Baby Steps Part 2

Well it's been 8 weeks now that our Kenyan Home Study was sent to the the Carolina Adoption agency. We haven't heard anything. I have called my social worker here a few times and continue to be reassured that they will contact both us and the social worker when it is completed or if they need more info. My trust is low. My experience is that unless I ask, nothing is getting done. So I keep asking.

We met with our lawyer a couple of weeks ago. He was encouraging. He affirmed that residents such as ourselves, have a longer process and more waiting. Actually the process is that same for parents who come to Kenya specifically to adopt. But since they have come to live here only until the adoption is complete, it seems they are given priority. Our lawyer has been bugging our social worker as well to get our stuff done and not have an attitude that we must not be in a hurry cause we live here.

He gave us the paperwork (rough draft) of documents he is ready to file and get our first court date. Exciting, but full of typos. I corrected them and Ryan turned them back into the lawyer. He is also bugging New Life Home for one last document he needs for Chloe. A document they had a year ago but not now. I am glad he is bugging them and not just me.

All in all, its been an encouraging month. I think I'll call the Social Worker again, would you like her number!

Disclaimer: I really do like my social worker, I think she has too much work on her plate.

Seth is Three!

 
How can that be?

He may always be my baby boy. He definitely is snuggly in his cheetah pj's. Although feirce wielding his sword.

This was at the end of a very fun day and he's a tired cheetah.

It's nice when the kids birthdays fall on Saturdays. We had a slow morning getting up and than headed to Java House for breakfast. We haven't done that in ages, and the original Java House is still our favorite. The boys are big enough to each order and finish 3 kiddy breakfast. And Ryan and I enjoyed every bite of our big breakfasts.

We needed to waste some time so ran some errands at Nakumat (like a super target). Than off to Jamhuri Park. Ryan had seen a flyer about Polo matches. And sure enough we saw lots of horses. Near Nairobi is a smaller town of Karen named after Karen Blixen (think Out of Africa). Populated by white Kenyans of British background who are quite proper with horses and polo matches. The saturday matches were free. The kids enjoyed jumpy castles, face painting, and even cotton candy. We got to pet the horses who were not competing.

Than home for lunch and rest time.

For dinner the compound got together to grill out and wish a family fairwell that was heading back to Germany. We brought cupcakes and lit them and sang Happy Birthday to Seth. He thought it was all about him. Why Not!!!

When we got home, he opened his present and was quite excited about his sword and sheath. For 2 days he was the only one with a sword, quite an honor than that got to be too much for me and I bought them all swords, even Chloe.

Happy Birthday Seth!

Levi's Birthday

ALL,
Here on this grand day of Saturday 14 June 2008, Levi Dale Williams has turned 5 years old!
I would like to share a few pics w/ you & tell a little story about my day.
We spent the day in the Nairobi Game Park a short 15 min drive from our house. We celebrated w/ a breakfast/birthday cake
& hot Kenyan tea that my mom made. My dad parked the van w/ zebras on one side & cape buffalo on the other side.
We had a great birthday party. I was so brave & excited, I even chased the zebras. After our cake & tea, we drove a short 2km.
down the road & came open 6 lions! They were resting in the tall grass on the edge of the road, my dad almost ran one over!
We spent about 30mins watching them from about 10ft away! We also saw hippos, eland, gazelle, heartabeast, ostrich, warthogs, & baboons.
We drove up to a giraffe that was so close I could almost touch its tail.
Now that's a Birthday treat you can't get anywhere else.
Thanks for your Birthday wishes!
Love Levi.

Caleb's Eggs

About three weeks ago, Caleb told us he was going to have eggs. I had no idea what he was talking about. But he recently made a new friend of our neighbor’s cook. The next day, she knocked on our door with 2 eggs wrapped protectively in newspaper. Caleb was talking non-stop about chicks, these were 2 fertilized eggs. I don’t know how to incubate eggs. We filled up a hot water bottle and wrapped them in a towel and tucked them in on top of the water bottle.

