Adoption Update

I can't believe it has been months since I sat down and wrote a post. I am the worlds worst blogger! So much has transpired since the beginning of the summer. I would love to take a few minutes and share what has gone on and where our family is in the adoption process now.

The summer was a whirlwind around the Livingston household filled with lots of swimming, hanging out with friends and fun. Our girls here love the summer time and all that comes with it. I love the laid back schedule and extra time as a family. I was also able to take a road trip for my birthday in August and go to Knoxville TN to visit a dear friend and her family who I had only known through email, phone calls and facebook. She has brought home two beautiful children from Ghana and is now in the process of bringing home two more. I took Hope and Gracie and went to spend a week with her and her family and we had so much fun. It was such a joy and blessing to meet her face to face and to get to share life with her and her family for that week. I feel so blessed to have found a kindred spirit! I also got to meet several of the other Ghana adoptive moms. I hope that it will become a yearly tradition. Although between her family and mine next August we will have 12 children, over half of them Ghanian! Can you imagine how loud and crazy that gathering will be?

Little did I know as I headed back to Chicago that just four short days later I would be on a plane headed to Ghana to meet my children for the first time. We got a call from our lawyer when I arrived home saying if I wanted to be in country for court I would need to head over. We are planning on bringing our kids home on an IR-3 visa so I needed to meet them before our court date. So I ran around like a crazy woman for a few days and got all packed to go on what I thought would be a two and a half week trip to go meet our kids, go to court and hopefully file our i-600. My wonderful mother in law traveled up to Chicago to help Robert with the girls and I headed out to finally meet Elizabeth, Nestine and Luke.

I ended up spending a month with my children and there is so much I could say about my time there. It was amazing to have the privilege of spending a month getting to know them. I was able to get a much clearer picture of where they are coming from, their culture and each of their unique personalities. It was also incredible to get to spend time at their orphanage getting to know the other precious children that they live with. The home where our children now live is a wonderful home with about 50 children who are very well cared for. They are loved, taught about the Lord, they eat three full meals a day and are taken to the doctors when they are sick. We honestly couldn't ask for our kids to be in a better place until they are able to be home with us. I truly loved being there. I spent many of my days in their courtyard getting my hair braided, playing soccer, reading books and loving on the kids. No hurrying around, no huge list of to do's. The pace of life was slow and allowed for real time to build relationships. It was clear to me after my time there that each of those precious children has such a desire to be known and loved. It didn't matter if they were 3 or 13, they longed for someone to pay attention to them, to make them feel special, to love them. I pray that they will all get the opportunity to know the love of a family.

You might be wondering how a two and half week trip turned into over a month. One of the things I learned a whole lot of during my trip was patience. You see in Ghana nothing happens in a hurry. That includes paperwork. After getting there it was discovered some of our paperwork was not in order for us to be able to go to court, so long story short, we had to retrieve documents and redo interviews with living relatives that had been lost. Which when it was all said and done lead us to court 4 weeks after we had hoped to go. It was a trying time and I learned a whole lot about how much I do not have control over any of this process. But it did give me extra time to get to know my children. Because of the lost interviews I was able to meet my childrens living relatives. Which was such a blessing. I was able to spend several weeks with another incredible family that are adopting from the same home, who I am sure will be life long friends. And at the end of the long hard month Elizabeth, Nestine, and Luke were declared Livingstons and we were given a full decree from the court. So it was definitely all worth it!!!!

Let me introduce you to the new Livingstons.

This is Elizabeth Tor-Nye Livingston. Tor-Nye is ewe for "my own" and it is what we want our beautiful girl to hear every time we say her name. She is 9 years old and is Nestine and Lukes cousin. Elizabeth has a smile that could light up a room. Over my time in Ghana with her I learned she has a real love for learning, she is very driven and truly has a desire to be loved, yet a fear of being hurt, she loves little ones and is a huge helper at the home. She is also very much a girly girl who loves dressing up. It became very clear to me during my time with her that our precious girl has been through a lot in her short life. God has truly moved mountains to allow her to come home to our family and we can't wait to see how she blooms with the love of a family.

This is Ernestine Kathryn Jane Livingston, "Katy Jane" for short. She is 6 years old. She is named after Katie Davis and the daughter she had to give up Jane. It was through reading Katie Davis' blog and specifically her entries about having to give up her daughter Jane that God moved my heart and called us to adopt after my husband had been praying for many years. I found in my time there that Nestine has a love for life that I have only seen matched by our Gracie. Oh the fun and mischief these two will get into. She has a kind heart, is extremely affectionate and is very generous. She will share anything she has, which I came to find out is not the norm in an orphanage. She is also a neat knick, she likes everything in its place. I am so blessed that God has allowed this beautiful little girl to be my daughter. She will bring so much joy and laughter to our home.

This is Luke Whitney Livingston. Luke is 3 years old and Nestines younger brother. His name is after Roberts mentor and dear friend Whitney Anderson. Luke has a smile that will melt your heart. He gives the best hugs and was happiest being held or sitting on my lap. He is also extremely funny. He loves to dance and play, and can eat like no little one I have ever seen. I am afraid of our grocery bill when he is a teenager! He is very easy going unless someone else was trying to get my attention, then I found out he also has quite a set of lungs on him! He is like a little sponge when it comes to english. I was amazed at how much more he was talking in the month I was there with him. And I am sure with 4 big sisters he will be very spoiled with love and attention! We can't wait to get him home!

After passing court on Sept. 16th I had to return home without filing our i-600. Leaving the kids was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. It is not easy having children on two different continents. And every day I pray that God will allow all of my children to be under one roof soon. The question we get a lot now is how long until they are able to come home. The short answer is we are not sure. Robert returned to Ghana at the end of October to file our i-600, which is our final approval from USCIS to bring the kids into the US. We have been told it can take up to 60 days to secure that approval. We are currently on day 16. So we are hoping to have our approval by the end of the year. We will then need to get their visas issued which from what we have heard can take another 60 days, if all goes well. Once their visas have been issued Hope and I will travel to Ghana to bring the kids home! We are hoping to have them home by late February/early March. Please join us in praying that our processing is quick and that God continues to prepare both their hearts and ours.