Groundhog Day & Court update

Everyone refers to the day to day process of this journey as the groundhog day phenomenon and we are now living that phenomenon.


There is not much variation from day to day right now(except the cuteness of this little one). We wake up, get ready and meet our taxi driver Ramon out front around 9.



Then we drive to the orphanage. We walk in the front doors and greet the "front doorman/woman/guard" and they motion for us to sit down in the waiting room.
Then we wait to hear Mia's little voice coming down the long hallway and as soon as she sees us she runs to Papa
We then walk outside to "our spot" in the pavillion and pull out the purse and toys and start playing
We give her a snack at about 10:00....which is still so interesting to watch.
We are trying to teach her that she doesn't need to inhale the banana.....we will let her have the whole thing.



Once she gets to the last piece she is very delicate and dainty with it and holds on to it as long as possible.

After the banana she likes a cookie.
We take trips down the slide and play a little on the playground




We throw in a walk or two around the grounds, but if there is a car in the area she gets VERY excited and tries to get in it. About the only time she gets mad is when we take her away from the car and don't let her get in it. We keep telling her, "one day soon we will take you out of here in one of those cars"
We start cleaning up around 11:30 and then we either walk her back inside for lunch or the caregivers come out and get her.
We say goodbye to her and then wait our front for our taxi
We head home and try to scrounge up something to eat...today was chips and sandwich meat for lunch because the bread we bought was SUPER dry.
Then I usually blog and Kris takes a nap and if I get done, I take a little nap too.
We get ready to go back to the orphanage around 3:45
We visit from 4-6 and then try to find a plan for a dinner meal.

After dinner we skype to the girls and family back home or blog and then maybe watch a show and head to bed
The next morning we start it all over again.


People have been asking what the court date means and what the process is from here on out so I will explain:
We are still waiting to hear a court date. It is now wed. afternoon and we have not heard anything. Once we get a court date and go to court, the 10 day waiting period begins which basically gives 10 days for family members to appeal the court's decision for us to adopt her. After the 10 day wait is over, we can take her from the orphanage (they call this Gotcha Day) and then we start the end process of getting her medicals, her visa, her passport, etc. We travel back to K and finish up with the embassy there and then we can head home.
So the scenarios can vary as to what we will do and it all depends on this court date. If the court date is within the next week, we could possibly be able to stay through the 10 day wait. But if the court date is not soon then we may have to return home for the 10 day wait and then come back for her after that. Unless by some miracle they decided to waive the wait, but unfortunately it sounds like that is not an option here anymore.
We don't really have a plan yet because we can't really make a final decision until we know our court date. A few families who are over here right now (not in our region though) already have heard their court dates, which are set for next week. One of them had their SDA appointment when we did and another got to U after us but both have court dates scheduled already. So you see it is just random and now we just wait......and pray......

UPDATED:
No word now until tomorrow I guess. We were told now that our papers for court are ready to process but that they won't be put in until tomorrow (thursday) because that is when the computer chooses this certain judge that our facilitator wants. She said it can be bad if you get the wrong judge. So although we are bummed we don't have any news still, we are trying to have faith that waiting for the right judge is best in the long run! We have learned time and time again that this entire process is in the Lord's hands so we just have to remind ourselves of that and put on a happy face and let our faith guide us. We know so many of you have been praying for us and we really do feel your prayers and your love and support and it is buoying us up like you wouldn't believe. THANK YOU!
Hopefully we will have good news by tomorrow afternoon.......