We've got her!

On March 2 we had our "handing-over" ceremony after resting the night before in Ratnagiri.  Almost as soon as we pulled the car up to the orphanage they were already standing there with Abha!  I didn't know what to do at first but didn't want to run up to her and scare her, so I said Hi and then we followed them to the office of the building.  While there, I talked to her a little while she stared at me.  I sat her on my lap and she smiled a lot of shy smiles. :) We finished up our paperwork and then the orphanage put on a little "ceremony" where they take lots of pictures and we give speeches and they give us roses and hand all the kids the treats that we brought.  Everyone seemed to be happy and Abha wasn't crying or anything. :)  The caregivers were so so so good to give us honest answers to our many, many questions.  Then we went to our hotel and got some giggles from Abha as we played with bubbles and crayons and the orphanage toys.  We traveled the next day to Mumbai and it was a rough ride for Abha as she was very carsick.  We got through it ok, though, and caught our flight yesterday to Delhi.  There we met Marie and she graciously took us shopping for some essentials we had been needing.  This included new shoes for Abha which she loves to take on and off and on and off and on and off.  We are getting to know our little girl who is very scared and shy when we go out and about, and when we are in a hotel room she lets her naughty out!!!  She runs around and tries to find all sorts of stuff to get into!  She laughs hysterically when Dad does silly stuff.  Now, some pictures. :)

With Daddy enjoying a lollypop

With Alex our facilitator

Saying goodbye to the social workers and caretakers

The lovely sign at the "hand-over" ceremony

Trying on some new clothes

Hmmm... not bad :)

We're in India!

We made it to Ratnagiri!  We got all the kids to their respective places and said our goodbyes, then at abour 2pm we left for Pittsburgh.  First flight went well to Atlanta.  Then had a perfect little layover in Atlanta to get where we needed to be to fly to London Heathrow.  The London flight was sparse so for the 8-9 hr flight Zack and I got to take turns laying down on the extra seats and sleep.  Our layover in London was a little longer but didn't seem too bad since we had time to sit and enjoy a nice Lebanese meal.  The flight to Mumbai was very, very full.  I tried to sleep, like, 6 times but couldn't so I watched a few Bollywood movies which were over 2 hours each.  That killed time.  But then when I still couldn't sleep I watched another one.  After 9 hours of constant cheap headphone use I thought I was going to get a pressure ulcer on my ears.  I didn't.  Don't worry.  I survived.  When we got to Mumbai we got through customs and immigration ok with only one tiny snafu with Zack's passport which we just had to wait on them verifying.  We met Alex with no problems and immediately started our journey to Ratnagiri.  It was 10 1/2 hours of catnaps and taking in the Indian city and countryside.  42 hours of travel total to get an hour away from her orphanage.  What a place.  A lot to absorb.  No wonder India fascinates so many, it is just so rich and dense in cultural uniqueness.
Tomorrow is the big day!  We are getting ready to add our fourth child tomorrow, little Abha!  We will have our celebration at the orphanage tomorrow and spend as much time as we can there asking our questions and saying our hellos and goodbyes.  Expect pictures tomorrow upon your awakening!!!

NOC!

We got our No Objection Certificate!  That means as soon as the SAA applies for the court, we can begin the court process!  This is a big step towards bringing Abha home!!!  Thanks everyone for continuing to pray as we inch closer and closer!

INDIA - Dossier time!

