Today is Annabell's 2nd birthday! It is bittersweet for me. I am so happy that she gets to spend this birthday surrounded by those she loves and who love her, but sad that we are not there or she is not here so we can celebrate with her. One thing that makes this more bearable is that we will be on our way to see her very very soon!!! First let me fill everyone in on what has taken place since I last wrote. We ended up getting Annabelle's legal paperwork after waiting 10 weeks. That was the hardest wait of my life. I just couldn't understand how it could take so long for them to send some documents in the mail that they had just sitting there in their office. Needless to say, we were so relieved and happy to finally be able to send in her visa/immigration paperwork. It seems like everything since then has been one miracle after another. We found out just a few days after sending in this paperwork that Annabelle's passport had been issued. It only took 5 weeks from when ICAB filed for it. That was very unexpected because at the time passports in the Philippines were taking around 3 months to get because of some problems they had with their new computer system update and the backlog it created. Then just a couple weeks later we found out from USCIS that our immigration paperwork was approved (this process usually takes 3-4 weeks and ours only took 2). Our immigration paperwork was then forwarded to the US Embassy in Manila on Sept. 3rd.
How things normally work from this point is that the Embassy processes the paperwork, which can take a couple weeks, and then they let ICAB know that the child's medical appointment and visa interview appointment needs to be made. Once the visa interview has taken place, then your child's visa is issued and ICAB will notify the parent's, about 2 weeks later, that they can travel. The process from immigration approval to the actual visa interview date is usually a minimum of 2 months, so at this point we had it all worked out that we would be traveling to pick up our daughter sometime around Thanksgiving. I was actually ok with this. I figured it wasn't too far away that I could handle the wait and would give me plenty of time to get things ready. I should have known that my timing and the Lord's timing is never the same.
We received an email from our agency last Thursday morning with some amazing news that I am still trying to wrap my head around that it even really happened. It had only been one week since our paperwork had been sent to the Embassy, so we weren't expecting to hear anything for another month or more. Our agency director said that she just talked with ICAB and that they were able to expedite her visa process so that it happened before her 2nd birthday. She had just had her medical that day and her interview would be taking place the very next day which was Sept. 11th. Jason and I were both in tears, and that's saying something because I don't cry very easily. That wasn't all either. It went on to say that a very generous sponsor for her orphanage has decided to pay for ours and her airfare to go there and bring her home. I really couldn't believe this was happening and am actually still in shock about it. I had never heard of this happening before except for children who were really sick and needed treatment or an operation as soon as they got to the states. It was obvious to me that someone had met our special little girl and fell in love with her and was helping pull some strings for us to get her sooner than we ever hoped. We will forever be grateful to this person, whoever it was, that was able to do this for us and for our baby girl. I have no doubt that God loves all His children and watches over them, and I know His hands have been in this process from day one. For us and for Annabelle, this was the best birthday present we could have ever even thought to ask Him for.
We spent all weekend getting things ready to travel because when you go from thinking you have 2 months to prepare to possibly just days or at most a couple weeks, things get a little stressful and crazy. We just found out this morning that we can leave Oct. 1st. That is just 2 weeks from today. I can't even express how anxious and excited I am. It is so incredible and amazing to think that in just a couple more weeks I will finally get to meet this precious little girl that I have fallen so in love with. I will get to see her beautiful face, hear her sweet voice, hold her in my arms, and tell her how much she is loved! Happy birthday my sweet baby girl - we will be there soon!!!
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