All About K and G

I was admonished recently for not updating this blog. Truth is, most people who are interested are on Facebook, and I have relied on FB for updating. Some things I haven't shared yet are that our sweet girl K seems to be older than 3. You ought to see the videos of her picking one-year-old G up and carrying him around on her hip. No 3-year-old could do that, right?

I have an adoption friend, Carly, whose adoption was right on track with ours, step for step, until G's paperwork got messed up. When the US Embassy's new investigations were suddenly implemented, Carly's adoption was grandfathered in to the old process, ad we, unfortunately missed that cutoff. (This new investigation is what is adding 3-6 months to our adoption process.) Anyway, Carly's husband, Joel, traveled a few weeks ago to pick up their son, and Joel was so, so kind to take lots of videos, hand out gifts, and send precious info about K and G. Apparently K was the first one to run out and greet Joel when he arrived at the orphanage for the first time. She played several tricks on him, laughed a lot, and is quite a ham. Joel described her as "a kick in the pants," an expression I had never heard but I loved immediately. (My mom has started calling her our "kick in the butt"--not quite the same.) We heard from our adoption program director that K would have had no problem surviving on the streets. She is strong, funny, and outgoing. We can't wait to see this "kick in the pants" with our own eyes.

Little G isn't quite as outgoing or happy. We very rarely see him smiling. He is serious, very small for his age (17 lbs at 14 months). When Joel tried to pick him up, he cried. He showed little interest in the chew book we sent him. That being said, he is fine with the nannies and his sister, so he was probably just wary of Joel bc he is a stranger. G is pulling up and can stand on his own, but he still isn't walking, at least not without a lot of help. We hope our program director, who is in the DRC now, will have good news about G to report when she returns. He's so cute and tiny. He has a very congested cough, and he also had malaria in the past...we want him home so we can get him well.

We will continue to post updates as we receive them, but the truth is we don't receive a ton of new news. Thank you all for your continued interest, kindness, positive thoughts, and prayers. We appreciate your support!

Anna

Setback

I haven't updated in a long while, and I have two reasons for that: a) no developments and b) frustration.

On February 4, I received desperate Facebook messages from my adoption friend Carly asking if I had seen the latest news on the Facebook Congo Adoption Families group. No, I hadn't, it was the middle of the school day, but I checked right them and learned some bad news: effective immediately, the US Embassy would be adding a 3-6-month-long investigation period on to the end of each DRC adoption by Americans. Carly found out later that her adoption had been grandfathered in. Her husband was able to pick up their sweet baby boy a week ago, and I am so excited for them! He is thriving in his new home in Montana!

The Boltons, on the other hand, were not so lucky. We missed the cut off for being grandfathered in by one week. We thought we would be traveling to pick up our kiddos in March, and now we have no idea when it will be. Anywhere from May to August of 2013. As you can imagine, this was quite depressing news. We were very upset at first and so frustrated, but upon realizing there was nothing we could do, we just decided to stop buying things for the babies, to stop thinking about it so much, and, in true Bolton fashion, to take a trip. My mom, dad, and I are headed to the Bahamas tomorrow, and we could only be happier about it if we were being joined by our two kiddos. Next year...