My Gut tells me to fight

I am sort of puzzled of what to do. The kids have court Friday. Should I start to plead with the senator's office now or wait till Friday to find out if the kids even passed court? Chances are, two separate cases... you know what I mean..

Lets be realistic here as to when I could possibly receive my I171 approval. I have contacted our USCIS office weekly to inquire how my file is moving and I hear the same thing every time. Its on the adjudicator's desk to be looked at. Do the math. I only had my fingerprinting done 1 month ago today. When I went onto the various websites for congressman and senator under questions and answers for petitions, it says that the adjudicator just cannot move your petition up if you haven't waited long enough. So can the senator's office really help me with where I am at in the process?

I am crying out for help. Does anyone have any advice for me as to who to contact or what is wise to do. Rather if I go to the congressman site or the senator or whatever public office site, they all point me back to our Tacoma office. I will not deal with those people in my city, I have already dealt with them twice and my problems were much larger than what I am facing now and they didn't get anything done. Have you guys dealt with the people in your city or in your capital if you needed a rush job?

The fact is that if my kiddos do pass court this coming Friday, I am strapped to my chair and cannot even schedule an embassy appt. Plus, once I get the I171 approval, the packet still has to go the ET..

Awhhhhhhh, join the wonderful world of adoption.

Court Date

I am happy to announce that we have a court date of February 5, next Friday. That is just one week out.

Although I am extremely happy, I am bummed to know we still don't have a I171 approval. And even if I had the approval, it still needs to be physically forwarded to ET. The agency cannot schedule an embassy appointment without that.

Please keep this in your prayers. Thank you.

Patience, Patience is the Virtue

I thought you could teach an old horse some new tricks! No so.

I never thought I would be the same as I was the first time when I was adopting but I am finding myself slowly but surely falling into the same trap again. First, things are going smoothly and than stuff just stops and other weird stuff start happening. I have the tendency of driving myself crazy with things that are happening to people and it hasn't even happened to me yet. I am finding out that the USCIS office is going over the I600A with fine tooth combs and many applications having to be supplemented with stuff and some of the stuff they want doesn't even make sense especially for the positive adoptions. And its not just here in WA but I am hearing that people in other states are being rejected too.

Also our cases were submitted on 12/30 and nobody has gotten a court date yet. Ahh, I just want a court date so I have something to look forward too.

My welcome bags were at the office since the beginning of December and I know they were taken to ET the beginning of this week. I really really am hoping that the kids will find out any day next week that they have a family.

Anyways, I could have the mind set of Kevin's brain but I don't. So I need to retreat to my favorites verses in the bible and just be quiet.

I'll keep you posted as soon as I find something out bad or good.

Finally an email about Misrak

This first email came to me from the dear mom that has met Misrak right after she got to the orphanage. This amazing lady will be forever in Misrak's in my life.

I have tears in my eyes as I write this. I fell in love with Misrak when we were in Ethiopia, and was praying a family would quickly come forward to adopt her. She is so beautiful, and her eyes are mesmerizing.

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Yesterday I was really down on myself. One of these days, feeling totally overwhelmed not knowing how I am paying and fundraising all this money to finalize adopting and travel. So my day was immediately changed by this email below which I got from my friend Signe. God spoke to me through Signe and assured me it will be okay. She was able to write while at the airport. I think its always a blessing when your friends see your kids v. people you just offer to take pics. They love on your kids like they belong to them just because they are your friends. My dear Signe went all the way to Kidane to meet Misrak and I am forever thankful to her because she most certainly had the most busiest schedule while there and I don't know how she fit it in.

Misrak is a sweetheart. I played soccer with her for a bit. I talked to the nannies and they said she would be a blessing to you. She was very sweet, gentle, happy, all good. The nannies asked about Biruk and Amira. I assured them that they are wonderful and you are very excited about adding Misrak to your family.

Now I have another adoption mama traveling picking up her daughter from Kidane so I am hoping she will love on my sweetie too.