That night, Ryan had a good laugh and googled about home incubation. We found some good sites. The best, written by a 1st grade teacher who did this every year. Ryan built our home incubator from an empty ice-cream tub, old kitchen towel, thermometer, lid, and a small cup of water. He spent an hour putting our desk lamp different heights above the eggs and taking readings on my thermometer. We wanted between 99 and 101 F. Ryan taped a line on the wall and labeled it lamp height. The water was for humidity which we had very little control over. Caleb was in charge of turning the eggs 3 times a day, he never forgot. The teacher from the blog shared good ideas on teaching kids used to instant rewards, that patience is worth it. Ryan labeled 21 days later on our calendar and helped Caleb count down the days.

21 days came and went and no chicks. We weren’t too surprised. Caleb wanted to crack them open and see what happened. Another suprise, neither stunk. The first wasn’t fertilized. The second yolk was dark gray, so something had grown but not much.

When those eggs first showed up on our door, I thought, this is suppose to happened to other moms. Other moms have incubators on their desks and teach their kids this stuff. Is it already my turn? I think we will try it again. This time we will be ready, no hot water bottles!

Levi is doing great!

We arrived at same day surgery at 7 am. He was in surgery by 830 am. Back in his room at 910 am. He dosed for awhile than watched pink panther on tv. By 1030 he was asking when we could go home.

The surgeon did a good job of reassuring Levi and making friends with Levi before surgery and checking on us after. The anesthetist put a mask on Levi with the first dose of anesthesia so Levi was sleeping before she put the IV in. He got a shot of antibiotic and 2 different pain meds while he was out during surgery. So when he got back to our room, he had no idea he had got shots. That was what he was most worried about. “Mom, am I going to get shots today?” So that helped. As he woke up, he told me that they hadn’t made him sleep long or hard enough. I asked him what he remembered, nothing except getting the mask on. He decided to take his own IV out, no big deal. I had asked the nurse if he could have it out and she said yes. Before she got in the room, he had started pealing the tape off and lickety split, it was out!

The nurses where great. And instead of putting us in the same day ward, we had a private room with our own tv and bathroom. They brought me coffee and Levi had warm milk and a roll after surgery. When it was time for Levi to go to surgery, the nurse brought adult size flip flops for him to walk to surgery in. Than she decided that was silly and carried him. After surgery they didn’t bring him back right away because he was too sleepy to tell them his name. When he did come back, she had him all wrapped up in a warm blanket and carried him into the room. Got him all tucked in and he fell sound asleep. I was impressed with how often they check on us.

I am mostly impressed with my son. No crying, or whining. When she carried him to surgery, he looked over her shoulder, waved at me with a big smile and said Bye mom! I think getting there early helped him get comfortable. Everyone took their time and talked to him, shook his hand and introduced themselves to him.

I managed to keep him quiet til 1200 noon and we were home by 1230. He thought he could play but his nurse mother decided differently and he took a 2 hour nap. Than he thought he could ride his bike to the duka. I think the anesthesia and stress of the day came to a head when I refused to let him go on his bike. He had a good cry. He did get to play computer games until dinner.

He has a little bandage on his tummy, and as long as he takes his ibuprofen he’s been comfortable. Tomorrow I think he might feel more like himself emotionally but he could be more tender as all the pain meds during surgery wear off.

Anyhow I am glad it’s done and he is ok. Thanks for praying.

Levi's Surgery

Levi has an inguinal hernia. So Friday morning at 8 am our time, he will be having surgery to have it repaired. We found a good pediatric surgeon whom was highly recommended. And we live near Nairobi Hospital where he will be operated on.

My little Levi. He's a bit nervous, asking if he will get a shot. But handling it well. We will be glad when he's back home, hopefully just out-patient.

So keep him in your prayers even during his recovery.

Baby Steps

Being in the adoption process feels like taking a step at a time. In Kenya it feels like baby steps, one at a time. Even worse, during the months of January and February we felt like we took one step forward and two steps back. The Post Election Violence slowed the whole country down to a crawl.

But this week all the little steps we have been taking since November, completed a big step. Wonderful Relief.

In November we opened a file at the US Embassy called an I-600 a. To complete the file, we turned in an application, lots of documents, initiated a criminal background check on ourselves complete with handprints, etc. But we were missing a US Home Study. Since March of 2007 when we brought Chloe home our Kenyan Social Worker has been writing a Kenyan Home study about us. In November, I started stopping by her office more regularly asking what info she needed from us. That slowed down in December with the holidays and January with the violence. Since February, I stop by every Monday afternoon on my way home from the grocery store. I try to greet her pleasantly and ask how things are going, and what info does she need. I think the only thing I haven’t given her is our dental records! Good Grief!

