Goodbye US, Hello Ghana

Dallan and I will be leaving on May 9th to spend the first of two trips in Ghana. We are FINALLY meeting our daughter!!!! It's been a surreal situation and after 5 years of trying it seems so crazy to just board a plane and have her in our arms. We couldn't be happier or more overwhelmed. Anyways, more details to come soon but if all goes well Grace will be home around mid June!

Newness...

I realized as I checked my email today that I hadn't checked any one's blog in quite awhile so I decided to leave yahoo and venture into the blogging world and do you know what I found? I discovered that two friends are waiting to be mommies; one for the second time and one is a first timer. My sister Chelsea is also expecting as are my sister in-laws Jazmine and Merilee. I also have two friends expecting in May and June (and another just delivered the cutest little man...). I love the spring; everything is new and fresh and I'm reminded in abundance this year how miraculous new life is! What a year 2009 will be for adorable new kids!

Time for an Update...

We should have known that when things were going so well that we'd eventually hit a speed bump....This whole adoption process has been so strangely wonderful and emotional. Grace's case went before the judge on February 26th and was approved! The social worker happened to be in Ghana at the time helping some North Carolina families get their little ones home (apparently there were some complications with background checks). We were told that she would get back to us in a few days and get us a travel date. We have patiently waited since then. On Thursday I couldn't help but drop an email as it had been a week. Then we waited and waited and waited. Finally today Dallan made a phone call and said he'd call me when he had talked to her. When I saw his name on my caller ID about an hour later while I was a Target I just about freaked out I was so excited. I couldn't wait for that date to hold my little girl in empty arms. That's not the news Dallan had to share with me however. This is the news, copied directly from my email.....

"Hi Kirsten,

Attached you will find a few pics that were taken of your baby last week. I
just spoke with Dallan and I explained to him that we currently have two
families in Ghana picking up their babies, and we have found that the US
Embassy in Ghana is conducting much more thorough orphan investigations than
we had originally anticipated. This is actually good news for both the
babies and the birth mothers, even though it will lengthen your wait time
and change your travel plans, as it will ensure that the babies have been
legally relinquished by their birthmothers.

In order to meet the stringent US Embassy requirements we are taking the
following pre-emptive measures:

1. We are doing matching birthmother/baby DNA
2. We are arranging for voluntary birthmother interviews.

In order to do this, however, we must first make sure that Esi's birthmother
has a legal form of identification, such as a voter registration card and/or
a passport. If she does not have this our coordinator in Ghana will be
tasked with making sure she arranges for it. Once she has ID, we will take
her and the baby to the medical center for DNA testing. This test takes 4-6
weeks to complete.

After the DNA testing is complete we will request that you and Dallan fly to
Ghana to file your I-600. This should be a short trip of 3-5 days. At this
point, it is taking roughly 3-4 weeks for the I-600's to be adjudicated.
Once the I-600 packet is ready you will return to Ghana for the visa
interview and to pick Esi up. We anticipate that this trip will take about
10 days.

I hope this answers any questions that you might have. As you know, this is
a pilot program so we are learning as we go! Stay positive, she's almost home.

Cheers,"

Don't tell me to stay positive; I know there isn't much else I can do but that so isn't what I needed to hear! YUCK!!! I could barely keep my cool in Target as I thought of her empty room for another two months. I find myself praying, "please don't crawl - I don't want to miss EVERYTHING!"

I am trying to remind myself that there is ALWAYS a plan and that Heavenly Father knows what He is doing. I can guarantee we will look back and thank Him for the blessings of this trial. Just for now, just for tonight though, we're gonna cry. Keep us in your prayers would you?

Here's the latest picture of our angel along with the liaison that's helping us get her home; Percy. She's so cute with her little hair-do!

Finally, An Update (On Grace and Life...)

Dallan and I have been operating under the old adage of no news is good news as we wait for the call from some foreign judge telling us our paperwork has been signed. It's excruciating to say the least. (Side note: If you call and I sound excited then let down when you say who it is; this is the reason - we're hoping your the Ghanian liaison....). Anyways, today we got a new picture of our daughter that is so freakin' adorable! We are so in love with her and can't wait to have her home! Some stuff has changed since a new president was elected late in 2008 so we aren't exactly sure when we'll depart but we may have to make two trips instead of just one. At this point, we'll do anything they tell us. We'll keep updating better on this...



