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Sunday, December 30, 2007
Blue
Decided to show you all Anant's room. Its really taking shape. See the picture at the top. Our friends Luke and Miska
gave us a toddler/crib bed for Anant and Rob and I actually got it put together (without directions, and I didn't hurt Rob
in any way with this project-see my previous "Electric" post to know what I'm talking about). Heidi went with me to help me
pick it up yesterday. Thanks Luke, Miska and Heidi. Oh, and I don't want to forget Abigail and Lydia for helping by carrying
out parts of the bed! What helpful young ladies!
This post says how I'm feeling right now as well as the color of Anant's room. Its just a really hard time waiting without
any information now. But, I'm not ready to be a parent yet anyway so... .
We are starting to discuss discipline methods. Pray for Rob and I that God will lead us by His word in how we need to
discipline Anant.
Still hard to work too. I find myself just wanting to check e-mails and read other people's blogs and not work. Its hard
waiting. Pray for me to use this time as God would have me to use it, serving Him and not myself.
Happy New Year Everyone. Had a great time at Christmas with my sister Deborah, my Mom and Rob. Also had a good visit
with Dad and June. Great conversations with Rob's Mom, Liz/Tim(Rob's brother and his wife), and Rob's Dad. We love you all
and miss you.
Mary
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Stealing
I just was reading a friend's blog from our India list. Here is an interesting video about how most of the world lives
(I stole it from her blog).
Mary
Corruption
Forgot to add this to my last post but there has been a report of corruption in the adoption system with a child care
facility (Preet Mandir) in Pune, Maharastra state in India. This is the same city where Anant is residing currently but
at BSSK (the name of the childcare facility he lives in). The corruption goes to the top of the international adoption chain
to CARA (the Central Adoption Resource Agency). This is the entity that issued our "No Objection Certificate". We need to
pray that this situation in no way holds up legal and legitimate adoptions in India. More importantly, pray for these children
(and families) and their lives which have been effected by this corruption. Here is the link for the story for those
of you who are interested:
It is the abuse and corruption that causes so much red tape for the rest of us.
Also, please pray for friends of ours adopting from Bangalore through our agency Holt. Jeni and Michell. Their wait has
been long. It does seem that even though the judges in these courts are new they are passing through these adoption cases
in a reasonable amount of time. Praise God. Keep praying for our friends to find favor in the sight of these judges and their
guardianship passes in their next scheduled date.
Mary
Saturday, December 22, 2007
US Progress
Hello All,
Just a note to tell you that God continues to provide for our needs. I found out last week that the Children's Hospital
of Philadelphia's International Adoption Clinic http://www.chop.edu/consumer/jsp/division/service.jsp?id=73553 will accept our insurance. This is so important to me because internationally adopted children have medical/developmental
needs that biological children do not and it is so valuable to be able to have their services. The Occupational Therapist
that I had contact with was absolutely wonderful and answered many of my quesitons and spent a lot of time e-mailing me back
and forth. She also gave me names of some good pediatric MD's in the area. I think a connection with the Ped MD and the clinic
would be good so that they can work in tandem and having a Ped MD in tune to intl adoptive issues would be helpful. So, the pieces are all falling into place slowly.
If only we would get news that the court is going to schedule our case to be heard this month. They may not actually
hear our case but at least we would have a first date even if it is rescheduled (which it usually is). This court hearing
would be for our guardianship.
Saw a really cool trailer for a movie coming in 2008 regarding adoption that some of you may be interested in:
Talk to you all soon.
Mary
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Electric
Well, we painted Anant's room on Saturday. A nice blue color. We'll need more lights in that room because we painted
the celing blue too and the room looks a bit dark. It feels like a load off because I feel like now we can get what we have
been given in the room and decide what is still needed. Sunday Rob was replacing the sockets and was yelling downstairs to
tell me when to switch the breaker on and off. Well, the last time he yelled what he really yelled was "will you come and
help me?". I just heard yelling and figured it was time to flip the breaker again. Well, then I hear "bzzzzzzzz...AHHHHHHHHHHHHH".
Took me 2 seconds to get up the steps screaming. Rob was ok but his finger was very sore.
We also sent Anant a Christmas card this week that should actually get to him by Christmas. I bought one that plays my
favorite Christmas carol "God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman". I love the message of this song that no matter how bleak things are
we can remember that Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day to save us all from satan's power when we were gone astray,
ohhh tidings of comfort and joy...
I think this song is pretty cool for a young gentleman like Anant. We put a bad picture of us in the card as well.
We are praying that we would have our first court hearing scheduled this month. They typically overbook the dockets so
you may be scheduled 3 times before your case is actually heard and you get verbal guardianship. There are a few more steps
after this, then...TRAVEL to India we go. We'll keep praying for a March 11 homecoming. Some people are praying for February.
