Where we are with the adoption

Last Wednesday, Eric filed our i600 application in Ghana. This begins the investigation on the US side into our adoption. Documents are verified and they make sure Afua was an orphan who qualifies for adoption. I say "was" because she no longer is an orphan. She is our daughter!

One of our documents has a typo on it and we will need to have a corrected version submitted before the investigation concludes. It's minor, but it's good that all documents are accurate and correct.

We are also waiting on Afua's passport, which is a tricky one to obtain. When I think of passports, I think about going to the post office, dropping off an application with pictures and payment and then a few weeks later a passport comes in the mail. Not so in Ghana. It's a long process, the application goes through many hands, machines break down, people may not come to work the day something they do needs to be done and the pace of life is very different. Abandoned children need an adoption passport which takes longer than another type of passport sometimes used. Our passport application is already filed, but it will be weeks until we can get it.

I don't even want to guess how soon Afua will be home. I will be wrong and it will be longer than I would like. 

According to Eric there have been days where she has been smiling and interacting with everyone (as seen in these pictures). There have also been visits where she is lethargic and having a hard time connecting. Those pictures are hard to see. Once I get all of Eric's pictures loaded, get ready for lots of stories. Once again, the trip proved to be about so much more than adoption.