We’ve recently added a bunch of new pictures. We just got Andy’s 18 month pictures and they are really cute but there are 190 of them, so we only posted a few.  I’ll try to post some more over the next few days as I have time to look at them some more.  Enjoy!

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!

We had an ultrasound last Thursday at the Mother Baby Hospital here.  The ultrasound machine is quite old and doesn’t give a very big or very clear picture, so we went to a private clinic yesterday for another ultrasound.  Both doctors told us (one 60% and one 80%) that the baby is a girl!

Her name is Grace Elizabeth after my two great-grandmothers on my Mom’s side.  Eden has taken to calling her Little Gracie.  It was very fun to see her on the ultrasound.  Yesterday we were able to see a lot of clear pictures and hear her heartbeat.  Her limbs were all there, her brain looked good and her spine was perfect.  We even got to see a quick image of her cute little face!

We are so glad that everything is going well and that she is healthy and we’re very excited to have another daughter!

I cannot believe that Andy is so old!  He has been sick and had a fever today and fell asleep in my arms and I just looked at him, shocked that he has grown so fast.  He is very active and is talking a lot these days.  He climbs on everything, is trying to jump, runs like crazy and is suddenly very independent.  He no longer wants to be fed, but isn’t quite coordinated enough to do it himself.  It makes for some tears at mealtime, but we’ve found that if we put food on his fork or spoon and let him put it in his mouth he is much happier.

He has taken to calling people by the last syllable of their name so now Sonak is “Nak” and Rahab is “Hab”.  He thinks it’s very funny.  I’m amazed at how many people he can call by name.  I tried to count and came up with over 20.  He loves playing with the other kids here (Gavin who just turned 1, and Ellana who is a couple of months younger than Andy).  He gets very excited when he sees them and bends down and screams, “HI ELLANA!!” or “HI GAVIN!!” right in their faces.  His newest word is ‘dude’ which he picked up from me saying it to Ben.  He has also started calling Ben ‘Ben’ instead of Daddy and cracks himself up when he does it.

Andy still loves vehicles and has a big collection of toy cars and trucks now.  He still loves to snuggle and likes to get in his bed and curl up with his twigas and blankie any chance he gets.  He will go in to his room and bang on the zipper end of his bed yelling, “Open!” until someone goes in and unzips it for him.  He would sit in his seat and watch movies all day so we’ve had to start putting the dvd player up so that he can’t see it.  He’s figured out which button makes the movies play, so if we forget to put it up we often find him sitting on the table watching movies that he started by himself.

We had his 18 month pictures taken today by our friend Chrissie, Gavin’s mom, and will post them when we see them.  He did a really good job and wasn’t too smiley but didn’t cry or make a stink.

Well…it turns out the highlight of our trip to Nairobi was that we got good food at the Java House (I even had apple pie!).  Unfortunately, the embassy was not so great.  The man we spoke with was really very nice and tried his best to help us.  He’s the “adoption expert” but doesn’t have any influence on the visa process which is what we really needed.  He went to the USCIS office and they told him that our custody and guardianship order doesn’t count as legal custody because legal custody in Kenya can only be granted by a high court justice and our custody was granted by a magistrate.  He did suggest that we request the high court justice issue a letter or note with our final adoption stating that he/she suggests our custody/guardianship order from two years ago be viewed as legal custody.  Robert (the adoption expert) said that might help the USCIS people feel more comfortable granting us a visa.

He didn’t say that there was absolutely no way for us to get the I-130 visa in October, but he certainly implied that it wouldn’t be easy.  He said we could look to a visitors visa as a fallback, but that’s not guaranteed either.  We know that visitors visas are typically not granted to children who have already been adopted because there is basically no reason for the family to return to the foreign country.  The fact that we took Eden on a visitors visa before and came back and that Ben has work here and comes here frequently would help us, but we can’t count on being given a visa.

So…that leaves us with a big decision.  Do we continue with the adoption process now, wrap it up and hope that we can get one of the visas to come home before Dec. 1, or do we stop, apply for a visitors visa before we do the adoption and then come back later and do this all over again, knowing that we would probably have to stay here for 2 years?

Ben and I both feel like we really just need to get this finished.  We are tired of having it hang over us and tired of Eden not being “officially” ours.  We’ve worked so hard to get everything together to do the adoption now, we don’t really want to stop.  Also, the fact that I am pregnant is good incentive for them to let us go back…we won’t have such a good reason if we would come back to Kenya and try this again later.

It is very frustrating to feel like the US is battling against us and we’re so tired.  Tired of being away from our home and families, Ben is tired of working weird hours here, I’m tired of the rain, tired of the ups and downs…we’re ready to be home.

So for now the plan is to continue with the adoption, apply for the I-130 visa in October and if that is denied apply for a visitors visa.  Please start praying now for the process.  Especially that the USCIS would be kind, sympathetic, reasonable, etc and just grant us the I-130 visa.  We really appreciate your support and prayers!