Don't Hate on Me...Only Reporting the Facts...

Just as an FYI, I've always saved my rants and vents for my personal private blog instead of this blog. And believe me, there have been many rant posts because this process is extremely long and hard.

So if anything on this blog is offensive to anybody, it's not my fault :) It's par for the course. I am writing the facts of what has happened to us and happened during our process.

I write for two reasons: 1) To show how God has worked through this process, and 2) As a how-to for folks who are going through the process as well and have no idea what the steps are to this cumbersome adoption.

And for those two reasons I am keeping this blog PUBLIC as well.

Happy Reading :)

Another Round of Visits This Week

Wednesday we had our 2nd GAL appointment here at the house. This lady is amazing.
We found ourselves just chatting in general as well. I even let her borrow my Super Baby Food book as her youngest is 9 months old and she is looking for some feeding ideas.
She is how I always imagined what Kenyans would be like: warm, friendly, enjoyable to talk with. And although of course our school day gets off schedule because we have to spend the day cleaning before her arrival (!), her visits are always very pleasant.

Thursday the Little Angels' social worker came for her third and final visit. These appointments tend to be a little more awkward, as she sort of just watches us interact with one another. Normally that's fine, but I feel like I have to defend myself by fielding questions such as, "What does Isaac do during your school time each day?", etc.

Our lawyer took our paperwork to court on Wednesday and filed all our documents. HOWEVER we cannot get a court date yet until this social worker files her report.  She said she took it down that same day, but my lawyer never found it. I texted and called and emailed on Friday but no one seemed to know. If we filed on Wednesday then we should've gotten a Feb 15 courtdate, but now it looks like Feb 22. I am irate about this of course. With each mistake people make, it pushes our exit date further and further. So we'll see...

I Told You I'd Write About the Bad, Too...

You know, it's nice to read blog posts that are encouraging and are a blessing to other people.
This is not such a post.

I am so so so tired of the challenges and complications regarding this adoption.  I know I whine a lot, but this has seriously been the hardest thing I have ever done!  WHY??!!

If I could get in a time machine and talk to myself in March 2011, I would tell myself that this process is too complicated and too challenging.  So don't bother yourself (myself) with it. Choose a different country.  Or none at all.

I am so FED UP with the business industry in Kenya, inter alia. There are obstacles with everything we have done in this country.  From Day 1.


I had major issues with Fedex today.  You know how I mentioned in my last post that we paid to have our i800a approval letter fedex'd international priority?  Well it arrived today, May 14.  The courier called me from the airport at 1pm and said he was on the way to my house. Don't picture a Fedex truck. Picture a guy on a motorcycle with a crate tied to the back of the motorcycle that contains all the packages. I'm surprised they can ever deliver anything correctly here at all. Especially since there aren't any real addresses here.

So by 5pm he wasn't here yet.  I called him. Apparently right after he informed me he was on the way to my house, someone from the main office had called him and told him to hold my package. AND HE NEVER BOTHERED to communicate that to me. (INSERT "UGH UGH UGH UGH" HERE.)

His name is Marshall.  Marshall the Courier.  He had no idea why my package was being held. Then he mentioned something about freight charges, but I could barely understand his broken English with the noise of the traffic in the background.

Lies, Lies, Lies. Not on a truck being delivered to my house!

So I called the main office.  Repeatedly.  I was on the phone with Fedex for a total of 2 hours.  TWO FRUSTRATING HOURS in which no one could figure out why they held my package.  I owe no taxes or import fees because it is ONE SHEET OF PAPER.  No fees required.  In fact, none of the 4 representatives I spoke with at Customer Service could even find the original woman who instructed Marshall to hold my package!!

I called US Fedex. They said there should be no issues - - Kenya should have just billed my account number (which is the same as swiping a credit card) and delivered my document to me.

I called Marshall back and told him I have an appointment to notarize the darn thing at the US Embassy tomorrow at 8am and to BRING ME MY DOCUMENT!!  I will literally sign it and hand it right back to him to be delivered back to the States again.  Gosh, how long will THAT part take?

So I have no idea when I will get my document.  If I can get it sent back out tomorrow I can possibly still make the June NAC meeting...WE NEED MIRACLES EVERY STEP OF THE WAY WHEN DEALING WITH THIS GOVERNMENT AND THIS CULTURE!!
(Okay it might be time to make this blog private...Probably not a good idea to blast the government/culture when I'm trying to adopt from here.)

But that brings another good point...why do I want to adopt from this country at all? All these frustrations and challenges make me lose focus on why we are doing this in the first place. What. Is. The. Point.

I am praying this whole process will sort of be like labor: once it's over you forget about how hard it was.  We'll see.  And I know everyone says once the baby is here that we will be thankful we went through with it.  I guess we'll see about that, too.

Getting Off Track

I messed up.

I received an email yesterday from my Stateside agency. Immigration contacted them to let them know I forgot to include something required for Immigration for the i800a application. Shoot!

I am really not sure how I missed something so essential. I will fix it and then we will move on. Every Step. Such a big deal.