It has been almost a month since I updated you guys last so I wanted to write a quick blog post to explain what has happened during that month.
First, it has been a good month in the way of updates on Nati. Yesterday we received our monthly update from our agency which included a video of our little man walking around with good balance and even climbing into a little kids chair. In addition, we also received several videos and photos from a friend that was traveling for court for her daughter as well as updates on Nati's development and health. I should say that I am very thankful for the monthly updates that we receive from our agency but after a while they can seem like the same information each month. We still get excited and treasure them but it is different to get an update from a fellow mom. A fellow mom knows that more than I want to know if Nati's hair and skin are clean, I want to know about his heart. This is the fourth mom that has visited Nati and reported back to us and for that we are eternally grateful. Each and every person that has visited him has talked about how affectionate, sweet, smiley and loving he is. We are so thankful for this as sometime institutionalized kids are not comfortable with hugs, kisses and touch from an adult. We pray that this is God preparing Nati's heart for the love he will receive in our family.
So, on to the updates on our little guy. His balance is SO much better and amazing. He is not only walking but even jogging a little bit. He is also now able to walk up and down the stairs. These are big milestones for him as he has not always been able to do this due to balance and vision issues. He can hold a crayon in a PERFECT pencil grasp with his left hand. He can even feed himself a few bites of food and clean his precious little face with a spoon. For a little man that has struggled with gross and fine motor skills he is doing really great...can you tell we are really PROUD of these accomplishments! :)
So, as you can tell it has been a great month of learning new things about our boy. However, that is not all that has been happening. At the end of my last blog post I explained that it would probably take at least a month (4-6 weeks) to receive the needed documents for PAIR. Our in country staff would then have to have them translated TWICE. This is a new requirement from USCIS for kids from Nati's region. The documents must be translated from Oromian to Amharic and then from Amharic to English. We were also concerned that this would cost us a little extra time. With that in mind I decided to start praying that we would be submitted to PAIR no later than Mother's Day. But yesterday we received an email from our agency that they had ALL of the needed documents in hand needed to submit to PAIR and that they were overnighting it to USCIS. Our documents arrived at the facility early this morning so we are officially submitted to PAIR a WHOLE month early!!!!!
With as long and hard as our process has been we are very thankful any time anything happens "ahead of schedule". The fact that we were able to submit a whole month early has just magnified that. Please join us in praising God for His ability to move mountains on behalf of His children. We are so thankful for each of you that have joined us in praying that we could submit to PAIR early.
Ok, so now some of you are wondering what PAIR is. I will try my best to explain it simply. Ethiopia is not a part of the Hague Convention because of that they must use the PAIR (Pre-Adoption Immigration Review) process to ensure that children being placed for adoption are legitimate orphans. We have all heard the horror stories of children being placed for adoption when the birth parents didn't fully understand that it was a life long decision or of children being kidnapped and trafficked to feed the requests for healthy infants in many programs. The PAIR process is working hard to ensure that does not happen to one more child in Ethiopia. Like any program it has its flaws and you will hear many adoptive parents voice frustrations with the inefficiency of how it is ran. However, we are thankful for the security and protection it adds for first families, adoptees and adoptive parents. Even though we already knew much about Nati's story and had no doubt that he needed to be placed for international adoption we are still thankful for the PAIR process. This week our agency received 100 pages of documentation that give us a glimpse into Nati's story. We have read over them again and again gaining new insight into the struggle that his first three and half years have been. We have learned new details that brought us to tears and we have learned new details that have brought us relief. All of this is Nati's story to share one day when and if he chooses so we will not be sharing any details. Let me just say what a treasure it is to have so much of his background story for him one day when he has hard questions. We will have some of the answers and we are very thankful for that. Our agency has submitted this packet of documents along with our I-600 to USCIS. We will be assigned an officer that will look at our family's information and Nati's information and make a determination of whether or not he would be eligible to immigrate to the US after the adoption is complete. Then all of this will be forwarded to the embassy portion of PAIR. During this portion there will be an investigation and court testimonies confirming that all of the documents in the packet are true. Will you be in prayer that this process would go as quickly as possible. Each step that we get through quicker gets us one step closer to having Nati home. We are praying that we will have our PAIR letter in hand no later than the beginning of June.
We know that ultimately God is in control of this timeline and we trust Him with it. We ask that you would pray for our USCIS officer. We do not have a name yet but we know that God already knows. Pray that this officers heart would not be hardened by the never ending cases on their desk. Pray that Nati's case would find favor and that hearts would be softened to move his case as quickly as possible. As always continue to pray for Nati. Pray that he is being loved on daily with hugs, kisses and cuddles and that his most basic needs are being met. Thank you for praying us through this journey!
