As Time Stands Still...

Well – GOOD NEWS!!! We are bringing home Tanaya Jean on Tuesday morning at 11am!!! It has been a long ordeal, with difficult to obtain documents, and then a further one week delay waiting for the orphanage to process their paperwork, etc. But now it suddenly seems like it was easy and (relatively) quick!! I am sure the big hassle is still yet to come, as we have the three month foster period to complete, and then the Kenyan court system to navigate our way through. But having her home, and giving her a good bath, and lotion massage, and dressing her up in nice new clothes – I can’t wait!!!

Speaking of which… I should make a countdown ticker!!!! Anyway – 3 more sleeps, and we can bring her home… !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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...

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!!

Home Visit Completed!!

Oh my goodness. Where to even begin. Well, it took all of about 7 minutes. She came in and asked to be toured around the house... which I did. She said it was "very nice". Her main concern was how many people lived in the house, and where the baby would be sleeping. She took notes on teh back of a folded piece of paper, and that was about it.

On the way out to her car I asked her when the LANS Case Committee would be meeting. I don't know if it is just the standard answer, or the truth, but she said it could be between 2 and 3 WEEKS. (GASP!!!) I have been asking her everytime I see her about when the next LANS meeting will be, and she always says "It is not set yet". But when I first went into Little Angels Network, I asked another gal, and she said that adoption had increased in Kenya since the first time we applied, and that the case committee was meeting TWICE A MONTH. So I just don't know. Being out of control of the situation just SUCKS!!!

Anyway - I'm completely bummed out... although slightly cheery that the house looks so great! Imagine. But I still just want to hop into bed and watch bad movies on teh Hallmark channel until... sometime in March!!! Ah - so annoying....

Waiting...

2 1/2 hours until the Home Visit.

The house is in fine shape - dare I say even clean, attractive, and fabulous!! Other than washing the dog prints off the front porch, and putting out teh new welcome Mat - we are golden!!

Now I just need time to pass quickly, so I can start another project and make a mess! ha ha ha!!

Baby Options

The minimum age for adoption in Kenya is 6 weeks, but the orphanage we have selected has a strict rule of the minimum age being 3 months old. Their reasoning behind it is half medical, half legal… The medical part is obvious – the health and developmental ability of the children can be assessed quite well by three months of age. The legal part I am a bit more confused about… the social worker at New Life Home Trust explained it to me (twice – shh!), but I didn’t have the courage to keep questioning her until I understood it completely. The jist of it that there is a six week period where the parents can come back and claim the child, or something like that. Or it’s a form that takes 6 weeks to process in the courts? I don’t exactly know – but something like that. Basically New Life Home Trust waits until the health of the child is confirmed, and the legal status of the child is confirmed. Thus the minimum age of 3 months to adopt. (heavy sigh.)

Anyway – they have two baby girls that are around “the right age” to be adopted. One was born on November 4th, and the other on November 26th. Apparently one of my Aunts was born on November 4th!! …she had breast cancer, and passed on a couple years ago. So that is pretty cool… NOT that my Aunt passed on, of course, but that there is a baby waiting to be adopted that was born on her birthday. ;-)


Our other option is to see if any baby girls are available at New Life Home Trust’s orphanage in Mombasa. If there is, we can fly out there and meet them/her, and adopt from there.

Or we can wait until another baby girl becomes 3 months old… I’m not sure how many younger baby girls they have though.

Technically we can also switch orphanages and choose a 6 week old baby girl from somewhere else. I really don’t want to do that, as New Life is the “best” orphanage in Kenya, and I obviously want our daughter to have received the absolute best care and medical attention before we can provide for her ourselves.

Now waiting to be approved is absolute AGONY… I don’t know what else I can paint, remodel, or build, to keep me occupied until we are, but I most certainly will have to keep myself swamped with projects – just to keep my sanity!!

Waiting for the Home Visit

Less than 4 days until the home visit. Not that is matters one bit how “organized” our home is, considering asking if we having flush toilets is the main question on the application!! But regardless, I’m all in a fluff to have it actually functional, and livable, and COMPLETED, before Caroline gets here… at 10:00 Tuesday morning!!

For the past 2 weeks I have actually completely removed and replaced EVERYTHING – with thorough cleaning done in between. Every room in the house now has a purpose that suits our lifestyle (good bye formal dining room), and works for our family. What a freaking CHORE!! I’m at a stage now where the once cleaned and organized garage (I started in there) is now the current dumping ground for boxed that I have low-to-no motivation to unpack… my only concern is how to stack them higher! Ha ha ha!! Yeah. Not joking.

In a perfect world I would have about 2 more bookcases for my books, and a SERIOUS wallunit or “hutch” for my sewing and craft supplies. But until then, the house is pretty much in working order, and even… dare I say… looking pretty good!!

Yesterday I made fresh curtains for the Toy Room – a cute little blue, yellow and red print on a white background. It has made the room super fresh! Today I emptied the “wine cabinet” and converted it into a much needed book case in the new office (was the dining room). Now I am dealing with the last bits of… crap… that seem to be cluttering up the surfaces – particularly in the kitchen! I’m inclined to get a few more empty boxes and just start filling them up and stacking them in the garage!! How horrible of me is that??? Well… I just might do it…

Ok. Off to find the boxes!! ;-)