Visit Number Two

So I took my dad and Barb and sister back out to visit Michelle. She was sitting on the floor in her car seat in a room with al the bigger kids playing around – not THAT is one way to keep a kid awake – let me tell ya!! Gee Wiz. Talk about L O U D !!!!!

Anyway – I picked her up, and as soon as she saw me she GRINNED! Yup. And I am not even making it up to make myself feel good!

She was hungry, and kept nuzzling into me and cramming her fist and/or bib into her mouth. We sat together for awhile, and then I was lucky enough to be there to feed her lunch! I was given a plastic cup with a cereal/formula/milk mixture inside, and a spoon. So I started to feed her with the spoon. She was fussing a bit, and spitting out some of the formula. I looked over at the other lady giving Claudia her lunch, and Claudia was sucking nicely from the side of the cup itself. I did the same with Michelle, and sure enough – she just about finished the whole thing!! It was officially my first “cup feed” – something which I didn’t even think was possible until today!

After she was (extremely) full, we changed her diaper into her first Pampers, and she fell asleep in my arms. Sweet little angel. I tucked her into bed, and had to leave… which is harder than it sounds!!

Diaper Delivery

So our sweet little girl Michelle happily wears a folded up towel with a piece of thin plastic pinned around it as a diaper. Now I am sure this is normal practice in rural areas, and I certainly appreciate the practicality of it. But to think that Michelle is OUR DAUGHTER, and sitting in a village with a towel and piece of plastic as a diaper… that is just too far off from the reality of OUR family. Meer always had the best, driest diapers we could find – even if we had to import them ourselves! His sweet tooshie has never even experienced a “Regular Pampers”. So today’s mission is to go to Nakumatt and buy as many diapers as I can for Michelle, Claudia, and Obama. And then drive out to the orphanage to deliver them and visit with Michelle with my dad and Barb. I’m not sure if it will count as a visit as far as the adoption goes, but I think it will. I’m bringing an actual camera, so more pictures are on the way!!!

Orphanage

So this is a google Earth picture of the orphanage. You can tell by the photo that the courtyard within the building is the only outdoor space the orphanage has. When I get more details, I will post them... ;-)

With a Little Leg Work...

Progress. It is??

So I spent the morning chasing around the adoption trail… turns out there isn’t a 3 month old baby girl ANYWHERE!!! The ones born in November are already fostered out to adoptive parents. We even went to a different orphanage on this side of town that had reported having a baby girl, but they also turned out to be 7 months old and 1 year old. So that sucks.

Basically we can have our social worker send our paperwork to New Life Homes – which is when they can be open about the status, gender, and ages of the children they have (although the youngest girl they have is 7 months old). Then basically we wait for baby girls to be brought in, and grow up to 3 months in age. I am hoping they have one that is maybe 4 or 6 weeks old, but from what the social worker said – they don’t.

At least our application is officially DONE, and the letter of approval is being signed today, and sent off to New Life… so we are officially in-line! Who would have thunk it, huh??? 2 million orphans, and not one 3 month old healthy baby girl. UGH!!!

I KNOW it is all in God’s time, and when the right daughter for our family comes along, it will work out perfectly… but still so frustrating to be so close, and yet still have nothing tangible. Sigh…

Tick....Tock....

The Certificates of Good Conduct (criminal background checks) are ready to be collected from the C.I.D. Finally!! So I should see them tonight when dear hubby get’s home from work – then scan them to make a copy for the adoption scrapbook. Tomorrow I am HOPING to go to Little Angels Network and drop them off in the morning as soon as traffic clears up a little. Then scoot by New Life Home Trust to speak with a social worker about which babies are available at this time, etc.

I am being hopeful that there is a new little angel that is just waiting for us, and will be 3 months old in the middle of April. That is what I am REALLY hoping for!!!

Tomorrow Meer is also 1000 days old!!! Yes – the only reason I would ever have known is that handy little ticker at the side of this page – who knew it would be so useful when I installed it years ago, hey??

So that is that. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting….

Paperwork...

Mission successful! After waiting for a good hour in the parking lot for someone to arrive, we have gotten our finger prints officially taken, and our applications for Certificates of Good Conduct are due out on Monday. How GREAT is that??? So Tuesday I can go and drop them off at Little Angels Network, and then they can immediately refer us to New Life Homes to select our daughter.

