We Passed Court!

Elijah Mugisha Eymard Cropf is officially our son according to the Government of Rwanda. We are even on his birth certificate. Praise God for bringing us this far. We were also able to get our state PA clearance in ONE day, thanks again to God's hand on our journey. This was a last minute thing and our clearances were expiring left and right but with a help of a friend from my dad's church we made it!

So now i am trying to book plane tickets for this weekend. It's surreal to think we are getting a child this weekend. We are very nervous about flying, the journey, and the dangers of the trip, and especially about leaving our daughter. That is driving me sick. literally.

Please keep us in your prayer for a safe journey to Africa, to our son, and home again across the ocean to our daughter and life as a new family together.

baby feet and travel induced stress illness

Thanks to friends and family who have volunteer 4 more suitcases! we have at least that many toys and clothes to send= awesome!

Our friends the dorbands were able to check Elijah's feet and thet are "19-20" we think that means shoe size. (which makes hime about 12 months/ size 3. We can't wait to get him little sock and shoes for his feet.
I do think I am the most stressed out the past 2 days as I ever, ever rememver. Comparable to final exams in vet school, or the final days of preganacy awaiting labor. But so stressed my head is in a fog and I feel physically ill. I am dreading the flight and trip itself but eager to meet Elijah.
Bill and I have made 2 important trip decisions in the "11th hour"
one- we are leaving emilia with bill's parents, and 2. we are flying separetly "just in case"
now we need to book tickets.

Friends are in Rwanda!!

We are getting sooo close to holding Eljiah in our arms! in the mean time we are happy our friends are blogging away so we can follow their progress!
the Dorbands are another "independant" family (no agency) and here are their gorgeous boys!

http://dorbandsonajourney.blogspot.com/2009/11/day-2-with-boys.html

The Spore family is also meeting their son as we speak
http://sporesixgoingonseven.blogspot.com/
AND the Bowers :
http://www.bowersjourneyto.blogspot.com/
AND the Smiths:
http://www.racksadoptionjourney.blogspot.com/

These families have been along side us for most of the adoption journey through a daily (sometimes hourly!) email list group. We encouraged each other, shared any shreds of news in the long, long waiting process, prayed for each other and now we finally get to share in the joy of meeting our kids for the first time!!
The blog world is indispensible for adoptive parents and I am so grateful for this forum to share our adoption journey.

We may be traveling FRIDAY to meet Elijah but no tickets yet! we are frantically packing, spraying clothes with permethrins, cleaning and sorting the house, and basically running around like the proverbial chickens with our heads cut off.
But we are getting that mcuh closer to meeting our boy for the first time.
we can't wait!

Paperwork Panic

WEll, our homestudy doesn't allow us for a greater than 15 month old baby BUT I wrote the consular in Nairobi and they said "as far as they are concerened the homestudy is good for the whole adoption" So I think we are ok there. That can be a note to other adoptive families if this happens to them, but I still suggest double checking with the nairobi embassy too!
Secondly, All of our police, child abuse, and FBI clearances expire Nov 26, Dec 1, and Dec 26 respectively. We apparently need a state PA clearance to re-enter the country. This is unique to every state. http://icpc.aphsa.org/Home/states.asp You can check if your state requires it by this confusing link. Out homestudy lady emailed us and told us make sure we get clearances, but it was a last minute thing. (not really her fault, we are not using an agency and only used her for homestudy)

God may be working a small miracle here however-- my dad lives in harrisburg and a woman from his church is a lady who-- PROCESSES state PA CLEARANCES!! (one of only 3 or four who do this-- she is "the lady" ) I talked to her today adn shes is going to try and get everything through for us if she can before we go, then just add those clearances to the file when we get back (we still need to re-do them)
That is a great lifeline at a time like this!

We have court on monday and then Elijah will be officially ours, then we are following our friends the Dorband's journey to see how long paperwork is taking them before we book flights. We may leave as soon as next friday!

I also got a wonderful box of crocs from the Greer's of 4-More raised by families all over the country. I stuffed them all into a donated suitecase from my dad, along with about 2 dozen other pairs of shoes, and filled all the cracks with beanine babies, clothing, washcloths, medication-- anything i could fit in a croc, i did!

We recommend vaccume bags to suck the air from clothes and stuffed animals. you can fit at least double!

That's the news for now-- court date monday pending, paperwork still flying, no plane tickets yet, excited to finally meet our son.

Between 7 and 28 months

Well, to say there is confusion over Elijah Mugisha Eynard's age is an understatemnt. His medical reporst said his DOB was 29 march 2009, while an email from our POA said it was July 20 2007. A clarification to that put him more at July 20 2008. So, we really have no idea. The problem is, if he is more than 15 months old (WHICH he will be on FRIDAY) we have to re-do our homestudy paperwork and get it re-sent to Kigali.
Which means more delays. We did ask clearly for an infant but there was confusion on our request and the child is clearly much older. We are needing to "reset expectations". I wouldn't go so far as to say Bill and I were disappointed, but we were just expecting a baby-baby, not a toddler-baby. But two good friends both pointed out that our daughter will be able to play and interact with her brother right from the beginning, which will be a good thing I believe. God know what He is doing.
And I pray he doesn't forget the part about not giving us more than we can handle. ;)
We did hear about the circumstances by which Elijah came to the Home of Hope.
On July 20, 2009 he was brought to the authorities by a widow who lives in Kigali. The widow went to bed one night, and while she slept a child was left in her kitchen. When she awoke she found him. She herself was very poor and unable to keep him so she contacted the authorities. Someone loved Elijah very mcuh to leave him in a safe home. We can only wonder what circumstances led up to such a heart breaking decision. I think about the mother or family members who had to make that choice and I wish it didn't have to happen to them. While we are thrilled God has called us to care for an orphan, I wish we could also care for a mother so that she didn't have to lose her child in the first place. I am more sad right now for our baby's family than I am for him. I simply cannot imagine making such a mercy choice as leaving your son in the home of a kind widow.

Update on Elijah

We heard from a friend in Kigali that she MET Elijah and said he has a smile that lights up the room and is walking all over the place! We are so excited to meet him! His birthday on his medical papers says he is 7 months old but his is walking with several teeth, 17lbs and 28" tall. We are very confused on his age but thrilled about his smile :) We may have info tomorrow about when we can go to GET him if all goes well!

IT's A BOY!!!!

Well, insomnia pays. I was still up at 2:30 am reading "there is no me without you" and i decided to check email--and spam folder-- one more time. There was the file we have been waiting for for over a year. I ran down and woke up Bill so we could open it together. Out little boy -- Mugisha (blessing) Eynard (a famous priest) was looking back at us for the first time!
We are so excited and THANK GOD for this moment. We will keep everyone posted-- goodnight!!