Good News

Well Friday we received word that cases for our agency for Delylah's adoption will begin moving again. We have been assigned the 21st of this month which I always thought was a good sign. As long as all goes well and we pass court I should be leaving on August 8th to go pick up Delylah. Our agencies rep in ethiopia already booked our hotel so it looks like they are thinking we will be fine to pass court. We are just over the moon.
I will post more when Lennah and I return from NJ.

Last Post Placement, eating like a dog, and Ear God

Today we had Lennah's final post placement visit with our social worker and yeah we get to keep her. LOL. She said lennah is doing wonderful. We will see our social worker again after Delylah gets home because Ethiopia, like Vietnam requires 3 post placement visits. Lennah was showing off her dance moves for Michelle it was so cute.
As for the rest of the day children do some weird stuff. Lately, Lennah has been into eating like a dog. Yes, we do actually give her kiddie utensils but she will toss them to the side and begin to starting licking her food off her plate. This does work well when we have mashed potatoes which we did tonight. She was covered. She looked like she was at a mashed potatoe pie eating contest. I am assuming she is picking up these habits from watching the dogs and cat eat.
Lastly, kids do the most adorable things. Normally, Lennah and I or Lennah and daddy will read from a book of prayers we have after her bath. Tonight I decided to start teaching her how to say her own so here is the dialogue-

Mommy- Lennah put your hands together like this (showing her palm to palms) and say Dear God
Lennah- Ear God
Mommy- Thank You
Lennah-Ank ooouuuu
Mommy- For Mommy
Lennah- Momma
Mommy- For Daddy
Lennah- Daddddd
Mommy- For Big Ba
Lennah- Big Ba
Mommy- Grandma
Lennah- Maaama
Mommy- Uncle Billy
Lennah- no response (Oh well I was getting far)
Mommy- Amen
Lennah- Men

This was too cute

Lunch Date and General Updates

Daddy and Lennah making sure their teeth are clean

Lennah and her new baby

Laura, Meron, and Lennah

Lennah trying to get in to play with Meron

What a cute smile

Today we had a great day, Lennah and I were able to finally meet baby Meron. Laura and Meron came over for lunch. It was wonderful to see baby Meron home and just knowing that there is a light at the end of our tunnel and that Delylah will eventually come home from Ethiopia. Meron is just so adorable and a big girl. I know I already have to prepare myself because Delylah is a little chunk herself. Meron has such a cute cry she just looks opens her mouth and it takes about a minute for it to come out and when she does it is a whiny cry. I know at Lennah's age whinning can be really difficult to tolerate but at Meron's age it is cute. Lennah was a little difficult with Meron, she wanted to touch and grab things from the baby and of course Lennah does not realize that her grabbing hurts. I hope we can work on this before Delylah gets home and even in general because I definately do not want her known as the town bully. Hopefully, we will get to see more of them and keep Meron and Delylah together since they come from the same orphanage. We have been really blessed with being able to keep Lennah in contact with Lilly from her orphanage so we are hoping Delylah can also have a friend that just basically was in the same situation.

Lennah is also starting to say some really cute things. Tonight in the bathroom I told her I love you and she goes ahhh ove oooo. She still says words unclear and every parent understands only there child so it was so cute to hear her say it. She also finished her lunch yesterday flip over the container and goes all gone. My other favorite is how she can now answer questions. I asked her if she wanted to go downstairs and play and she said Yeahhhh! She is growing up so fast. I miss the baby days but I am starting to enjoy her being able to tell me more and ask for more.

We are also asking to keep several families in prayer for us. Nancy who is in Ethiopia right now visiting with her baby Eden whom she is unable to bring home, Anna who is also traveling to visit with her son Charlie who she can't bring home, and another family who I need to keep private whose adoption will not be taking place.

Could it be Good News

Hopefully, I am not being too optimistic but when our delays first started our agency said that Delylah's paperwork could not be released until everything cleared nor could they file for our court date. Well, today we received work that even though things are still technically frozen a court date has been set for us on July 21st because if everything clears up by then we would be able to make it through court. This is so exciting because I truly feel as if things will begin moving again and we will make it. If so this will be such a special day because it is the one year anniversary of Lennah's gotcha day. Obviously, every year it would be a double reason to celebrate. Please keep us in your prayers. If everything works out we could maybe have Delylah in August after all. I was praying to get her home in time for the holidays with all these delays and anything sooner truly is a miracle.

Always Something

Well, today I received an email from our agency coordinator that USCIS could notfind our file. I probably would have lost it right then and there if it were not for the hold ups that are occuring in Ethiopia right now. How does a government agency lose our file? For weeks our agency was asking for them to get cracking on our file so we could have beat the court closing and brought our little girl home and now they email with this. Well, at least all has ended ok they did find our file and need one last piece of info which is ok because we know our approval from our government is coming but I know if Ethiopia was processing cases right now I would be furious because of this hold up. We also have heard from another family visiting the orphanage right now that Delylah is happy and healthy. We cannot wait to bring home our baby girl.