We still do have company coming, and it might still work out best for us to bring her home immediately after returning to Nairobi… I suppose we have to wait and see when exactly we can meet our daughter, and take it from there. All in all, a GREAT day!!!

Paperwork Update

The update is, we have an appointment at C.I.D. (aka: Kenya’s highest police division, called the Criminal Investigation Department) set for Friday morning. Which means – if all goes quickly, we should have our Certificates of Good Conduct (aka: Kenya’s version of a criminal record check) handed over to Little Angels Network sometime next week.

My GOAL is to have our documents completed and handed over before our friends arrive on the 29th. Then while we are busy around town and on safari, our paperwork can be referred to New Life Home Trust, and we can set up an appointment to “select our child” for as soon as we get back from safari – most likely April 13th or 14th. Then my mom will still have about 10 days to visit her grand daughter at the orphanage, and a couple weeks to help us all adjust to the new addition when we FINALLY get to bring her home!!!

So you know what they say about idle hands...

Pink Baby Blanket

Until all the paperwork and WAITING is over, I am hell bent on keeping busy! I found this stellar wool last weekend when I was trolling for sewing notions on Biashara street. It was all together too expensive, but when I saw the pink with GREEN flecks in it – who could resist?? I could only afford 2 balls at the time, so am making the smallest blanket that is still usable, with the intention of edging it with a crochet pattern of some sort to increase the size once I know how big it will finally be, etc.

I started with 100 stitches across, and then a border of 10 knit stitch on each end of the rows – to make a border of some sort.

I was leery to start purling, but turns out I am faster at that than I am at knitting! Who knew!!

Now all I have to do is get this house put back together, and then I will have a chance at getting it all done before life gets too busy again… fingers crossed for that one!!!

39 Days Later

Caroline called this morning at 10:42, with the news that the LANS Case Committee sat down last week, and approved our case PENDING the receipt of our Certificates of Good Conduct. SO – that means we are a couple more weeks away from being referred to New Life Homes… which is ok, I guess. I can live with it.

We have guests coming from overseas, so we will be out of Nairobi on Safari from March 30th until April 11th. So as long as we are referred BEFORE we return, I’m ok with it.

The big hold up is that I have never gotten my little plastic "resident card", which is something that we need before I can request a Certificate of Good Conduct from the C.I.D. So that is the jist of it. I have a few ques to line up in, and then we are in the clear. It can take about 2 weeks to get both documents - so 4 weeks in total. Not too keen on waiting that long, but have to wait until tomorrow to see what we can do speed things up. God bless Kenya, hey??? So often the system can work in our favor, and I am hopeful this will be one of those times!!!

So good news, bad news, good news, bad news!!! UGH!!!

Caroline Calls...

Ok. I’m annoyed. Well – half annoyed. On a good note, we got a phone call from Caroline. On a bad note, she requires some more documentation from us. So that sucks. She says the LANS meeting has yet to be set, and just basically requires these certificates of good conduct. Yeah. So now I have to get on that, and keep waiting… I guess! Gee wiz.

Week One of Waiting

Still waiting. Have managed to keep very busy around the house… made new shelving units for the bathrooms, and am now filling my Gran’s old dining room hutch with all my sewing bits and pieces! It’s a bigger job than it sounds… have bought every matching storage container Nakumatt has to offer! Everything is organized by type ant then color – with all my thread now officially in one drawer! That’s a first!

Spend 3 days online getting our daughter’s clothing ordered from Please Mum in Canada. My mom is coming over to help when we get the baby, and is willing to lug everything over with her – so that is a fabulous thing! Then my friend Chad is hitting this big sale in a couple weeks time to get all the missing bits – can NOT wait for that one! She is coming over for a visit with her family at the very end of March, so that will work out perfectly well too. (SO excited!!)

Other than that, I’m just trying to keep busy and stay productive. In the dust cloud of my massive cleaning attempts, I found my stash of powder pink alpaca wool… it’s screaming for em to sit on my butt and knit, but I somehow doubt I will be finding the time for a that anytime soon… also found the half knit blue alpaca wool blanket I started for Meer when I was still pregnant, so enough said about that!!! Ha ha ha!! One year, though… one year!!

Went to a different Nakumatt this morning and found a couple more sets of storage containers for the “craft hutch”… off to see how I can get my massive inventory of Velcro to fit inside and look pretty… dare I say it’s the last items that need to find a home in the hutch! Day number three though – it certainly didn’t happen over night!!