Court case approval

That's what the subject line of the email we received from Holt said: "Court Case Approval."  The email came in the middle of the day on May 18, 2010.  I was in between patients and happened to check my email - what a huge surprise - I could hardly breath.  The tears started and I quickly texted Mike, who was in Oklahoma city at the National Floodmappers Conference (sounds like fun, eh?).  I then had five patients back to back, and wow, was it hard to focus.  I also shared the news with Patti, my awesome office mate - and we rejoiced in my good news, as we had rejoiced in hers just a few weeks earlier. So she's ours.  And we're hers.  We have a daughter.  The boys have a sister.  M. has another family to love her to bits.  It's all good.

Now, if only I could blog events as they happen, instead of weeks later!

We have a court date!

We heard today that our case has been scheduled for May 18th in Ethiopia.  Approximately 65% of cases pass on the first court date - the rest are rescheduled due to missing paperwork, no electricity, over-scheduling and a myriad of other reasons.  We have been warned that there are an inordinate number of cases to be heard that day, so it is highly likely that we'll need another court date.

We received our 171H in the mail yesterday - this is the official document which states that Homeland Security has given us the go ahead to bring one orphan, age 0-4, into the US and make them an American citizen.  Strangely, the official notice was far less official looking and far less fancy than the receipt or the fingerprinting appointment letter.

And so we wait.

Not included in the 'Welcome Book'

We have (finally) been putting together a book for M. of our family, so that she'll have at least a slight chance of recognizing us when she sees us for the first time.  We did send some pictures and a card when we were first matched, but the book seemed daunting and I kept putting it off.  It is almost done, and, I think, will serve the purpose of introducing her gently to our kinda crazy American life.

The exercise of going through photos was interesting when they were looked at from the perspective of a small girl living in Ethiopia.  We didn't want to scare her.  We wanted to make a good first impression.  Here are some pictures that didn't make it into the book:

Hyenas are a real threat in Ethiopia, and Mike's brother's 'Boo' looks like he's about to eat Charlie.






More predators: Clark and Charlie appear relatively unphased by the polar bears, who look friendly enough.  I'm sure they don't have polar bears in Ethiopia.

I don't think they have Halloween in Ethiopia, either.

Or Santa.

Or brothers who play hockey.  For that matter, there is no WINTER in Ethiopia, so the pictures of our home covered in two feet of snow were out.

As was this one, of Clark and Charlie all bundled up.

And this one - just NOT a suitable first impression.  She'll find out soon enough.  Soon enough, M.

Fingerprints and Passport

I'm not so good at this blogging thing - for some reason sitting down and putting thoughts into words is hard for me.  Hmmm.  Or maybe I'm just lazy.  Since I last wrote, we have had our fingerprinting appointment in Buffalo.  Mike, the boys and I left the house at 6:15 am and drove the hour and a half or so to the USCIS office in Buffalo.  We arrived a little early, which turned out to be good because it took awhile to get through the scanners and the security check.  Once there, we signed in, completed yet another form and then waited a short while until our names were called and our e-fingerprints were taken.  While we were waiting, Charlie approached a girl about his size, who was with her family.  The mom said, 'Ola," to Charlie, and then Charlie proceeded to call the girl "Ola" for the rest of the time we were there ("Hi, Ola!", ""Look, Ola.").  We then all piled back into the car and dropped Owen off at school, Clark off at gymnastics and Mike off at work.  What a busy start to a busy week!

I called this week to check the status of our application with Homeland Security.  I was a bit concerned, because we had received two appointment letters and I wanted to make sure we weren't penalized for only go to the first one!  The kind woman on the phone told me that our fingerprints had come back and were clear (I'm not sure why I worry that they won't be clear, but I do!).  Now we wait for it to go through 'adjudication.'

My passport came back - unprocessed.  Apparently I also applied for a passport in 1999.  Since I haven't declared it lost or stolen, I need to do that before they will issue me a new one.  Kind of hard to do when I know I last applied for a passport in 1998.  So, I spoke to a woman who said her best idea was to send a letter back to the passport processing center explaining the situation.  I'm trying hard to convince myself that if someone had stolen my identity, I'd likely know it by now (two mortgages, three credit cards and three car loans later).  But still. Between the two appointments at USCIS and the passport debacle, my confidence in detail -orientedness of the government is pretty shot.

Mike and his mom and dad finished stripping the wallpaper from the attic walls, effectively removing the last trace of 1950 from our house (except for the peptol pink bathroom). Next step is to patch the (400,000) plaster cracks before painting and carpeting.

And that, my friends, is all for now!

Map

I found a map today of the region where M. is from.  It is the Southern region of Ethiopia, written about in the most recent National Geographic article, The Burden of Thirst.

Good-bye, dossier

So I mailed the package off to Holt on Wednesday night.  It contained, in a jam-packed fed ex letter mailer, every hard-won piece of paper related to the adoption of one very small little girl.  In could remember, while putting the pieces together into one package, tapping them down against the counter gently to line up the edges, the context of each piece of paper.  I remembered feeling exasperated when the police station would only take cash ($2 each) for the notarized police letters - and then scouring the car for change, with two young boys essentially escaping into traffic.   I remember going to my doctor's office to pick up our doctor's letters, with above mentioned two young boys - the youngest of whom heavy, sleeping on my shoulder.  The bank letter: three boys and a long wait and no one to answer my questions.  Tax return: searching through 3 old computers.  Letters of reference: car trips to pick up from workplaces, painted mailboxes.  The homestudy report: numerous trips to our agency, cleaning for our home visit (and installing the fire extinguisher), adoption classes, frustration. It was the ultimate scavenger hunt!  It may be strange, but in some ways I miss it - the concrete evidence that we were working toward bringing our daughter home., a little something to do everyday.  Goodbye, dossier!

Injera

Injera is a pancake-like bread eaten at most meals by Ethiopians.  It is made of teff flour, which apparently you can purchase at Wegman's.  It is spongy, sour, and really delicious.  Mike and I ate at our local Ethiopian restaurant on Saturday night - it was delicious!  We figure that M. will miss the injera of her homeland, and, though I haven't tried, I have heard that cooking it is difficult.  We asked the gentleman at the restaurant whether they sell 'just injera' - turns out, they DO!  Eight injera for $7.00 if they are available (we need to call ahead).  Hooray!  At least there will be something she can eat.