Progress

I haven't been blogging much mostly because there isn't a whole lot to report and what we do have to report isn't very happy stuff.

We received the children's psychological reports a couple of weeks ago.  We sat and read all about their lives before the orphanage and it was heart-wrenching.  The children were interviewed and asked questions that I provided.  Like, "What do they remember about their life before the orphanage, what are their memories of their mother and father, what do they like to do, are they happy about being adopted, what do they know about America...?"

I was amazed by how much they remembered and how much detail they provided.  It is obvious that they were loved.  The stories that they shared were both happy and heartbreaking.  I was struck by how much they seemed to understand about why they were given up.  It was also apparent that their mother tried very hard to protect and shelter her children.

Yesterday was Mother's Day and I spent a lot of the day thinking about Nyah and Nathaniel's mother.  The mother that gave birth to them, loved and cared for them and made the very difficult decision to give them up when she could no longer physically care for them.  I thought about how much she must miss them.  I thought about how much they must miss her.  I wondered if she knew there was a family far away that wanted to take care of her children, love them, protect them and nurture them because she is no longer able.  I felt a wave of gratitude and humility as I thought about the tremendous sacrifice of that sweet woman.  I pray for her often.  I pray that she will be comforted.  I hope that we will be able to meet her and tell her face to face how much we love her.  I hope that we will be able tell her that we will do all that we can to honor her and make sure her children are always reminded of how much she loved them.  I want her to know that we are her family too.  That they will always be her children.  That we are honored that they will also be our children.

There are more stories to tell and things to share and I hope to be able to do that soon.  They also had a special father that we are hoping to learn more about soon.  As far as progress goes, things are moving along...slowly.  It's a long and painful process that at times I wonder if I can endure.  We put the kids' pictures up on the wall and I look at them often.  It is those sweet faces that keep me moving forward and remind me that it will all be worth it in the end.  We find comfort in knowing that there is One who sees the big picture and is aware of us personally.  We have faith knowing that things will work according to His time-line and not ours.

Since my last post we have accepted our referral and have been working towards getting our I-600A approval.  The last few weeks have been filled with stress as we've somehow lost an important file that contained our passports.  We finally had to give up looking and order new ones.  That of course, was a very expensive process and one that will take some time to recover from.  Another source of stress has been that apparently, I do not have readable fingerprints.  We have already had to make 2 trips to Nashville (more than 2 hours away) to have our fingerprints taken at the National Immigration Office.  They finally just gave up and took a sworn statement from me followed by an intense background check that made me feel like a suspected criminal or fugitive.  They finally pushed it through to the FBI and we are now awaiting word about that clearance.  There is a slight possibility that could be back this week.  If we get our I-600A approval in the next couple of weeks and submit our Dossier by the end of the month, there is a SLIGHT possibility that we could get a court date this summer.  We are really hoping that we get a court date by the end of July when the Ethiopian courts close for a couple of months.  But again, this is all out of our control.

We continue to plug along, brace for the next obstacle and hope for the best.  We appreciate so much the love and concern of our family and friends.  It is their love and support that gets us through.  We feel very blessed.