In Nairobi

I haven't posted anything while we've been out of country, things have been stressful. We arrived on a Sunday. This first week in Rwanda we visited Isabelle every day and all the paperwork and court procedures went smoothly. We didn't get our travel letter on Friday but we asked for special permission to take her until we had the travel letter since we already passed court. My husband left on Saturday so he could be at home with our 4 year old at home. My mom is here and she stayed. We took Isabelle to the hospital on Saturday to have her ears checked out because she was pulling at them. The hospital was great and we left with 4 perscriptions and were told to come back and see the ENT. When we came back and saw the ENT he cleaned out here ears, good times, and she had wax, a bug, and a seed in her ears. Ewwww...

I waited multiple times at MIGEPROF that second week for the travel letter which seemed liked it wouldn'tever appear. And still, no travel letter. We needed the travel letter to get her passport which we needed to have our appt at the embassy. I got sick, very sick. Oh the stress. We got the travel letter on Thursday early morning, picked up the passport at 2:30 after much begging and pleading, had our appt at the embassy at 3:30 and leftfor the airport from there. I was sick at the airport and we thought they wouldn'tlet us get on the plane. Oh more stress but they did and we arrived at our hotel in Nairobi during a very hard rain about 10:30pm. More sickness all night long so my mom took Isabelle to her appt at the IOM for the TB test. On Monday we waited 5 hours to be told her TB was negative but she needed A blood test and a chest x-ray. So another 3 1/2 hours later we were sent home onlyto betold on Tues thatshe needed another test. She gets to have sputum taken 3 days in a row. Tube down the nose to get the sputum. Oh yeah, more fun. I'm sick once again.

Enogh of down in the dumps because Isabelle is perfect. She is more and more comfortable with us every day. She is chubby and adorable. She laughs at everything and is very snuggly. The sisters at HOH are amazing, taking care of all those children and loving every single one. They are very involved in the community as well. Awesome women.

So that's a short synopsis of what has been happening. We go to the embassy on Tues and leave tues evening. Can't wait to get home.

Referral!

We received a referral in our email this morning. We're very excited - it's a girl. We'll be traveling in about 2 1/2 weeks, we can't wait to meet her.

We have our approval letter

We received our approval letter on 8/26. It is dated 8/8 and states that we should be receiving a referral within the next 2 months. We're so excited to be moving on to the next step. Of course the next step is more waiting but we only have one more thing to wait for - to see our beautiful baby's face! We're getting all the paperwork ready that we'll need to bring with us and trying to finish all the projects around the house that we've put off. It seems like this adoption is actually real now.

Update

We heard from our agency yesterday that we have been approved. The letter is waiting for a signature before it can be emailed to us. This is fantastic news. I'm now stocking my email to see if we have the actual approval. Once we have that we will be waiting to be matched with a child from Home of Hope. SO excited about the next step!

Update

Adoption update:
I'm excited to hear/read about the families traveling to meet their kiddo's and bringing them home, seems like a pretty steady stream of referrals recently. I haven't heard about too many approval's in the past couple weeks but that doesn't mean they aren't going out. We wrote the Ministry personally about our case last week and they stated they were working on files up to #110. I know that Jean Marie, the lady that was heading up all the adoption work, resigned recently which was a bummer to hear. She was wonderful and cared so much about the kiddo's, but it's awesome that she will be able to spend more time with her family. The 2 ladies that are now processing everything are also wonderful, just unfortunate that there is one less to help out. We want all the kiddo's to be meeting their families and going home as soon as possible! :-}

Surgery update:
Everything went well. The pain was intense for about 24 hours. I have stitches in my eyeball, interesting. The surgery has left me with residual double vision which should subside in the next few weeks. I can do most things without my eye patch which is nice (can't work or drive without it). However, in the last 5-7 days I have noticed the movement coming back. It's not as bad as it was before but it's still there. The surgery was to remove the superior & inferior oblique muscles off my eye. If she left any of the superior oblique muscle fibers on my eye then I would still have movement. She said she checked multiple times, guess there's still some there. Not sure what that means yet, I guess I will find out at my next f/u appt in June. If it's another surgery then it's another surgery. Ugh. My upper eyelid is slightly droopy also, another side effect from the surgery. 

So those are the updates!
Christa

Yeah for movement!

More approvals and referrals continue to come from the Ministry and that's so exciting. I know of review of dossiers of up to at least #103, of course not everything through 103 has been approved but it's still awesome that things keep moving. I hope that all the families waiting so long get news soon of approval/referral. I'm hoping we are going to be traveling by August, that's an estimate and of course estimate in adoption are probably crazy to make (very crazy) but it's just a dream...