Hello all!  Much needed update follows!
     We are adopting this little girl we told you about earlier!  Her name is Abha, and I'll just tell you right now, she's adorable.  I hesitated posting more details because for a while it was back and forth.  Do we have her or don't we?  Can we pursue or not?  We prayed and prayed for wisdom and calm and that Abha find a safe family, as things were uncertain and thankfully God answered our prayers AND allowed that we be the family for Abha which was just icing on the cake.  I firmly believe that God is guiding Abha to a family and also guiding our story, we feel privileged that it could be us entrusted with Abha.  So far so good!  We are two approvals into the 6-step gauntlet.
     We were matched with her on March 20 after much uncertainty.  There was a system error that appeared that we could not continue with her referral, but then the region said they were under the impression we were matched, so that was good news! Then a few weeks later the central authority said no, because of the previous mistake another family had reserved her.  Then a few weeks later after our agency appealed on our behalf, the central agency granted us the reservation and matched us with her.  Phew!  Talk about a roller coaster!  So we continued on with the immigration paperwork, and one of the papers appeared unacceptable.  After about a week, and a discussion with the supervisor, it was decided that the paper was acceptable.  NOW we are ready to obtain the necessary documents to fill out the DS-260 to obtain a visa for Abha to eventually travel to the US!  In the meantime, our acceptance dossier (see following pics) is traveling through India being approved (the next two approval steps) and will hopefully end with our NOC (no objection certificate) then it's the two court processes.  Little by little, we inch through!  Also we are going to be getting more info from the orphanage about her likes and dislikes and details about her day.  Hopefully in a little while we'll be able to send her gifts and pictures.  Once we pass court, I can share pictures.  Until then, I want to show you what an international dossier looks like, in case you ever wondered. I'll give you a hint.  It looks like a mountain of papers.

Yipes!  Imagine the postage!  It'll give you nightmares!

INDIA exciting developments!

  We have come to a very exciting part of our India adoption journey!  Our agency has been looking twice a week on the Indian child listing to see if any children match our profile.  We have had several calls already about possible children.  Some have been very young and some have been older (which we understood to be risky).  We were under the impression that we had to adopt in birth order and since Logan is 4 we would have to adopt a child younger than that.  Now it sounds like we could potentially try to send a referral through the Indian gauntlet of an older child.  They told us that they have declined matches before due to birth order, but that it's not an impossibility.  We are inquiring about a few children as it is.  We are in a very exciting but a very high-pressure-feeling discernment time.  Lots of prayer would be appreciated!

My sister Annie came and painted a Mandala on our wall (see above). :)  She painted a Hindi word in the middle.  Annie suggested some Sanskrit words, but we wanted to do Hindi so that our potential new addition could easily recognize it if they decide to learn Hindi later in life.  She painted the word "family" in the middle.  The lotus blossoms represent growth and new life.  I thought it was very appropriate.  She did a marvelous job and we love it.  It reminds us every day about the journey we are on.

Gianna update: her neurofeedback is going well and we are noticing some new cognitive processing.  She can now answer the question "what are you thinking about?" and "what did I just say?"  Her auditory processing is getting much quicker.  There's still a noticeable lag, but it's not as severe.  She will be sitting there watching a video with her brothers, and when there's a joke the boys will bust up and then a second and a half later Gianna will start to laugh.  Hey, it's an improvement!  Before, she would have looked at them, maybe fake-laughed cuz they were laughing and wonder what they were laughing at.  She had such trouble processing things that had just happened so many things were very confusing to her.  Also, she has much better memory in general.  She can actually remember things that happened at school and tell me about her day.  Part of that is she is becoming more aware of her surroundings and has less anxiety.  She can move through her day awake and participating.  Most days. :)
Therapy is still hard for her, but it will be for a very long time.  The therapist says she sees a noticeable difference in her eye contact with me.  She says it's clearer and more genuine.  That's very encouraging, and hopefully means true attachment is in our future.
Gianna is officially in size 7 clothes!  And very soon she'll be in size 8!  All of a sudden she really started growing and she gained 5 pounds and about half an inch in height in just the last few months! Hopefully that means other development will follow - particularly moving out of some of the toddler behaviors. :)
Gianna is really becoming a delightful family girl and joining in with our family more and more.  She's learning and growing every day and we are so proud of her.

Gianna just seems so much more relaxed and happy these days

She was a flower for her school play and I made her a little rose skirt.  She was so proud to be in the play.

Here she is waiting for her turn to dance.  She was the cutest little flower you've ever seen in your whole life.  She just was.  It's true.

Gianna you are the coolest thing, even with leaves on your teeth.