A little lift for spirits

I just received three new photos of Delylah from our agency. Our girl is growing and getting more and more cute every time I see her. She has hit the 12 pound mark. I just hope she doesn't grow too fast and out grow the clothes we have for her. We have a lot of clothes from Lennah that are in great condition and bought Delylah several new outfits because every little girl needs something old and something new. This definately helped me feel better today after not getting the best news yesterday.

Good News Bad News

So it appeared that the agency made a mistake and Delylah's abandonment period was up on Saturday May17th. We were so excited because we would have just had to wait for the Women's ministry to release her paperwork and we could have filed for our court date and brought home our baby soon. Well, this is not happening as we thought we are still waiting on approval from our government which normally takes 90 days and we are only at half that so our agency called the local USCIS office today to try to get this pushed through quicker. Well, that does not appear to be going to happen. The person in charge is out of town for a week and a half and the person currently working the cases can't promise anything. She told our agency to call back around June 10th or so. This news is putting a damper on things because we are concerned that we may not make the court closing. We are just praying that something comes through.

Mother's Day and Two Weeks

Delylah's hand I wish we were holding it

Hopefully, I am not being repetitive since I posted on Lennah's blog but we had a wonderful mother's Day. Even though Delylah is not home Keith got me a gift from both the girls. It was a beautiful carved photo album from Lennah and Delylah. It was a wonderful day but it would have been even better if Delylah was home. Next year will be even better than this years.
Well, we are down to only two weeks left until Delylah's abandonment period is up. This means that once this period is up, the orphanage will apply to take over custody this could take any where from one to four weeks. From there they will apply for a court date for her to become ours. So hopefully they will schedule a court date for mid July and we should travel mid August. I just hope everything goes as planned.

Fingerprints Done

Yesterday Keith and I had our fingerprints done to complete our I-600A application. I guess when you go in the middle of the week it becomes a quick process. Of course I had to miss work and we did request a Saturday appointment but they quickly disregarded that request. I am becoming anxious because Delylah's abandonment period is up in 19 days. We are just praying that our paperwork comes through so we can beat the court closing. Even though Ethiopia is now allowing children to be free for adoption 60 days after they are abandoned it is taking about another month to get clearance from the MOWA. So we should accoding to my calculations have a court date around the end of July and travel the end of August.
We also have not heard a lot of news about Delylah recently. With the power outages in Ethiopia our agency is having a really hard time getting in touch with their in country staff.
Hopefully, we can touch base with more families traveling to her orphanage so we can get some updates and photos from them.

New Photos and Good News

It looks like Delylah is doing much better. A traveling family was kind enough to snap 11 new photos of Delylah for us and said she is looking healthy. It looks like the pneumonia has cleared up. I am just waiting for official word from my agency saying that it has. But she is looking cuter and cuter every time we see her. I remember getting new photos of Lennah when she was in the orphanage and every time you get a new set you fall more and more in love with your child. It is so amazing how blessed we are. If someone would have said to me three years ago that I would have a 17 month old and another baby in Ethiopia I would have thought never could this happen so quickly.

On a sadder note. Please pray for our friends Tymm and Laura their daughter Meron has been taken from the orphanage to the hospital because of pneumonia. Please keep them in your prayers that she heals quickly. They need some miracles right now.

I attached a pic of her hair. I love that it is sticking up. I cannot wait until we go through the courts so I can post full pics.

News

Well we received Delylah's child profile today. Her birthdate is January 20, 2008 so it is nice to now exactly how old she is. Also we are a bit concerned because she is on anti-biotics for pneumonia. So please keep her in your prayers. We do have some good news she is what they consider a relinquishment which means we will not have to wait 90 days for her to be free for adoption. However, we now have to wait on our immigration application which was only filed on April 4th. THe Ethiopian courts will not hear our case until we have our approval back. So please that this comes quickly so she can spend less time away from mommy and daddy. So we should travel sometime around the beginning of August.

Updates

Today we received some updates on Delylah. She is 11 pounds and 23.2 inches long. We are starting to think that she is really 3 months old instead of 2 months. Unless, she is really big for an Ethiopian baby. We were fortunate enough to receive 3 new pictures but we can't put them up yet. I cannot wait until she is legally us and we can post her photos.