The Visit Trip

So much has happened since I last blogged. We got Faith's referral on August 11th. We previously had scheduled a vacation to visit some friends in Egypt on August 19th - 24th. Thankfully, we had about week between receiving the referral and leaving for vacation. We are the type of people that need some time to process. Plus, we had to see a doctor about her medical report before we could formally sign and send in her "Referral Acceptance Agreement."

The next step was to schedule the Visit Trip. This is important because we are living overseas. Since we will prove we saw her before her adoption is finalized, she will automatically be a citizen when she crosses U.S. soil. We will be able to get Faith a U.S. passport quickly while we're in the States. This makes it easy for us to return to our home overseas.

Before we left for vacation we heard from the adoption agency that it would be a possibility to visit the orphanage the week of August 25th. So, we packed for two climates as it's warm in Egypt and cold in Ethiopia. We heard back from the agency that August 25th was open and we could indeed go that week, so we booked our tickets from our friends' house in Egypt!!!! haha!!! CrAzY!!!!

We traveled overnight from Cairo to Addis Ababa (stopping for an hour in Khartoum) arriving on August 25th. We were in Ethiopia from the 25th to the 28th. Tim, Joseph, and I left a piece of our hearts there. We fell in love with a beautiful, smiley, tiny baby girl. She's totally ours. Hand picked for us. We enjoyed every minute we had with her. Leaving her was more difficult that I had imagined it would be.

On the first day, when we pulled up there she was....in the director's wife's arms....outside waiting for us!!!! She was tiny!!! I got out of the car and wanted to hold her. I couldn't stop looking at her. How in the world could she be 8 months old?!??!! She's so tiny!! Look at all that hair!!!!!! She was just so precious!! All we wanted was to get her healthy. How can we get her to a doctor?!? And then....she smiled....She had our hearts at that point on.

Tim and I were there, but where was Joseph??? HAHAHA!!!! He was suddenly the center of attention among the staff. They were soo excited!!! JO!!!! JOYEH!!! (this means MY JO) They loved seeing him again! This was such a highlight that we brought him with us. Abdissa, the director said to us, "You are historical for bringing one of our kids back to us." :) They loved on him all week long.

The next day we took Faith to the doctor. The doctor did the same thing I did and right away said, "This baby is not 8 months old!" She called Abdissa, the director of the orphanage, and got more of the medical history. Turns out she's 5-6 months old. In the next few weeks we should be hearing back from the orphanage about an exact birth date. She will have an adjusted birth date. The doctor did a thorough check on her and said she's healthy, but underweight. She also had some blood tests done...which all came back normal. PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!!!

The last two days we had some great time with Faith!!! We also had great time with the Staff at the Thomas Center (the name of the orphanage). They realize that she needs extra attention due to her low weight. She needs to be fed more than most babies to catch up to a normal weight. They're also going to do their best to get her through court quickly. Sadly, though, there will be no more court hearings until October. So, we will continue to TRUST in HIS PERFECT TIMING!!! I think that's called FAITH!! :)