It's FINAL!!!

"It is finished"!!!!!!!!  She is redeemed <3.

The appeal period has passed and the judge's decision is final!  Amelia Grace Howell is ours forever and ever and ever.

As promised, lots of pictures ... and videos for your enjoyment!!!!

Feel free to share ... and shout it to the world!

And because it's on my heart, I would love it if you would take a moment to think about the 153 MILLION orphans still waiting for families. Scripture says: "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." (James 1:27). There is NO qualifiers. It doesn't say care for the orphans when you have plenty of money or when your children are grown or when you're emotionally ready or when you have spare time or when you have enough vacation saved up at work ...... It says to care for the orphans. Please, in honor of Amelia's special day, promise us that you will take a few minutes to truly ask the Father how you can care for the orphans, He calls us ALL to and He will make a way for you. We had every excuse there is and look what HE has done <3!!  These children have faces and names. They are being neglected, malnourished, they are DYING. You don't need experience, you don't have to be "special," the Father has called you, HE will prepare you. A passion for Jesus IS a heart for the fatherless.

Thank you for supporting us on our journey! We have been so humbled by all of the support and love that we have been shown. You can expect to hear lots more from us in the days and years to come! God is good and we are BLESSED <3. 

Adoption Update: Hospitalization and Other Updates

Wow!  We have been busy.

Amelia's final medical exam for her visa was last Thursday, her TB test was negative and everything else looked good so the doctor gave me all of the forms and paperwork that I needed and we were on our way.

On Friday, we took a trip to the passport office to get the form we will need to apply for her passport. They told us what we would need to bring and we scheduled an appointment for the 26th to come back and apply for Amelia's temporary (1-year) Polish passport.

We had a lazy day on Saturday because Amelia was really sick and Justin got shingles!  He has been miserable for over a week now.

On Sunday, Amelia suddenly had puffy eyes and a rash all over her body so we decided to take her to the emergency room. The second the doctor looked at her, he told us she would need to be admitted. Her white cell count was VERY high (so high that leukemia was mentioned, I was a mess there for a couple of days) and he could immediately tell that she had a ruptured eardrum. Sunday night they sedated her for a CT scan, and the ENT surgeon was called in to clean out her ears, sinuses, and throat (also under sedation). She also had a chest x-ray. They took blood, placed an IV, and cultured her ears, nose and throat.

Monday morning she had an abdominal ultrasound. They found gall stones. The results from her testing also started to come back.... she had pneumonia, a double ear infection, a BAD sinus infection, and tonsillitis. The bacteria was not a common one so they determined that she would need to stay in the hospital to continue receiving IV antibiotics and IV electrolytes as she was unable to swallow. She also received steroids and Pulmicort through the nebulizer, nasal drops, and a probiotic.

It was really difficult for me to see her in the hospital. I'm usually able to be pretty strong with things like this but knowing that Amelia already has such a hard time with touch and being around any kind of stimulation in general .... having to see her be held down, poked, and otherwise "tortured" was really difficult. She did not take it well at all and knowing that there was only so much comfort that I could offer made it that much harder. I'm so thankful that I could be there and that she wasn't alone (like she has been for all previous hospitalizations) but it was still very difficult. I did enjoy the 5 full days of just getting to focus on her and nothing else though, it was a blessing in the storm!

The rest of our stay was mostly uneventful... continued medications, doctor exams, daily blood work, and inhalations. She developed a pretty bad rash on her face from the inhalations so we treated it with a special cream. She was unable to eat for a couple of days due to how swollen her tonsils were, she would gag and choke anytime she would try to swallow but by Tuesday, she was able to eat a little more and by Thursday she was eating normally.

Thursday was her 2nd birthday (!!!!) and she was woken up first thing with another blood draw :(.... but the results were much better, she had another ENT evaluation and by Thursday night around dinner time we got to go home!!!!  She will continue to be on oral antibiotics, probiotics, and the nasal drops for another 10 days. They want us to follow up with an ENT and GI doctor as soon as we get back to the States to follow up, good thing we already know great ones!

She also has a thyroid disorder, nystagmus, and a heart murmur so we will also being seeing the endocrinologist, ophthalmologist, and cardiologist soon after getting home.

