Meeting Sitina

As I sit here and ponder all that has happened in the last days and weeks I begin to panic! There are so many stories to tell. I don’t want to forget any of it. I have been slack keeping notes daily and now I find myself scurrying to remember...

Court date #1:

The night before we were busy planning and packing all that we needed to take with us the next day. We were excited to have the opportunity to finally pack a baby bag for Sitina. We picked out what she would wear if we passed court and were able to take her home the next day. I was scared to get my hopes up. If we didn’t pass and we were only able to visit her and not take her home I would be so disappointed. It would still be amazing to meet her but I could only imagine how hard it would be to leave her in the care home after being united. 

I hardly slept the night before. I was glad to finally get up and get the day going. The driver picked us up at 7:30 am and we picked up 2 other families that had court on the 16th as well. We arrived at the court house at about 8:30 am and climbed to the 3 or 4th floor to a large room with many waiting families. I scanned the room...was her birth mom there? Would I recognize her from the small photo I had of her? As we sat and waited I was informed that the birth mom was not there. The other two families did have the birth mother present. We were disappointed. We knew we would not pass court without her there. Our names were called. We followed our rep to the court room along with the three other families. The female judge asked us a series of 4-5 questions. All of which were answered with yes/no answers. It was over in about 5 minutes and then we left wondering what was next... 

As we suspected did not pass. The woman’s affairs did not give their comment on our case and the birth mom was absent. Disappointment. Two weeks from today we would have another hearing. They would try to find Sitina’s mom and MOWO was required to give their comment with regard to our case. 

Even though we didn’t pass that day we received a major blessing on the 16th of February. We were allowed to take custody! I have never heard of this happening before although we are one of the first families from or agency to stay between court and visa. We never even considered that we would be able to take her into our care if we didn’t pass. AMAZING! Thanks to God. 

After the hearing we took a taxi with an agency rep to the care home to meet our daughter. It was so serial. The first picture is of us standing outside the care home about to go in.

We waited inside a large room for them to bring her down. Finally they brought her in and we could see her face to face. First impressions; she is so small, she has hair, she is SO cute. I can here her breathing. She is certainly sick. We were notified that they had to take her to the hospital only a couple days before. Finally we get to hold her. She is so light. Her eyes are so big. She is so beautiful.

These are our first pictures of us being together as a family. 

Here are a couple photos of us leaving the care home.  After 3 years, 4 months of being in this process I could hardly believe that this day was happening...