In April, she asked if I had applied to the Carolina Adoption Agency. Nope, I had to explain that unless she tells me this stuff, I can’t know what to do next. I had asked about this months ago and was reassured that the Carolina Agency would contact me. Not so. So I printed the application on line, filled it out, sent it with someone to be posted in the states. I need to send a personal check which isn’t safe to do through the Kenyan postal service. Instead I stamp an envelope with US stamps, ask someone traveling from Kenya to the states to carry it for me who than mails it within the states. In this case, it was mailed to my mom. I needed a photo of Ryan and me for the application. We took mug shots of ourselves, seriously a worse pic of myself does not exist but good enough. Uploaded them to Walgreen’s near my mom, she picked them up. Received the envelope from me with the check and application and than posted it to Carolina.

Baby Steps.

The Carolina Adoption Agency received my application this week. Next my Kenyan Social Worker emailed my Kenyan Home study to Carolina this week. That is a big step. They for a nice price will rewrite it into a US Home study, asking questions along the way, needing more info from our social worker who will probably wait till I stop by on my way home from groceries on Monday. Eventually, hopefully no longer than a month, it will be completed. I take this expensive Home Study to the US Embassy which they add to my I 600a file. They will process my completed file and either approve or deny our ability to do an international adoption.

Of course by the Grace of God they will approve our application. We take this approval to our Kenyan Lawyer who submits it along with all our other paper work to the Kenyan court and asks for a court date, twill be our first court day of possibly 2-3 court dates that we will go through before we are finished.

In the meantime, life goes on at home, Chloe and the boys are oblivious which is a wonderful thing. When we are all done legally adopting Chloe, we can visit the states.

My goal is to do little updates of this process. This needed to be a big one just to give you the scoop of where we are.

Let's go fly a Kite

 
 
We had a great week at Mombasa. I didn't get too many pics cause its a hassle taking our video camera onto the beach. And I didn't want to lose it at the hotel.

We drove up on Sunday, first two hours on the road was the pits, than smooth sailing. Ryan knows how to drive.
Monday was beautiful, we had sunny weather. 85-90 degrees, low tide was in the afternoon. I think I was on the beach for 6 or 7 hours with Caleb and Levi. Ryan went back and forth with Seth and Chloe to the house. Its still overwelming for anyone 2 feet or under to see all that water.
Tuesday was also beautiful, Seth's feet bothered him so he stayed at the house. But him and Chloe can just putz around for hours at the house. Caleb and Levi LOVE the beach, the water, the sea creatures, everything. It was Ryans day to be at the beach and I spent more time at the house. I came down with a terrible head cold.
Wednesday, we hung out at the house. The place has a fence all the way around it so the kids could run and not fear getting in the water. They played on the tire swing, road their bikes, helped daddy with the van, collected coconuts.
Thursday we loaded up the van and drove an hour north to Sun and Sand. We paid to be there for the day, all inclusive. It's a hotel with fun pools. We swam in 3 of the 5 pools. One started up on the hill and to get to the next pool you went down a slide, than another pool to float through like a river, than another slide, than waterfall steps than a big pool with a bar on one side. The pool had stools to sit on in the water and order cokes or juice from the bar. The kids thought that was cool, to sit in the pool and have cokes. Since it was all inclusive, we drank and at the whole day, 10 am to 6 pm. 3 of the kids slept the way back to our cottage.
Friday, the kids were so excited that we had one full day at the beach yet. We were out there the whole day. Seth and Chloe by now where used to the beach and playing in the sand.
Saturday we drove back to Nairobi. Before we loaded up the van, I had the kids pose in front of our cottage. They were quite brown even with lots of sun block on each day. Caleb and Levi are truly Kenyans wearing sweat pants, jeans and long sleeves any time they weren't living in their swim suits. We can't wait to go back.
 

Nanna's Pics

Ryan's mom needs some updated snaps of Sephers. These where taken in February. One in our back yard and one in the DC3. Maybe I'll have more pics after next week. We are going to Mombasa for a week. Kids are counting the days, so are the parents.