Dallan started school up again this week. He has two more architecture courses, two English courses and math. Not fun at all but after this he will have no more English ever which makes him very happy. He is officially out of the Marine Corps as of 10:30this morning! YAY!!!! It's actually very surreal. As much as we worked towards this and waited for them to release his contract it is weird to think that such a big part of Dallan's life is over. He dutifully served the Corps for the last 8 years, but as they say - Once a Marine, always a Marine. Which I'm sure his new unit in the Air Force won't appreciate! As of 11 this morning Dallan in now officially an Airman based out of Travis AFB in Northern California. He will be working in Air Cargo Transportation. More to come on military later.

As for me, I am pretty much the same. Lots of nesting and I am oh so close to being done with Grace's bedroom. Grandma Livingston is making the bumper/crib skirt for us and that's the last piece we need. She is an AMAZING seamstress and we feel pretty darn lucky that she was willing to help. I had my baby shower this past weekend and am once again reminded that it takes a village to raise a child; luckily I feel blessed by the village I'm in and I'm so thankful for everyone's generosity. We are good to go (minus formula; we'll figure that out when we get her home and know what she can handle...) and glad to be so. Luckily Dallan got a phone call from Weston while we were in Babies R Us that distracted him for most of the shopping. I don't think he's ever been more grateful to talk with his brother! (Just a note: Dallan is SO excited to be a dad, he just hates shopping!). I'll post pictures of my beautiful shower when I find my camera.... Thanks to everyone that came and for those that couldn't I hope you know you weren't far from my heart that day.

We Got 'Em

Dallan and I just got home from taking pictures with the wonderful duo of Enchanted Images and checking the mail. Lo and behold, what was in there? Our FINGERPRINTING appointments!!! Holy Freaking Crap that was FAST!!! We take them on January 6th. This is all moving so fast and its reassuring to my heart that it's so smooth; it just reaffirms that it's meant to be every single time and that my friends, is a blessing I'm ever so thankful for!

Thank You Immigration

I HATE paperwork on a good day and this adoption has brought stacks of documents that I couldn't have imagined in my worst nightmare. We have ALL, yes that's right, ALL of the hard stuff done. We just have to make photocopies of our passports and create a collage and then our dossier is done. We are skating now... But anyways, the biggest "hurry up and wait" hurdle is Immigration. We were told we could submit some paperwork to open a file and let them know of our desire and intent to bring a child home so that when we arrive in Ghana we don't have to start this paperwork. The agency helped us with the forms and we paid our fees and they told us not to stress and check the mail everyday. Oh geez! So today I go to check for Christmas cards and lo and behold there is a letter from Immigration. My heart sank; the only time things go this fast is when they need extra stuff from you or the fees we paid were incorrect. For the love....but I was totally wrong! They received everything they needed and have opened the file. They are just waiting on our home study (our social worker sent this out on Friday) and then they can issue us appointments to get another round of fingerprinting done. They said in the letter to look for a followup letter around the first week of January. Once we do these and they get the results (approx. 3 business days later...) we can have a date to TRAVEL AND PICK GRACE UP!!!! OMG this is really happening!!!!

That's where we are at. All is sailing just fine and we are getting the nursery ready for her. When its done I'll post pictures.

Meet our Daughter: Grace

So after many years, tears, trials and paper trails we are FINALLY parents! We became Daddy and Mommy on Sunday when our little girl was born. The people at the hospital named her Esi (this literally translates to Sunday born...). Isn't she absolutely perfect? I've often been told, as I'm sure many of us have been, that things happen in His time, not ours. I couldn't be more thankful for this lesson learned. She is the perfect little girl that we've dreamed of these last five years. The next few months will be crazy as we prepare to travel to Ghana to pick Gracie up. We will be there about a month while we wait for the courts to finalize all the travel documents and adoption paperwork. We can't wait to be amongst these beautiful people. The tentative time frame will put us home with her around February.

I can't be too deep here because my tears are flowing with excitement and nerves but I couldn't wait to share either. More to come when I can focus...