One Week Till Take Off

We start our travel journey next Sunday... but our flight to Africa from DC is scheduled for Monday (we fly out of Denver first, then have a layover). So... in 7 days and 23.5 hours we will be on an airplane on our way to Africa to meet Espy for the first time. The anticipation is definately building.

I think I might have some challenges concentrating on teaching my classes and other have-to-get-done work... sorry students! :)

The boys are looking forward to having Grandma Betty here for nearly a whole week starting Saturday. We are super thankful that she could get some days rearranged at her office to be here. Thanks Betty!

Ok... back to shopping lists and study notes! :)

We give thanks for Espy and those of you who helped make this possible

Here is our beautiful baby girl.

We will be united in just over a week! How thrilling.

A special thank you to our small group and those amazing friends who, out-of-the-blue this week, provided support for us to help make a dent in all of these adopting fees and airline ticket expenses. We could NOT have done this without your generosity. God will surely bless you. You will have eternal rewards and always a very special place in our adoption story! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. You are truly representing the Love of Christ.

Espy is Ours!!!

We passed court today! Hip Hip Hooray! This means that Nzayisenga Esperance is now officially a Vincent! Esperance Eliana Vincent, or Espy for short!

We are rejoicing and thanking God for this today!

We are officially departing the US on December 7th and will be united with our daughter on the 8th at around 2 in the afternoon. Home again on December 19th just in time for the holidays! What a gift our family has been given this year! AMAZING!

court and travel

Our Court Date is Monday! Yeah! Please pray that there are no hiccups! We are making tenative travel plans for sometime between the 4th and 7th. Will confirm those dates after Monday. Two weeks to go and we will hold sweet baby in our arms.

P.S. We think she has been at the orphanage since she was 1 day old... Nuns call her Espy. Super cute.. we are thinking of keeping that name since she is so used to it. Maybe Eliana Esperance, Espy for short... or Esperance Eliana, Espy for short... still thinking about it. :)

Lots to do lots to do. Gotta finish all my homework and grading for the classes I teach before we leave, plus travel and arrangements for kids while we are gone. Aghhh... any help would be most appreciated! :)

waiting on word

Waiting on word of our court date this week. Once we have it we can proceed with booking travel.

c'mon court date!!!

:)

Missing my baby girl and we haven't even met yet!

Eliana Esperance Vincent

We did receive the official email this morning. So happy to have it! The color photo is much better than the black and white copy we had received third party.

Unfortunately I cannot post pictures on a public forum due to privacy issues until she is official ours... after we pass court.

We are sooo excited though. So many emotions going on. I got back from a long road trip to Colorado and had a million things to catch up on, but of course all I wanted to do was look at my baby's picture!

We are waiting for a couple of documents from the orphanage that we need for court and our attorney in Rwanda is working on getting a court date as soon as he can. Still praying for one in November... please join us in this prayer! After court documents will go to the Ministry of Justice in order to issue her a passport (this takes up to two weeks). During that time another set of documents will go to the Ministry of Gender and Family who will issue us a travel letter stating that we are her legal parents and are able to travel with her. Once those documents are done we will travel to Rwanda... So... we are looking at maybe three weeks after we pass court.

After Rwanda we fly to Ethiopia where she will get a medical check up and we will be interviewed in order to get her visa to come home.

So... if things come together with court and document processing we could be in Africa mid December... I'm checking on flights just to see how outrageous they are over the holidays. Yikes! :)

New baby for the V family

We received information about our baby this morning. Soooo excited to get all the details. We have just a picture and a simple letter from the government... with few details, but she looks like she is almost a year old. We expect more information as soon as the ministry's office gets a chance. (They are busy this week with a major event and will get families information to move forward as soon as they can). Hopefully we can get enough details to secure a court date before December when courts close in Rwanda.

Needless to say we are estatic and exhausted. It has been a lot of sleepless nights waiting for this precious information. We are in love already... can't wait to meet her in person! She is soooo beautiful. Buster says she has is nose... ha!

Thank you so much B for the extra leg work to get us this information today! We appreciate you!

I will post more information as I can.

Thanks everyone for your prayers... let them continue so that we can pass court before December!!! With God's grace we can do it!

still waiting

nothing here...

Happy for all the families that got their referrals this week.

We did not.

Don't know why.

Pretty devestated today.

36 mile cool off

Ahhh.. ok... So my post 36 hours ago was a tad bit on the defensive side. Sorry. My mood was horrible until about 4 pm yesterday. I was simply exhausted from telling people we would probably hear something by the end of the week and then have to turn around and tell them it didn't happen, and I didn't know why.

This coupled with stress from inferential statistics homework I do NOT understand, getting ready for a conference in Colorado I leave for in the morning, sick family members, a rough week of teaching, lack of sleep, and exercise depravation left me really owly.

Anyway... sorry about being snippy. Thank you sister-in-law for convicing me to ride my roadbike with you 36 miles on a beautiful November afternoon to work off the agression. It worked. I felt much better and was able to block off 3 hours of time to think about how thankful I am for things... to gather my thoughts regarding the love of God... and to breath... in and out (or huffing and puffing at that time), and know that I can be confident in my Savior.

I still don't have any idea what's going on with our process... no expectations or estimations of when will will see her, hold her, bring her home. I'm still sad that it's taking so long and it might take longer than I want it to. But, I am at least more peaceful about it than I was yesterday.

did not want to write this post

We were truly hoping to hear something today. No news though. I realize that it is early here (800am) but it is the end of business in Rwanda and we have no news. Not sure when it's coming... sad... I did not want to have to go through another weekend without information about our baby.

Time is quickly slipping by and I honestly don't know when we'll get information, when we will pass court, or when we will get to travel. We have a lot to do in January so the likihood of going then seems dim. I absolutely hate the idea that we have a baby that continues to develop without us.



Sorry for the depressing post but I am having a really hard time be optimistic today. If someone would have told me this would take two years when we started I would be fine.. but when people say 9 months max and you are now in month 16 the tug-of-war of emotions is ridiculous. If you have ever been pregnant or had a bilogical child, imagine how it would feel to go seven months over your due date.

crazy birthday

I did not get a referral for my birthday... So, I had a pity party for myself yesterday and today feel much better :) Our caseworker did let us know that the minister's office is working on the referrals and might have them out by the end of the week. So we're hoping for that.

Please please please please pray for favor and that the courts will allow the adopting families to pass before the end of November. Courts close in December and if we are not able to pass through court before end of November we would have to wait until sometime in January. (someone represents us in court to make the official adoption decree there and we travel after that.)

I sincerely hope I can post an overjoyed email by the end of this week. :)

Birthday Wish

Dear Minister,
I know that you and your staff are working incredibly hard in Rwanda and that families waiting for our referral information are not the only thing you have to take care of.
But.... if you can find time on Tuesday to process paperwork I would appreciate it.
Tuesday is my Birthday and if I could receive the gift of a photo of my baby (and a court date in November) I am pretty sure it would be the best birthday gift ever!

Sincerely,
A Vincent


People not involved in processing paperwork: Join with us in prayer this week. 12 families still waiting for referrals. Courts close in December in Rwanda and if we cannot pass court before end of November then it won't be till (maybe) end of January. (We cannot travel to get our kids for about two weeks after we pass court).

Thanks!