That would suit us fine as well.
Mary
Sunday, December 9, 2007
God Was Not Late!!!
Two weeks ago on Saturday, November 24, at our women's prayer meeting I prayed boldly asking God to move our No Objection
Certificate through the following week. In looking at the date of the NOC certificate (BTW it looks really cool and is so
exciting to read something official with our names and Anant's name on it-and some cool Hindi script to top it off on the
document!) God did answer that prayer!!!! The date on the certificate is Novemer 27 which is 3 days after that prayer!!! God
is so amazing. He really is good and wants good things for His children. It took a week for the certificate to reach BSSK
in Pune where Anant is. Since we didn't get word about the NOC until Monday, December 3 I thought that God was still good
(obviously) but just a little late by my timing (LOL). But He was not.
Today in the nursery at church where I work as a doorkeeper it was so fun to play with all the boys (there are only boys
in the toddler room BTW, no pink name tags) thinking that our boy is around the same age (which is what I think about a lot
lately). He will likely have a lot of buddies his age around like Sammy, Tommy, Nathaniel, and Stephen. It was so fun to hold
these little boys, read to them and talk to them. They are all so sweet and remind me of our little Anant. Can't wait for
God to add to their numbers.
Naming this son of ours is still a sticking point. Pray for us in these types of decisions.
Mary
Friday, December 7, 2007
News from New Delhi
We have received word that our I600A paperwork has indeed reached New Delhi after more than 2 months. Now it will be
legal for us to bring Anant home when we get there! This is wonderful news! We continue to be blessed by the Lord's working.
Now, if only it was His plan to bring Anant home for his Dad's Birthday March 11. Pray for the court dates to be soon. There
will be 3 of them before guardianship is granted. God's plan is the best one.
What a GREAT week. Thank you God.
Mary
Monday, December 3, 2007
No Objections!
Just received word that the Indian Government has given us our No Objection Certificate! As I said before in a post,
this is needed to file in the local court to obtain guardianship. Pray for judges and officials to look at our information
and want to run this paperwork through quickly. We know God can do it and he wants to give us good things. Oh, but wait, we
haven't even painted his room yet!
The woman who left the message (she has the same name as me!) said that the courts typically take a few months time.
So we are hoping to go to India for Rob's Birthday on March 11. Pray, pray, pray. What a wonderful 20th Birthday for him (he's
young at heart you know). He'll need to be 20 and so will I to keep up with this young man. Names...still stuck. Think I'd
like to call him Anant. He is Indian, you know. Guess I'll have to talk to Rob about this. We are dilly dallying about the
name thing.
Mary
Sunday, December 2, 2007
A Little Help From Our Friends
Ok, so now we know which boy is Anant! One of our friends on the Holt forum, who adopted a 7 year old girl this fall,
helped us to figure it out. Since a while back this young lady identified Anant in a picture we posted to the forum and yelled
out his name when she saw the picture we figured she would be the one to tell us which little boy is ours. And she did. She
named all the children in the picture and picked him out right away. The little boy in green is Anant! Note the telephone.
There were a few clues for us. Up close you can see his scar from his fall/stitches in October, above his right eye. The fact
that out of 3 pictures we saw he was only on the pot for one of them was another clue. Anant's October report says that Anant
eats his food in 15 minutes so he can go and play. I would guess this would go for bathroom duties getting in the way of play
too. Although you see he managed to take a toy with him to the pot and play while doing business (if he even did???). So,
a little excitement today to bide the time. A friend of ours from church accepted a referral this week for a little boy from
Taiwan (4 1/2 months old). Congratulations Judi, Craig and Andrew! They will most likely bring their son home in the spring. Pray
for quick judges in Taiwan as well as Pune and Bangalore.
Mary
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Waiting
Haven't written in a while so I figured I would put a little note in. This past week we were notified that the No Objection
Certificate would most likely be issued by CARA (the Indian Gov. entity that looks over the documents first). This certificate
can then be taken to the local (Pune-this is the city Anant lives in) court and filed to obtain our guardianship of Anant.
Appears to be about a four month wait after this is issued before the children are home. From what I can tell from viewing
the timelines from our india adoption list. Many of our friends on our e-mail list may be waiting longer to go and get their
children because of changes in judges in the local court their children live in (Bangalore). We are praying that the opposite
would be true.
We really aren't ready for him to come now as we need to paint his room and get everything ready for him but all this
can be done soon.