Not Good News

We did receive word from our agency today that things are not going to move ahead for quite sometime. We have no idea when our baby will come home so we are totally depressed. This could take months. All we can do is pray that this will come to pass and she can come home. THis is hard on us because we wanted an infant and now we are faced with the possibility that she can be over one when we bring her home. Obviously, we love her but I know how as time goes on the adjustment becomes harder for the child to make so we will have more challenges than we originally planned on. I know God only places what we can handle on our plates but being faced with this is really tearing us up. We are so attached to this baby and it is hard not to get attached and honestly we did talk about asking our agency to find us another placement because we are scared to death of bringing home an older child right now but she is ours and too hard to walk away from. I truly realized this when our friends sent us more photos of Delylah from their trip. In the photos they were showing her the photo album we sent her. How could we ever give her up when even though she may never remember she saw her family and big sister waiting for her. I could not live with myself knowing that someone told her we were coming for her and then take it away because we were being selfish and planned on having an infant. We all wish we could be there from day one but sometimes that is not in God's plans for us so we have to roll with it.
The only positive that may come out of this is because of financial reasons it was looking like only I would travel because obviously airfare is on the rise. Now, we the possibility of more time to save Keith may be able to go after all.
Please pray for us and the other families affected by this situation we are all heartbroken that our babies cannot come home right now.
ALso keep my friend Jamie's little boy in your prayers he too is waiting to come home like Delylah but had a nasty eye infection right now.

A Little Lift

What cute little toes

Well, today we received 15 new photos of Delylah. Our agency sent 5 and our friends Tymm, Laura, and Meron sent us ten photos from their trip to get baby Meron. That was a definate lift in our spirits because we have been so down about not knowing when we will get to bring our little girl home. We also received a little update on her weight and she is a little butterball at 15 and a half pounds. I am now hoping that Lennah's clothes will fit Delylah after all because Lennah was just shy of 15 pounds when we brought her home at almost 8 months and Delylah just turned 5 months on Friday. Hopefully, we will hear something about Delylah's orphanage starting to process cases soon. Keep us in your prayers.

Delray beach

So we took our second trip to Florida this year. Typically we try to take two different vacations but this year it just worked out to were we visited Florida twice. We went to the beach with of course Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Billy and stayed at a wonderful resort right across from the ocean. We also split up the trip and stopped for one night in the Orlando area and of course had to do something disney so we ate at a Disney resort for breakfast. This was also a great trip because our friend Todd moved down near this area and it was his first time meeting Lennah. Unfortunately, I forgot to bust out the camera but next time I will have to. Lennah was a little more timid of the beach this time around than when we visited Clearwater several months ago. Apparently, she does not like sand on her feet anymore so we had to carry her everywhere on the beach because she refused to step down.

I am also going to share with everyone to never say never. I was the parent who swore that my child was not going to watch tv before 2 years old. Boy, has that come back to bite me. Lennah started watching Dora the explorer several weeks ago and we bought a portable DVD for the car on the way down to occupy her on the ten hour drive and now she is addicted. I also have now memorized the entire Dora intro song. Sad isn't it?

We ate at a wonderful Vietnamese restaurant down in Boca while we were vacationing. The food was awesome so if anyone is ever in that area you have to check out the restaurant La Tre Vietnamese. It tasted just like the food we had in Vietnam they even had this seafood dish I had in Vietnam that was served over fried rice noodles.

Here's some pics from our trip.

Still No News

Well, things are getting frustrating. We were out of town last week and were hoping that something positive would come to light and that we might by some miracle beat the court closing after all if cases started being processed again but no such luck. We did have our friends Tymm and Laura go to pick up their little girl Meron last week and visit with Delylah but of course we would rather be holding her ourselves. We also have another fellow Illien adopting family heading there this week to visit their baby and our kiddos and they will be giving Delylah lots of love. I am just praying that something changes soon. I hate the wait. We just want our little girl to come home.

Depressing News

I cannot really get into the details but things are a little shaky where Delylah is at right now. This will now cause a hold up on her adoption and Keith and I are so sad that she will not be home for several more months. It should have been around August when we brought her home but some issues arose in the orphanage she is at and this is causing major paperwork delays. In turn we will not beat the court closing for the rainy season which lasts from August 6th-September 25 this year. Please keep this oprhanage in your prayers, the other families adopting from there right now (who are in the same situation as us), and the children. We hate knowing that our Delylah is growing up right now without her mommy and daddy and it is going to take even longer to bring her home.
Also pray for our friends Tymm and Laura who are leaving Friday to get their baby girl Meron. She is Delylah's crib mate and they were the ones who brought us to our Delylah.