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!

It’s hard to believe that I am already 16 weeks!  This pregnancy seems to be going much faster than Andy’s, probably because we are so busy.  I’m feeling pretty good these days.  I sleep every chance that I get and avoid beef as much as possible.  I haven’t felt the baby move yet, although I keep telling it to jump and leap so that I can feel it.  We have our next ultrasound on Sept. 5 and as long as the baby cooperates we should be able to find out if we’re having a boy or a girl.  I’m anxious to know so that I can start calling “it” by name and make plans for the nursery.

Yesterday while I was eating my breakfast, Eden turned to me and said, “Mommy, I’m not an angel.”  Thinking that someone had said this to her regarding bad behavior, I asked who told her this.  She then informed me that God told her.  While she was riding her bike He told her that the angels are SO busy and that they are always praising the Lord.

It was a very enlightening discussion; I can’t believe how grown up she is!  I can’t think of any other explanation for her newly acquired knowledge as we have never discussed angels before and I can’t think of any movies or songs we’ve listened to recently that might have brought this on.  I’m so thankful that she shares these things with me and for her sweet heart.  I also think that I will encourage a lot more bike riding from now on!

Caroline from Little Angels came to our house today for a home visit.  She arrived around 10:30 and went over all of our paperwork and watched the kids play for a bit.  Then we answered a lot of questions for our joint interview, had lunch, and then each did an individual interview and concluded with a quick tour of the house.  It went well and she seemed happy with the information we gave her.

As always there was a mix of good news and bad news.  She is going to try to complete her report quickly so that the committee can review (and hopefully approve) Eden’s adoption this month as they only meet twice a month.  She was not able to get the district children’s officer to write a letter, but she was able to experience some of the frustration that we have had with them and said she would include their lack of help in her report.

We have a few things to gather for her which we will hopefully be able to do this weekend or Monday and then she can proceed.  Overall, we felt very good about her visit and really appreciated her time and help as well as the information that she gave us.

On Wednesday we are traveling to Nairobi for the day to meet with someone at the embassy regarding Eden’s visa.  We are anxious about this meeting and hope that they are able to answer our questions and give us good news.  It all hangs on whether our guardianship order from 2009 gives us legal and physical custody and whether the courts had the right to give us guardianship.  I’m not exactly sure how we prove those things, but hopefully it will be clear to the embassy that everything has been done properly.  If they determine that everything is fine we can apply for her visa in October.  If they think that things are not correct, the 24 month waiting period would begin when the adoption is complete.

Please pray for safe travels for Ben and me, that the kids will do well without us for the day and that the embassy will grant Eden an immigrant visa in October!