This week we also received some pictures from a woman on our forum who was just at BSSK (the same facility that Anant
lives in). We are trying to figure out which child is him. If any. we are so grateful that Patricia took pictures. I will
post some of the pics on this page and maybe you all can tell us which one you think he is. Anant looks very different when
he is smiling and when he is not so this is hard to tell. Hey, maybe he will be potty trained when he comes!?
Pray for us as we seek to serve the Lord in the here and now and not keep banking on the future when Anant comes. We
need to keep working hard at our jobs (it is hard to focus at times, at least for me).
Mary
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Our Adoption Process of Anant
- April 9, 2006 Anant is born in Aurangabad, India
- Spring?, 2006 Mom and Dad meet with a social worker about India adoption and become discouraged that
the road can be long and difficult
- March 15-30, 2007 Mom and Dad visit India
- April 23, 2007 Dad inquires of Holt about India adoption
- May 10, 2007 application for home study (report by local social worker with all kinds of
personal information about us-basically a report about our family) started
- July 27, 2007 joined waiting child program with Holt
- August 9, 2007 Home Study approved by Holt International Childrens Services in Eugene, OR
- August 27, 2007 New Waiting Child listing sent out with guess who in it
- September 8, 2007 fingerprinted in Center City Philadelphia for filing of I600A (US approval for us
to adopt-finalized in India)
- September 13, 2007 Waiting Child Committee accepts us as Anant's parents!
- September 22, 2007 completed Dossier (Stack of official papers about us that go to India) sent
to Holt--Whew!
- September 26, 2007 I600A approval from US Gov-fingerprints cleared.
- September 27, 2007 Anant's acceptance papers sent to Holt
- October 12, 2007 Paperwork sent to BSSK (the childcare agency in India where Anant lives) for India process to begin!
- October 20, 2007 BSSK has looked over our papers and filed for No Objection Status with the Indian government
- December 3, 2007 Holt called to tell us we have our No Objection Certificate (actually dated 11/27/07-see post regarding
the importance of this date on 12/9/07). This will now be filed in the local (Pune, Maharastra) court for guardianship.
- December 6, 2007 Received word that our I600A approval has indeed reached New Delhi (this is needed in order to bring
Anant home. The other part of this is showing up with him at the US Embassy in New Delhi to do the I600 and complete his visa
with a medical evaluation! Now it will be legal for us to bring him home.
- January 18,2008 We are notified of receiving Verbal Gaurdianship of Anant.
- January 30, 2008 We receive Written Gaurdianship of Anant Blake. It also happens to be Rob's Father's
birthday.
- February 22, 2008 leave for India
- February 25, 2008 meet and take home Thomas Anant Blake (This happens to be Mary's Dad's Birthday)
- February 29, 2008 leave India
- March 1, 2008 home!!! YAY.
- April 29, 2008 Alien Registration Card Received
- August 1, 2008 Applied for SS#/Card (should have done this sooner)
- August 8, 2008 SS#/Card Received
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Anant's words: pretty much said in this order
Momma
Bye
Hi
Ball
Up
Down
Uh Oh
Amen
Ball
All Done
Eeew
Wow
Yay
Bible
Out (referring to Derby to get out of the kitchen and stop eating his food! You can tell we say this a lot)
Ow
Hot (means hot and cold and blows on the food whether hot or cold)
Apple
Anant (pronounced Ana)
More
Egg
Water
Banana
Head
Hide
Peek
Makes a car sound
Makes a dog sound (I'm told by the speech therapist that these count! So I'm counting them)
elbow (4/23/08)
Bowl(4/24/08)
Orange
Strawberry (Pronounced Sraugh-not sure whether to count this or not?)
Waffle
Hello (4/25/07)
Eye
Cup
Mouth (sounds like mou)
House 4/26/08
Please Momma 4/28/08
Cracker
Choo choo (train sound)
Makes a monkey noise
Tea 4/30/08
5/08: Sock, Shoe, Derby, Dog, Bath, Bag, Door, Fork, Spoon, Bath, Reina, Dance, Cry, Deep, Wide, Bubbles, Bird, Nana,
Bus, Eat, Milk, Bus, Nana, Door, Nathaniel (pronounced Nuh), Chop (chop Derby's food), Ear, Open, Hand, Off, On, Cheese, Girl,
Fish, Josh, chair, teeth, know (song), car, bucket, Gritts, Moon, J.J. (our neighbor's name), Sooby (as in Scooby-Doo, sounds
like scoo), Cold, Wet, Broccoli, Close, Happy, Poo-Poo, Pee Pee, Plane, Come, Cut, Church, Natalie (sounds like Na), Melon,
1,2,5 (yes, in that order), Spoon, Fork, Scoop
6/08: Vacuum, Peas, Bib, Lid, Sky, Star, Big, Money, Baby, Nana, Pool. Too many words to keep up with now.
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