New photo!!

Thank goodness for other adoptive parents and agency coordinators who travel to Ghana! We just got this photo of our sweet little man from one who cared enough to take the time and snap a picture and send it along. We have been so blessed that they have been able to see and take pictures of Coen since he lives in another village than the other children.

Enjoy!



We showed this photo to Carter and he had a big smile for "kiki". When I closed the window, he said, "kiki piture mommy." So, we looked at it again :) I asked who Kiki's mommy is and Carter half-laughed liked it was a silly question and said, "mommy" and pointed to me. I asked who his daddy is and Carter pointed to Chris and said "kiki daddy." I'm so happy that he gets it. This IS his brother and he is so ready for him to be here.

Sorry for the noise

So sorry if you just heard me screaming from Vancouver, Washington. I got a little bit excited to see this in our mail today:



Whoo hoo! We have our I-600 approval!!! And, I spoke with our coordinator today and he got the birth certificate changed a couple of days ago. So, the steps now: we need to pick up our visa packet and then request a visa interview appointment and get Coen's passport before the interview.

I'm being told that interview dates are set 6-8 weeks out right now - ewww! But at least we should have a better idea of WHEN Little Man #2 will be in our home shortly.

If you were malaria meds...

I'm losing my mind. When I went to Ghana last, I went ahead and got malaria meds for both Chris and I. Chris didn't end up going the following month so, I carefully placed his malaria meds where they would be sure NOT to be forgotten when we did head to Ghana and out-of-sight for Carter so as not to tempt him.

So, if you were malaria prevention medication, where would you be?

I've looked in the medicine cupboard

I've looked in my other daily supplements cupboard

I've looking in the bags of donations that I had already packed

I've looked in all the drawers in our bedroom

I've looked under the bathroom sink

Seriously! Where are they?

Carter has been talking about "ki ki" and his coming home for a while now. He gets that Coen is a "baby" but old enough to play with, hence constantly talking about wanting to play golf with him. He knows that Coen is in Africa. He knows that it takes an airplane to get there. He has even offered to go get him "Caca help. Caca go Apica. Kiki home." He's excited. I want to keep his excitement up, but at the same time, I know that Coen's transition will likely be a hard one. What DO you say to your 2 1/2 year old to prepare them?

The past week I've been easing him into understanding that Coen might not be as happy to see Carter as Carter is to see him.

First, Carter and I were talking about Coen and I mentioned "Coen might not be happy when he gets here. He might be a little scared and sad." That was all it took for my extremely sensitive little man. Tears. Instant painful crying. Not whining, but real PAINful crying. It broke my heart. I calmed him down quickly and we talked about how we can make Coen happy if he is sad. Immediate response from Carter: cocoa! I agreed and told him how proud I am that he is going to help his brother be happy - what a good big brother he will be. He was very pleased with himself.

Tonight it came up again. Carter has been asking for 2 babies a LOT lately. Tonight, he randomly looked at me and said "no babies."

What? So I asked, "no babies? Do you not want Kiki either?"

He thought for a second and said "Kiki yes. 1 baby."

I decided to push a little, "Even if he's sad when he comes?"

"Kiki cocoa mom!"

And just like that, his little 2 1/2 year old self solved all the problems of the world. He already loves Coen and Coen doesn't even know that Carter exists. I can't help but think of the future and wonder if Coen will realize how much he was loved by complete strangers before he even left his native country. I pray that his transition will be smooth for him, for us, but mostly for my sensitive little man who will surely feel all of Coen's pain right along with him. I can only hope that Coen will be as attached to Carter as Carter already is to his little brother.

We're going to Ghana!

I'm thrilled, yes, but I have to be clear - we will NOT be bringing Coen home on this trip. When I was in Ghana in March, I was told it would be 2-3 months until he came home. Chris was supposed to travel in April to apply for the passport and get his chance to meet Coen. With all the delays, the April trip didn't happen. So, here we are in June and Chris still has yet to meet our son.

Enough is enough and we are anxious to spend some time with that little man! Especially since we have not been sent a single photo of him this entire time. The only plans we have are to spend time with him and his foster mom and visit some of the great non-profits we've heard about to give donations and learn more about how we might be able to help.

I cannot WAIT. We leave July 1st!

To do list:

Mail off Chris' visa application

Pick up my new malaria meds (we already had Chris' ready for April)

Get our last will and testament notarized (gloomy thought, I know but we are traveling together and have to think of our boys)

Figure out which organizations we will be visiting and make plans with them

Finalize our accommodations

M.I.A.

Sorry to be so MIA. We appreciate all of you wanting to stay updated on our adoption and we have had some *stuff* going on with it lately, but honestly, I've been too depressed to write about it. Like mama says "if you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all."

It's not THAT bad, I was just waiting for some really good news to share before I posted. Since it's not coming, I'll share some of what I do have....

I talked with our USCIS caseworker the other day and she says that she has everything she needs. When I asked about a timeline, she just repeated that she has everything so, I'm going to take that to mean that we'll hear something very soon. We can then request an appointment with the embassy for a visa interview.

Our agent has assured us that we will have the passport AND correct birth certificate by the visa interview date (it sounds like interviewed are scheduled about 6 weeks from the request). That said, our agent will be gone to school the entire month of July and into August! That scares the begeezus out of me. It's one thing to have faith in God, it's another to have faith in another human who hasn't necessarily been right on timelines during this process.

We're ready for Coen to be home. Hopefully I'll have some good news to share in the next few days!