There is lots going on in our adoption process for Sevi right now!
A couple months ago a few families traveled to pick up their children and so we were blessed with getting some new pics of Sevi.
One of the girls who left had been there at the orphanage with Sevi for quite some time and was a close friend of hers. I can't imagine how sad Sevi felt when she left, but I am glad that her other friend, W, was and is there to keep her company :) (For privacy reasons some of the childrens faces have been hidden)
Sevi with her friend Delice and her new mom
Three amigos!
We also have gotten to send her several care packages, and got to see the video of her getting her family book! (She says my name somewhere in there ^^)!
She was pointing out Maida to one of the nannies here
She wanted to show everyone her new family :)
Including Mama Julia of course
My mom sent her a picture of our entire family and a picture of us two (the only ones of us she has actually met and really knows). Our in country coordinator said that when she got those pictures she was so happy and showed everyone in the orphanage, we were told that she keeps them somewhere safe and special.
Here are some more photos that have trickled in over the course of these past few months.
Getting her nails painted
She is too cute!
She loves to sing and dance! Almost all the videos we have are of Sevi singing and dancing.
About a month or two ago an old friend contacted my family and told us that her brother lives in Congo right now and would love to go visit Sevi for us and tell us how she's doing, to be able to talk to her and translate all that we wanted to say to her, and take pictures of course! What a blessing that was for us, and other families as well!
Among other things Joel and his friends brought the kids some good ol' American baseball t's :)
Not only did this man and a couple of his friends go and hang out with the kids and take pictures for us, but they brought toys, and ice cream, and tried to and gave us suggestions on how to make the orphanage a better place with what they had to work with (he said he was already very impressed with the way the orphanage was run). It was just so great and we, along with many of the families in our agency, had our spirits finally lifted after a lot of tough roads in all of our adoption journeys. Before I get into that though I would like to write down what our friend said about Sevi, specifically.
This is what he said:
"Sevi does read. They do have classes in the morning for a couple hours. She is absolutely a beautiful young girl (Moi siki Toko in Lingala). She has a heart warming smile (that includes her eyes!). She is quite by nature. She does play, does warm up, does spend time playing with the other kids and is in a "big sister" role for quite a few of them, helping out where she can. Piggy back rides, changing clothes, setting them up for naps."
"When asked she said her favorite food was spaghetti, but then changed her mind and said any kind of meat" :)
Something our friend told us about Sevi though made me a little sad, but all the more eager to bring her home. When we asked if she was excited, scared, happy, or sad about coming home to us he said: "I think Sevi is concerned it won't come to fruition (that we weren't really coming for her) so her hopes won't be to high..." :(
We areso thankful that Joel went to visit the orphanage and give us an update on how she's doing
He then went on to say (bragging on my sister a little here): "She has an awesome spirit, though! Holy cow is this kid wonderful! Don, Allen (his friends that went with him) and I all thought that and had independent conversations on it, unsolicited. She actually touched all 3 of us above and beyond the rest of the kids." Wow! We were so touched that he would say that. Oh we can't wait to bring her home!
Speaking of which this is the not so fun part :(. There has apparently been a lot of changes in the process on the Congo side of things which has been slowing things down quite a bit as they try to figure it all out. Part of the new ways is a longer wait period for her investigation and after it. The wait time has been pushed from a month to anywhere from 3-6 months! We are so bummed! We were hoping to travel in June or July at the latest, but it doesn't seem possible right now :( I know we just have to wait and trust in The Lord, His plans are always better then ours. We also are really done with fundraising (this topic is another post to come) but know we have to continue on to raise the last half of the money needed.
This past week we did get to do something very exciting though...We got to file the i600 for Sevi! We got her adopton decree and passport a couple weeks ago and were able to file last week. Hopefully that will all be finished soon and then it's on with the investigation. After that we just have her visa we need! So close, yet still so far away :( we are trusting and waiting though! Keep praying for us, that my family would be strong and that we will wait on The Lord and trust Him to provide.
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