In surgery news, I saw my surgeon on Monday (best neuropthomologist out there as far as I'm concerned, and I've met a few) and yeah, I get to have surgery. We both decided that after 8 years of trying to see if there was anything to do for my wobbling eye, there's not. Surgery is a good option for me so I'm having surgery on 4/29. I'm beyond excited about this. Right now this screen is wobbling and double but after surgery, not so. When we travel internationally I will not be looked at like a terrorist for wearing an eye patch. I can't say that I've enjoyed my pirate days, they were interesting, I've learned to not care what people say about my appearance (I guess that's still a work in progress), but I'm happy to not occlude, have worsening headaches and neck pain. God has been good throughout and I've very blessed to have found a surgeon willing to perform the surgery. 

So, after that is over I'll be totally ready for our non-objection letter and referral!!

More paperwork

I started on the update to our homestudy today. Well, actually I just looked at it. I will start on it tomorrow. Tony and I both need to go get fingerprinted again. This will mark the 5th time in 12 months we will have been fingerprinted, one of those times we fingerprinted ourselves because the lady said we probably could do it better than her. It's good to know that you're decent at something. Maybe if my job doesn't work out I can start fingerprinting people...

We heard from our agency that Tony will only need to travel once to sign the Act of Adoption and then he'll be able to leave. That's fantastic news for us since we'll be leaving Gai at home. The Ministry has stated we should plan on at least 2 weeks to be in Rwanda, up to 4 weeks. That will be ok since Tony will be able to go back home. My mom is planning on traveling with me (yeah!!) so I won't be alone with a new baby/toddler and lots of stress.

In other news, the appointment with my neuropthomologist is one week from today. The meds didn't work as far as I can tell although they did make me lose about 5 lbs. It's not such a good thing, Tony keeps telling me to eat more. I can't eat more if I'm not hungry. Medication is wonderful and annoying at the same time. I'll gain it back eventually. I'm stoked at the thought of having surgery and being able to see straight when I wake up in the morning. I won't have to put on an eye patch or wear a contact. Woo-Hoo!!

Funny conversation I had with my son (3 y/o) before he went to bed.

Gai- Is heaven far away?
Me- Yes.
Gai- We can't drive there?
Me- No. When we die we go to heaven.
Gai- What happens if you die?
Me- I don't think you need to worry about that. This is a morbid conversation.
Gai- What happens if you and Poppy die?
Me- We'll go to heaven.
Gai- And I won't have any Mommy or Poppy?
Me- We will still be your Mommy and Poppy but we would be in heaven. You would live with Auntie
        and Uncle.
Gai- Oh, so they would live here?
Me- Maybe, but you don't need to worry because you'll never be alone and we're not going to die
       anytime soon.
Gai- But if you die, Auntie could turn my game on for me?

That's what my son really care's about. He wanted to make sure someone would be around to turn on the gaming console so he could play his games. I feel so loved.

Crazy things, adoptions...

We just got the new today that Rwanda has changed it's requirements. For any adoptions that haven't finalized, adoptive families now have to travel twice. Once for the Act of Adoption and then again to finalize. You can stay in between the 2, looks like it takes about 3 weeks for finalization after the Act of Adoption. Certainly adds stress to the finances! I don't know what we'll do yet but I do know that once I see my child I won't be leaving Rwanda...

Things really are moving!

So following blogs is an obsession when you're adopting. I know of at least one family whose dossier is in the 70's and they are being reviewed right now. Amazing. Awesome. The ministry is moving at a lightening fast pace. I love it!

DTR 5 Months

So our dossier has been in Rwanda for 5 months now. Nothing exciting happening (that I know of) in the Ministry. We should hear from our agency next month about any updates they have. They have someone there now and someone going in March as well. I did see on another blog that the Ministry is up to #55 on dossiers. It's good news that everything is still moving.

In other news, I had an appointment with my neuropthomologist today and I only have one more drug to try (Namenda) before I can have surgery on my left eye. Yeah! I will start the medication tomorrow and be on it for 4 weeks (if I tolerate it which I probably won't) and then, since everyone knows it won't work (EVERYONE KNOWS THIS), I have a f/u scheduled with Dr. Wallace on 4/4 for a pre-op exam. I'm so excited. I've never been so excited to have surgery before but this is HUGE! It's a possibility the surgery won't work but it's a better possibility it will work and I will be eye patch/blacked out contact free and when we travel to Rwanda I won't be questioned by every person why I wear an eye patch, what's under the eye patch, etc. I'm so excited. SO EXCITED. I just have to get through this one last medication and whatever side effect(s) it throws my way. yeah!

Up to #40 on dossier approvals

In the monthly conference call with our agency on Tuesday there wasn't any news for our agency to report. Fairly depressing call. Adoption in Rwanda has picked up slightly but not much. There have been a few approvals that have gone out in the past couple weeks. One of the other prospective adoptive parents stated she knew a family whose dossier was #40 that received approval from Rwanda recently. #40 is the highest number anyone has heard of that's been approved. That's good news but unfortunately it doesn't sound as if anyone who has gotten a recent (within the past few months) approval has received a referral. So we will wait and pray. I don't know if there's any hope we will be adopting this year or not but that, of course, is up to God.