Due to the change.org petition (If you haven’t, go and sign it now!) for Eden we’ve had a lot of requests for information from our blog, and I know it’s a bit time consuming to search back through all of our posts to find stuff from the early days with Eden.  I’ve attached links to a few of our favorite blog posts and the main events of the story from over the last couple of years.  You’re of course welcome to just wander through the blog as well, but these are the highlights!

• The first time we mentioned Eden http://benandmeghan.net/2009/09/cant-go-wrong-with-mac-and-cheese/
• The day that Eden came home http://benandmeghan.net/2009/10/shes-home/
• Eden’s first visa http://benandmeghan.net/2009/11/were-coming-home/
• Eden’s first Christmas with us http://benandmeghan.net/2010/01/our-very-merry-christmas/
• After Andy was born http://benandmeghan.net/2010/02/back-in-the-wolfe-den/
• Eden’s first Gotcha Day http://benandmeghan.net/2010/10/gotcha-day/
• Eden turns 2 http://benandmeghan.net/2010/12/eden-is-2-years-old/
• Back to Kenya http://benandmeghan.net/2011/04/back-in-kenya/
• Eden’s second Gotcha Day http://benandmeghan.net/2011/10/happy-gotcha-day/
• Visa denial #1 http://benandmeghan.net/2011/10/backupplanfaile/
• Separating http://benandmeghan.net/2011/11/heart-broken/
• The most recent travel order http://benandmeghan.net/2011/11/travel-order-3-granted/

We are almost ready to submit our application for Humanitarian Parole for Eden.  This would allow her to come back to the US as soon as possible and stay for about 6 months.  We’re trying to get the word out to as many people as possible about our case.  My Dad created a petition that you can sign to help support bringing Eden home.  Please check out the website (http://www.change.org/petitions/us-citizenship
-and-immigration-service-uscis-expedited-humanitarian-parole-for-baby-eden-bring-her-home-by-christmas) and sign the petition for Eden.

We will keep you updated on our progress and let you know as soon as we hear the decision from USCIS!

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.