Time for an update on things!

Our last big accomplishment was that our waiver had been received and processed by the CDC in Atlanta, and the CDC had faxed their “response” back to the Embassy in Addis. The next step was for the Embassy to send the waiver on to Nairobi, Kenya, where the USCIS/Department of Homeland Security could review it and give their final approval, at which point Belane’s visa could be issued in Addis and we would be ready to travel.

The last couple of families have waited almost exactly three weeks from CDC response to final waiver approval, but I really wanted to be in touch with someone who could tell us what to expect.

I looked high and low for an email address for Nairobi to inquire about the timeframe. We found one email address on their website, but emails came back to me immediately as "undeliverable".

Ok, so being the persistent gal that I am, I did a little more research and found out that the Rome, Italy USCIS office is the office over the Nairobi, Kenya office. They did have an email address that the public can use, so I sent a short email to Rome, explaining our situation...adopting an HIV+ child from Ethiopia... that we couldn't get in touch with Nairobi, and that we would very much appreciate knowing when to expect our waiver to be complete.

I got a very nice email back the next morning saying that they had forwarded our message to Nairobi. Shortly thereafter I got a nice message from Nairobi (from an email address that said you could not reply to), saying that they are now "endeavoring" to get the adoption HIV waivers completed within one week of receiving them (the good news) however they had not received Belane's waiver (the bad news). The officer asked us to contact the Embassy and request that they send or resend the waiver to them.

Another family that recently brought home their HIV child from Ethiopia said that they were told that Nairobi had hired a new officer just to handle these waivers...that the officer had been adopted as a child and was on "our side" and wanted to process them quickly. I was very excited that they were saying they would process the waiver within a week... quite frustrated that they hadn’t received our waiver yet.

I immediately forwarded the message from the officer in Nairobi to the Embassy in Addis, and also to Merrily at AAI. Merrily got back to me almost immediately that she had contacted Gail (in Ethiopia) and asked Gail to be in touch with the Embassy asap and make sure that they have sent the waiver to Nairobi.

So, knowing that the Embassy is now being strongly reminded to get our waiver to Nairobi by both us and by AAI, we are confident that it will be to Nairobi in the very near future, and since Nairobi is saying that they will handle it "within one week" of receiving it, we are feeling good about our tentative plans to travel on Oct. 21. Of course I'll believe it when we finally get that email saying it is approved, and we are very prepared to move our trip back if needs be, but it is looking very possible that we really will get to leave in just 17 days!!!!!

I am excited. I am letting myself be excited. Even if we don’t get to leave on Oct. 21, at this point I know that it will be soon one way or another. It is amazing to think she will be home so soon. I want to enjoy these last couple of weeks of preparing for travel and preparing for her homecoming. It is exciting!!! :)

More soon!

PS In that picture above, she has a little heart sticker on her ear. :)
I wish you could see how darling the other little girl is in the picture that Belane is playing with, but for privacy reasons I had to cut her out. But trust me...she is a sweetheart!