Day 7: Another step closer

Today was a good day for us in Addis.  We started the day at the HOH transition home where all of the children who are waiting for their new parents live.  We had 3 families from our agency ask us to take pictures so we spent the morning doing that and letting the girls spend a morning with their friends at the home.  There will be only one more opportunity for the girls to do this so we were glad they could do it. 

One of the children we took pictures of was a boy who is 2 years old.  His new mother sent us a teddy bear to give to him.  When he got the bear he cried and was very upset for about 30 minutes. We felt bad because the pictures were not going to be reassuring to the mother and father that their son was doing well.  I know how Susan and I felt after we got the first set of pictures of our girls.  Fortunately, the nannies got him calmed down and a bit of cheerios from us and he was doing much better. He sat with me for a long time and we got lots of good pics an vid clips for the parents.  What broke my heart is when we had to leave and he clearly didn't understand why we were leaving. Never having our girls have to feel like that again is the blessing of the whole process.  We know this young boy and all of those children are going to loving homes and that is a comfort as well.  Please pray for all of these children and their new families.

 

The afternoon was spent at the embassy and we PASSED and as the women behind the glass asked Susan and I if we understand that this adoption if final ..... we said YES!!!  So now , we are done with the paperwork, the notary's, the signatures, the copies and tons of documents and in the eye's of Uncle Sam these girls are officially ours and will be legal residents when we hit the ground in JFK. The last step is to go through immigration and handover one more envelope that must have the seal of the embassy on it and remain sealed until the INS Officer opens it.  Thank you God for leading us through this process!

 

Tomorrow is another big day as we will go have some fun with the kids in the morning at the Ethiopia Zoo! The afternoon will be an emotional one as we go to the girls' orphanage and we are supposed to meet their birth mother. 

 

We are missing everyone and hope you are well.