18 months

Joah turned 18 months this week. . .so we ate cupcakes to celebrate .  We miss him.

It’s been awhile since I’ve given an update on what is happening in our attempt to bring Joah home.  It is difficult to explain the details (and the emotions!), especially when there is much about the process that we struggle to even understand.  On January 12, we finally got a response from the immigration office that they needed more evidence/investigation on our case.  For the past 2 weeks, we have been working with our agency to figure out what is needed and how we are going to get it.  We don’t feel like our case is all that complicated.  Gathering evidence just takes time, and we have no idea how much time.  Time we’d rather have with our baby in our arms!  So. . .really we have no idea when this will all play out.  Our next step (once the investigation is completed) is to submit our new evidence/documents, then wait for their decision whether it is sufficient.  I keep saying that the only good news in all of this is that this is the LAST delay they can throw at us (at least I hope anyway!!).  The new phrase around our house has become, “Fighting for Joah, Fighting for joy.”

Lucy asked me this morning, “Mom, when is our Joah-boy coming home?” (I love it that she calls him “Joah-boy”.)  I don’t know Sweetie.  But I can’t wait.

I can’t wait.

the great SNOWSTORM of 2012

What a week it has been!

17 inches of snow. . .24 hours without power. . .5 cancelled schooldays

Merry Christmas 2011

“Do not be afraid, I bring you good news.  A baby has been born in Stablehem.”

  (Luke 2:10-11, Lucy Opal’s version)

I loved hearing Lucy say this verse over and over this Christmas season.  The words “good news” kept standing out to me.  Everyday for the past 9 months (usually several times each day if I’m honest), I have found myself searching my email for “good news”.  I am thankful to be reminded this Christmas that each morning we wake up to the greatest “good news” we could possibly have.

Even though this holiday wasn’t quite how we expected it would be, and we so greatly missed sharing it with our Joah, we really had a wonderful Christmas.  Darrel had this past week off, so once we knew we wouldn’t get to travel to Ethiopia, we planned some last minute family fun.

It started off with a Christmas Eve 5K. . .

followed by some fun presents. . .

then a visit with Grandpa and Grandma and some ice skating. . .

and a trip to the beach. . .

Merry Christmas from the Bells!

not the news we were hoping for

We’ve reached another roadblock in our attempt to bring our Joah home.  This week we received an email from the embassy that our case was found to be “not clearly approvable”, meaning that they didn’t have sufficient information to give us clearance.  Our file is being sent to the immigration office in Kenya for further review.  This office has a higher authority to pass cases such as ours.  We’re not exactly sure what to expect right now.   Sounds like they should receive our case in about a week and then we’ll wait another 2-3 weeks to find out if they clear us or if they request more investigation as well.

We’ve hit so many delays that in some ways we’ve come to expect them.  And aren’t even sure how to respond anymore!  Needless to say, we were quite heartbroken to receive this news.  Hearbroken, frustrated, confused. . . but still not without hope.  Darrel and I had just prayed for Joah and the embassy’s decision, and then woke up to this message.  We know God continues to be at work.

I’m feeling it too baby!

Poor little guy.  I just want to wipe that little tear from his cheek and scoop him up in my arms.  We’ll keep fighting for you sweet boy!

new pictures, new haircut. . .

. . .but no new news from the embassy

back to the waiting game

Just wanted to give you all a quick update on Joah’s adoption.  The past couple weeks, as the US Embassy has reviewed our case, they have made various requests for additional information.  Without going into too much detail, we haven’t been able to get any of the information that they are wanting.  Our agency brought a letter in this past Tuesday explaining the efforts they have gone to and that there is nothing more we can do.  So. . .we await the review.  We were really hoping to get news before the weekend, but unfortunately we will have to wait a little longer.  What are the possible outcomes?  The best scenario is that the letter would be sufficient for what is needed to clear our case and we would travel in a couple weeks.  If that’s not the case, we aren’t sure what the delay would look like.  It could possibly add another couple months while our file is sent to another office for further review.  I know, I can’t bear the thought of that yet!  But we’ll keep fighting to get our babe home!  Although he is not so much a baby anymore!  We got new pictures this week from traveling families and he is looking so big!  I can’t wait to get to know his little toddler personality!

Please pray with us that we would get our travel clearance this week.  We so long to have our son home.

Winter Pineapple Classic

Team “Persevere”

Team “But Dust”

(any guesses who came up with that name?)

the home stretch!!!

More wonderful news came yesterday!  We found out that all the paperwork is already complete to submit our case to the US Embassy!  This past week has been filled with blessings beyond what we could imagine.  We recently became aware of an error on Joah’s original birth certificate that had to be corrected before moving on.  This had the potential to take a very long time.  We were praying for a speedy resolution, but instead God took the obstacle completely out of the way.  It was decided that we could move forward without the correction!  We are so close to bringing our baby home!!

The timing is still up in the air.  After our file is submitted next week, we’ve been told we’d travel in approximately 2-8 weeks.  That’s a pretty big window!

But sometime soon I’ll get to hug this sweet little boy again!

our 4-year-old!

Happy Birthday Lucy

Our Lucy Goose turned 4 on Monday!

She started celebrating on Friday with a few of her friends at her “flower” birthday party.

Then came her “real life birthday”.

By the end of the day, she decided she wanted to change her name to Caitlynn.   Apparently, she isn’t a big fan of the “Goose” part of her real name .  Sela tried to explain that it’s really just Lucy Opal, but she still wasn’t having it.  So whenever we said “Happy Birthday Lucy!”, this is the look we got,

followed by “it’s not Lucy, it’s CAITLYNN!!”

I think Caitlynn had a really great birthday!

happy {late} halloween

the girls’ pumpkins

and Darrel’s pumpkin