Emails about my little man

I have been hesitant to post these emails about my boy because I have not gotten any emails on my girl. I wanted to be fair. Its also sort of hard because they are not together at the same orphanage and it seems like not too many people go to M's orphanage. But since a few people are traveling to her orphanage soon or are in the process of I am hoping to get some input on her. In the mean time, please enjoy these ones I have gotten so far. Some I wasn't able to post because they were confidential. This first one below cracks me up, I just love it and I think when you read it, it feels like you can just picture his personality.. I was so worried about his height in the beginning but even if he is tiny, he will make it in this world because he has so much to offer with his precious personality.

Your son is cute as can be. He is super tiny, and you think that he should just be walking, but then he opens his mouth full of teeth and talks to you in complete sentences. He has this tiny high pitched voice that is adorable. He likes to be a helper and wanted to hold my baby who was about the same size as he was. He had his toenails painted blue while I was there and thought that it was great fun. He has the sweetest laugh and likes to be held upside down. That snookums, I could eat him. He seems to be completely potty-trained, at least he was wearing underwear the whole time I was there and didn't smell like pee. So I think he is truly potty trained.

He is small and that would make more sense about his size. We just loved him because he had so much personality. I think we sent you a pic that showed some of that. He makes all sorts of faces. He has very good English and can say some sentences completely in English. I also liked how he didn't seem to realize he was smaller than his friends and just played right along with them. I wouldn't say that he is reserved or anything, but he wasn't pushy for attention like so many of the .......... kids are. He is happy to play with kids of all ages.

Yes, I remember G... you couldn't miss him, I was amazed when I learned how old he was but it was interesting that if you pushed him and expected age 4 behavior.. you could get it.

Home one Year

It has been such a joy this last year to have our kids home. I still remember when we arrived at the airport. Kevin and Danica were just balling but also really shocked just how tiny they were. Actually since my family didn't believe that we would finally bring children home, I didn't text them until I arrived in WA DC telling them I have the children and am on American soil. This time it was for real, not when I came home from Zambia, without child.

All the bad memories of previous adoptions and court failures have ceased. So many people used to tell me when I was waiting that once the children are home you forget all the pain prior to it.

So much happiness has entered our house. Even Anastasia (who I never thought could handle small kids) is so happy with the kids. They take Ana to their room and play with her as she is one of them. They don’t even look at her size. Danica is happy too. She finally knows what its like to fight with siblings she said. Most certainly Biruk is giving her a run for her money because he is so mouthy and argues with Danica about everything:)

Kevin and Biruk are still soul mates. They are so much alike it just freaks me out. Most and foremost they are just very social able people who talk all day and make friends anywhere. They also always sneak food behind my back and than giggle after they did it. Usually I know they did it by their giggles.

Amira is still an introvert with lots of sass. Her wedding has completely stopped, even at night.

Health wise, they have made tremendous progress. They are now going to the doctor only every 2-3 months. Biruk is still not an any meds and his viral load is awesome. Amira has no more molluscum left and it took about just a year for all of them to go away.

Biruk went from size 4T to 6 and shoes from 10 to 12. Amira has going from size 3T to 5. Shirts she can wear a six. And shoes from a size 8 to 9 sometimes 10. I think both of their feet are just tiny.

Amira is still the smallest kid in her class and Biruk has almost caught up with the kid in his class. He is just so long. Where before Biruk was a half head taller than Amira he is now almost a head taller than Amira.

Their English is amazing. Biruk is almost there but Amira still gets stuck a whole lot but she has gotten so good at expressing what she needs.

I got this picture below the same day I got bad court news. I just wanted to post it because I have long forgotten about the sadness that day like I reported in the beginning of the paragraph.

LOVE THIS PICTURE BELOW. THIS PICTURE SHOWS THEIR TRUE CHARACTERS. AMIRA MISS SASS AND BIRUK MR. KNOW IT ALL.