I’m a little behind on getting the posts up these days.  Sorry!

Andy is now 21 months old.  It’s hard to believe that he is almost 2!  He is talking a lot more now that he has a chance to speak without Eden talking over him.  He is putting several words together and does a good job telling us when he needs something.

Andy has discovered Thomas and has fallen in love with trains.  We borrowed some Thomas DVDs for the trip to Pittsburgh for Thanksgiving and he loved watching them.  He still likes cars and trucks and drives his little cars all around the house.  He is beginning to identify different kinds of vehicles like firetrucks, dump trucks, etc. which is very funny.

He has done a great job adjusting to Sunday school.  I was a bit nervous about dropping him off, but he has been fine every time.  He plays with the vehicles in class and goes in without any problems.  Andy is also attending a ‘Mom’s Day Out’ childcare once a week at Covenant.

Andy really misses Ben and Eden and talks about them a lot.  He’s pretty good about skyping with them although he doesn’t always like to stay in front of the camera.  He also talks about his friends in Kenya, and occasionally uses his Swahili words.  Our first day back in the US, I took Andy to Meijer while Ben had a meeting at work.  I had to go to the bathroom and parked Andy in the cart outside of my stall.  An African American woman walked into the bathroom and Andy immediately yelled, “Jambo!” to her.

I gave away the punchline of this post in the title, but oh well! Its too good to keep you all in suspense! The high court justice today said that he has no objections to giving us the same travel order that we recently got from the lower court. He also said that the Children’s Office in NBO and the embassy should have accepted the lower court order, but that they tend to not trust the lower courts because they think some monkey business happens there.

Our favorite DCO was asked by the justice to come to court and give his thoughts on the matter. He arrived and gave no objections. Outside Were and I were trying to convince him to help us while our other favorite DCO was on leave. He was hesitant to do that. Lets hope we’re past the point of needing any more DCOs…

Meghan will be applying to USCIS for a Humanitarian Visa for Eden. Now that we have the high court travel order, the only reason they will might not approve that is if they still think we will keep Eden in the US forever. We’ve tried to prove otherwise every way from Sunday, but even that might not be enough.

There is a very slim chance we can get the actual adoption pushed through before Christmas. If we can get the heard by our agency’s committee this week, get a very speedy high court visit, and then get seen by the national adoption committee the first week of December, then the adoption is finalized and we can go wherever we please without a need for a Kenyan travel order. (Unfortunately we will still be locked out of the US unless they give her a b2 temp visa or i130 immigration visa, so we might go to Canada, eh?)

I foresee very little work getting done by me in the next few weeks. 🙁 Meghan used to handle most of the adoption things, but now its all on me with her and Andy back in the US!

Last week we began telling Eden and Andy that they had a surprise coming after church on Sunday.  They were very excited about it all week and kept guessing what it might be.  Their guesses ranged from a twiga to freez-e-pops but they never imagined it would be Deda and Aunt Donna!  When I opened the door and the kids saw them standing there, they were shocked!  Andy recovered quickly and ran for them, but Eden was like a zombie.  She could barely move.  It was so funny!

We had a wonderful time with Deda and Aunt Donna for a couple of days in Eldoret.  We played and ran around town to do some errands.  We celebrated Halloween at the Sally Test Center and went trick-or-treating here in the compound.  Eden was a safari guide and Andy was an elephant.  It was perfect because Elanna was a twiga and Gavin was a lion.  🙂  They all had fun running around and I think liked being together more than they actually liked the trick-or-treating.  They got lots of candy and we took a million pictures.

On Tuesday we drove to Nairobi to meet up with Papa and stayed there for the rest of the week.  We got there in time to settle in and have dinner then the kids went to bed when we got back.  Wednesday morning Deda, Aunt Donna and Andy went to the baby elephant sanctuary with Javan (our friend/driver) while Ben, Eden and I were at the embassy.  We all met back at the hotel for lunch and naps.  Then we spent the rainy afternoon at the mall playing at Beezy Bees, riding the elevators and escalators and then had tea and snacks at Java House before going back to the hotel.

