she called back about 10 minutes later with a room for us.  We took another random cab to the hotel, which was beautiful!  We didn’t have any of our stuff since we had left it all in the van, but we put Eden on the sleeper sofa and Andy in our bed and they napped for 1 1/2 hours while Ben and I scrambled to get things in order with the car and the adoption.

The kids woke up and we rinsed the dirt off of all of us then headed to dinner.  After dinner, the mechanic showed up in a taxi with all of our stuff except for the one bag that had our clean outfits in it.  Fortunately, we had some random pieces of clean clothing in the other bags so we put Eden her pj’s and Andy in a onesie then put them to bed.  At least we had Andy’s pack-n-play and both kids’ Twigas.

The next morning we got up and packed, had breakfast and then rented a cab until noon so that we could leave all of our stuff in it while we wandered around another mall.  We hit the grocery store at the mall first and found Mexican food!  I bought salsa, tortilla chips, tortillas and taco and fajita seasoning!  We also bought some more diapers and some snacks.  Then we went upstairs and found a toy store which the kids loved.  They ran from one toy to another gasping and pulling things off the shelves.  🙂  Andy almost hyperventilated when he found the toy car aisle.  And then he nearly passed out when he found the Cars cars.  Ben almost passed out when he saw that the small Mater (matchbox size) cost $17!  Eden got a pair of dress up shoes and Andy got a regular matchbox car that was a more reasonable price.

We found a place called Beezy Bees which is a craft/play area for kids.  It’s designed as a babysitting place for kids to stay while their parents shop.  They had a movie playing, lots of toys and books and crafts for the kids.  Eden painted and Andy played with the trucks.  We got the call that our car would be ready at noon, so we ordered lunch to go and then piled in the taxi and took off for the car shop.

By that time the kids were hungry and tired so we loaded up our van (which worked!) and then headed back to Eldoret.  Andy ate all of his lunch then fell asleep.  Eden fell asleep holding her hotdog.  The trip home was uneventful and we were all glad to be back in our house with all of our stuff.

Our new plan is to try to push the adoption through before Dec. 1.  Most likely, Andy and I will have to fly home on Dec. 1 and then Ben and Eden will come back after Eden gets an immigration visa.  Hopefully that will be before Grace is born.  The representative from Little Angels went to the committee yesterday to present our case.  They declared Eden free for adoption but said that we have to have an updated home study from the US before they will approve us to adopt her.  You can imagine how frustrating this is since we can’t adopt her until after we get back to the US and the US won’t let us in until after she’s adopted.  Talk about stuck between a rock and a hard place.

We’re hoping we can find an agency in the US that will review and sign off on a home study that is completed by the agency here.  Then we could reapply to the committee in two weeks when they meet again.  This is pretty much our last option.  If that doesn’t work, we don’t have a plan.