We had an early start to the day and were all dressed and showered and in the taxi by 7:20. Eden was a trooper even though her eating and sleeping schedule was totally interrupted. We headed to the US Embassy and we got there at 8am. It was awesome because we are American citizens and so we just walked past this HUGE line of people waiting to go through security right to the security gate. We were taken through security and past the huge line of people waiting outside of the embassy building. We went to the American Citizen Services desk and took our number (425) then walked into the waiting room where they were serving #425. We went in to a private room and explained the situation to a girl (who by the way: first thing she said to me was “Nice Vera Bradley bag.” So nice to have someone notice!) She got a non-immigrant visa officer who came to us (instead of us going out into the big waiting room with all of the Kenyans). He discussed the adoption with us and talked to us about our plans then said he would call us when it was our turn.

When they called us 5 minutes later we found out that we had to have visa pictures taken and complete a form online. We left the embassy and went next door where they had a photo shop that did visa pictures and upstairs was an internet cafe. We were back at the embassy by 9. We went right to the window and turned in our papers then went to pay (where they accepted American Express!!!!) and then we waited for them to call us again.

They approved us and told us to come back on Monday at 2 to pick up the visa which is PERFECT because we had to go to Nairobi on Monday anyway to make our flight out of Nairobi on Tuesday morning. The man we talked to said that DHS normally only gives a 6 month visa but that he would put a note in her case file explaining the situation and would recommend a 10 month visa for her. We won’t find out how long her visa is until we get back to the US it seems, but we’ve been told that even if she only gets a 6 month visa, we can extend it once we are home.

God was still at work today (shocking, I know) and obviously had all of this in control. We can’t express how thankful we are to all of you for your prayers and words of encouragement. We can’t wait to be home so that all of you can meet our precious daughter. We are looking forward to a week of stress-free life as we prepare to come home.

After all of the visa stuff we had some time before our flight and we went to a baby elephant sanctuary where they raise orphaned elephants and then release them into the wild. Eden was very excited about the elephants and was flapping her arms, pointing and yelling “Ooo, ooo, ooo.” when the elephants moved. I’m posting some pictures so that you can see how cute the elephants and Eden were. 🙂