On Thursday we did a safari ride through Nairobi National Park.  It was a great trip!  We saw a bunch of twiga right beside the road as soon as we drove in to the park.  Then we saw a bunch of gazelle, eland, a few monkeys, some cape buffalo, 4 rhinos in a pack, zebras and the best part were the lions.  Total we saw 6 lions!  We first saw 2 females sitting under a tree.  Then we saw a male lion with his kill.  He was a ways off, but we could see him dragging his food.  Then on our way out of the park we saw three lion cubs sitting under a tree.  We also saw a bunch of birds and two crocodiles as well as a group of baboons.  It was really fun and the kids did a great job.  Especially because we didn’t really eat from breakfast until we got back to the hotel at 5.  They napped during the drive and slept pretty well.

Thursday evening we ate “lunch” (at 5:15) poolside and played in the pool.  The pool was warm which was nice because it was a bit chilly outside.  The kids loved swimming and jumping off the side.  Then we had baths and ate a light dinner then visited before bed.

We had a great time with Deda, Aunt Donna and Papa and  were so sad when Deda and Aunt Donna left.  The kids are very excited that Papa is coming tomorrow, and Eden is especially looking forward to their week together.  We’ve posted a few pictures and will post more after we swap pics with Deda, Papa and Aunt Donna.

We’ve reached the end of the road in some ways.  Little Angels (the adoption agency here in Kenya) won’t accept a home study completed here and signed off on by an agency in the U.S.  In order to avoid splitting up the family, we applied for the visitors visa once again.  We had letters from Senator Lugar’s office, Congressman Rokita’s office and a letter from a new friend, Randy Tobias, who is a former Eli Lilly CEO and also headed up PEPFAR and USAID for President Bush.  We took in everything we could think of to support our case, but were denied again.  We haven’t completely given up hope of a visitors visa because we were told part of the reason for the denial was that the US wasn’t comfortable letting us leave Kenya with Eden with the travel order we have.  They say we have to have a travel order from the high courts, which our lawyer is going to get on Monday.  While we’re not giving up on the visitors visa, we also have a time crunch on the adoption because our home study has to be completed and turned in to Little Angels before the first Wednesday in December if we want them to review our case before Christmas.

So, tonight we made a really hard decision.  Ben booked flights for he, Andy and me to fly back to Indy on Tuesday night.  My dad was here in Nairobi this past week for UN meetings and is going to stay with Eden while we’re gone next week.  Ben and I are both very relieved that Eden can stay with him and are thankful that my dad is willing and able to take the time off to hang out in Eldoret with her.  It will be much easier for Eden to have us gone for the week if she’s spending it with Papa.

The hardest part about all of this is that next Sunday, Ben will come back to Kenya, but Andy and I will stay in West Lafayette with my parents.  We have gone round and round and looked at all of our options, but a national doctor’s strike begins December 5 in Kenya and it’s unlikely to be resolved before my due date.  Also, the hospitals here in Eldoret don’t really have NICU capabilities if they were needed.  It seems safest for Grace and me to deliver in the US.  Unfortunately, this means that when I leave on Tuesday, I have no idea when Andy and I will see Eden again.

It’s possible that the adoption will wrap up quickly and that Eden would be granted an I-130 immigration visa before Grace is born.  It’s also possible that we might have to wait 2 years after the adoption is finalized, if the US decides that our 2009 custody order doesn’t count.  It’s possible that Ben will be able to apply for another visitors visa after he gets back and that it would be granted, but it seems unlikely since we’ve been denied twice.

You can’t imagine how horrible it feels to separate Eden and Andy.  I am so afraid of what that will do to them and their relationship.  I can’t describe how terrible I feel about having to leave Eden.  I know that she will be fine with Ben, but I will miss her so much, and I worry that she will feel abandoned.  Also, if she ever finds out that I have been to Deda’s house without her, I don’t know if she will forgive me.  I will probably miss Eden’s birthday and maybe Christmas.  She might not be there when Grace is born, and she is so excited about helping me with the baby.  Not to mention that Ben possibly won’t see Andy until January.  And of course, I will miss Ben, too!  I keep telling myself that 5 or 10 years from now it won’t matter, but right now it feels really, really awful.  We do find comfort in knowing that our decision means that Eden won’t stay in Kenya alone, and we honestly feel like this is the best way we can care for and protect everyone in our family.

Ben and I are tired of fighting the US and we are so sad right now.  That leaves us with prayer.  Please pray for us as we enter a time of separation.  Pray for our relationships and for safe travels and most of all, pray that Eden gets to come home SOON!  This is not what we hoped and planned for, but we KNOW that God is still in control and that He has a purpose in this.  We’ve seen God work plenty of miracles before so we’re anxiously waiting to see what comes next.