Pre-departure ICAB Visit - Six Months Together

On Monday this week we flew to Manila for the required pre-departure visit to the Intercountry Adoption Board of the Philippines. It was so exciting to be there - to see this mysterious place we had often wondered about during the 21 month wait between our approval and match with Ella.

This is a visit that parents usually make with their child just days after they meet. How fun for us to get to show off how far we've come in our nearly six months together. The staff loved Ella (like, of course!). She pretty much made herself right at home by taking off her shoes and walking around to explore, laughing and playing - a sure sign of a secure child!

We met the women who oversee the matching process and played a pretty big role in matching Ella to our family. Here is a photo with one of those women and our social worker (in blue). We received Ella's passport with American visa, as well as all the documents needed to exit the country and enter the US. As they handed us the final affidavit of consent to adoption, the ICAB officer said, "Since it is clear that Ella has adjusted beautifully to your family, we are granting you this document." I was beaming. We know that's true but for ICAB to acknowledge that verbally, well, that was awesome. What a great day!

According to them, the social worker from Ella's children's home was not able to travel to Manila to choose a family so they asked the ICAB staff to choose for them. This woman handpicked us out of the bunch. I had to ask, "Why did you choose us?"

)

She said that it had a lot to do with the fact that we were living in the Philippines. There was some concern about Ella's adjustment since she had had such a difficult time since her arrival at the children's home (having lost her foster family, what more could they expect?). They felt that her getting to stay in-country would be better for her. They also said that since we filled out the medical conditions checklist saying we were willing to take a child with language delay (among other things), and since that was one of their concerns regarding Ella, then they knew we were the ones. Apparently we were the second choice of two families but when presented to the board they bumped us to #1. 

Well, we know who really did the choosing but it was really interesting to hear from ICAB how they put us together. Now that we have her, we know it was meant to be all along!  Oh man, I love this little girl so much.

After the ICAB visit, we went to Starbucks to celebrate with Ella's favorite chocolate cake. Ella was in fine form tearing around the place like usual. I happened to catch a few shots of her happy cuteness.

And since I don't have time to make a separate post, I'll just add a few photos from the past month.

How cute are these girls?

Ella is now two and a half! Lately, she has started to sing her own songs really loud. The other day I had some worship music on in the car and I heard Ella's sweet voice belting out behind me. When I sneaked a peak at her in the rear view mirror she had her eyes close with her hands palms together up near her mouth just singing away. I was so touched!

She has also began to initiate praying for others. She often will say "pray" and then put her hand on a friend at church or someone who's visiting or to Daddy before he goes to work. When we prayed for a friend at church who was in a lot of pain, she felt better after!

She is playing so well with other kids these days. I was at a church gathering the other day and Ella just took off into the play room with several other kids. Oh and she got her first kiss from a boy! A playmate of hers, who is just a few months younger came up to Ella and kissed her on the lips. So cute! Ella pushed him away and said, "No!" That a girl. These two really like each other though. We started getting together about once a week so they can play. And the photos of Ella on the bike with side-car is another play date we've been having weekly. She is really comfortable with these kids now too and seems to really enjoy when we get together. (And I am loving the Mommy time I get to have with my friends!)

I could go on but there is much to do before we fly out in just TWO DAYS!!! We leave on Sunday night. Our girl will leave on a Philippines passport and return on an American one. This is so exciting! (Did I mention we have a court date on April 20th? We are so close!)

Moving Right Along

Here I am again, trying to resist feeling like a loser because I haven't blogged in so long. Just when I think I'm back it, well, you know... two or three or in this case, four weeks go by! The same goes for exercise and many other things. I'm not sure I'll get used to this part of motherhood. There just always seems to be more important things to do. Granted, we have been very busy with finalizing the adoption with a few extra unplanned trips to Manila thrown in and all that needs to be done before going away for two months. So to update you, this is the latest:

We completed Ella's visa medical in Manila end of last month. Because of her BCG injection at birth, the TB skin test came out reactive so she had to undergo a chest x-ray. Not fun for a two year old. I had to help force her legs into a contraption that holds her upright with a clear plastic brace that folds around her chest pushing her arms against her ears. She screamed and cried and hit me in the face as I tried to hold and support her arms up while telling her it's gonna be okay and singing You Are My Sunshine. It was awful. Thankfully, the x-ray result was negative and resulted in a medical report that cleared her for travel to the U.S. What a relief. We have been told that she will get a visa. It should be issued sometime this week.

We had our third and last post-placement home visit last week. It went really well. Visits from our social worker usually do. That's because our daughter is a STAR. Our social worker often says, "She's such a happy girl!" It's true. She is happy. And that makes us feel really good. In addition to remarking about how much progress Ella has made since the first post-placement visit, our social worker also said several times, "Boy, she really knows what she wants!" and "Oooh, I can see that she is very strong-willed."

Speaking of strong-willed, the middle name we gave Michella just so happens to mean home-ruler. Hilarious and so appropriate, we are realizing! We learned this only after we chose the name, inspired by a particular historical figure. We didn't realize it's meaning until after we submitted Ella's new name to our lawyer in Alabama who needed it to fill out the court petition. I'd be happy to share her new full name with you personally if you ever want to ask. Just don't want to mention it here. But it's true, we have a little home-ruler in our house. Oh my. Just look at her!

Our social worker loves us and just adores Ella. Her last report was so positive and I thought adequately described Ella's adjustment to our family. I feel like our relationship and appreciation of our social worker is similar to a couple's connection to their midwife. She has become a friend. How could she not when she has been instrumental in the most significant event of our adult lives so far? Once her report from this last post-placement visit is written and submitted, we can expect the final documents  needed to finalize Ella's adoption in the U.S.

We just learned we will have to go to Manila one more time. We are required to visit the Inter-country Adoption Board. We also need to personally pick up Ella's passport and visa and the final Consent to Adopt expected to be issued by the adoption board. Once we have these docs in hand, our adoption process as far as the Philippines is concerned is complete. How fantastic is that?!

We're headed to the U.S. in less than TWO WEEKS! We'll be finalizing the adoption in Alabama where my parents live and have a big house for us to base ourselves for the two months we're Stateside. We will also be spending some time in North Carolina and Washington, D.C.

There is much to do while in town - a home study (two home visits) from a local social worker, get fingerprinted (for the 18th time), get a few different background checks, hope our home study with the local agency gets ready in time for us to appear in court (we just got our court date today!), get Ella an amended birth certificate, a social security number and an American passport. In between all that, we will be spending lots of quality time with both sets of grandparents and some of Ella's aunts, uncles and cousins. It is looking likely that we will have both Andrey's and my parents in Alabama at the time of the court date. How special that day will be!

Anyone have any tips on traveling several really long flights with a toddler?