Justin ran out Thursday night and found a fruit tart and we sang happy birthday to her. She dug her hands right in and seemed to think it was pretty neat but she wouldn't so much as lick her fingers. I promised her that one day she would like food!  Claire loved it and was not disappointed at all to get to enjoy both her piece and Amelia's ;).

Friday we had another lazy day at home, catching up on laundry and giving Amelia a day to re-adjust to the changes.

Today we went to the zoo with the Simonsens who are also here adopting a beautiful little 4-year old girl with Down syndrome! Our entire family got into the zoo for $7 total!!! I will definitely miss all of the cheap activities, food, and COFFEE!

On Wednesday (11/25), our appeal period will be officially over, the judge's decision will be considered final, and we will be able to share photos of Amelia publicly!!!

On Thursday (11/26), the final court decision will be ready and we will be able to get Amelia's new birth certificate!  We have to go back to the court in Gliwice (3.5 hours south of where we are now) to get the court decision and then to the city where Amelia was born to get her birth certificate. We think Justin will go alone and take the train just to make it easier/faster. After we have those documents, we can apply for her temporary Polish passport and then once we have the passport, we can apply for the visa. Once we have the visa, we can come HOME!

Thank you ALL for your support over this last week. We appreciate the encouraging messages so very much and to those who donated toward Amelia's hospital expenses, we are so thankful! We had planned for Justin to return home after we had passed court to go back to work but with the girls continuing to take turns getting sick and them each being hospitalized, it just hasn't been possible. You helped ease a HUGE stress, thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

We cannot wait to get home and share Amelia with you all <3.

Here are some pictures.

We built a fort!

Amelia is sedated here, she had just finished her CT
and the ENT was cleaning out her ears

The kids visiting Amelia in the hospital

Claire borrowed Amelia's hospital crib for a nap

Claire enjoying Amelia's birthday fruit tart

Pelicans! The animals here are much more interactive/friendly
than at the zoos back home.  Very cool!

Jaguar.

[Some of the] Howells & [some of the] Simonsens

Adoption Update: Medical Exam

We had another lazy/laundry day on Saturday and set out to re-introduce Amelia to water/bath-time. We put a little baby bathtub in the middle of the floor in the living room and let Amelia "explore" it all day. Initially, just looking at it made her upset but we took it slowly and by the evening, she was soaking the ENTIRE living room with water from her happy splashes - we went through lots of towels and I took at least 30 minutes of video, watching her fear change to joy and seeing her process excitement about the water ... it was truly magical to watch!!!! It was very obvious that it was her first time playing with water (or anything at all for that matter!), it was absolutely worth all of the cleanup.

On Sunday, we took the kids to another indoor play place that also had a little play area for babies. The little girls had fun! Amelia has really opened up the last couple of days. She is smiling, laughing, looking up more and more. She is letting us hold her in our arms without protest. It is truly amazing to watch the walls of her heart come down and to get to see her experience the world for the first time!!!  She has even started leaning in for kisses and getting curious about the things that are around her, including us!

Today, Amelia had her first medical exam for her visa application. She weighs 18lb 8oz and is 30in long, both measurements are considered "off the chart" for her age (she will be 2 in 10 days!) but we expected that. The doctor did his assessment and didn't tell us anything that we didn't already know from spending the last month here - she needs glasses, a hearing test, GI consult, cardiology consult, etc. He also said that he is amazed that we are adopting her, he kept pointing out how far behind she is as if we didn't already know and asking how we are going to manage. He even asked how I could be smiling :(. If only he knew ...... He was nice, the understanding of disabilities here is just so different than at home, I did my best to explain and to make an impression!  We go back on Thursday to have her TB test read and to hear what his assessment was of all of her medical documents (there are only 9 total pages in her entire medical file - 2 are hospital stay summaries, 4 are lab results, 1 is her immunizations and the other 2 are handwritten notes written by the orphanage doctor so we don't have much) but they're all in Polish so I'm anxious to hear if there is anything noteworthy written in them.  As long as the TB test is clear and he doesn't find anything that we need to address in her medical file, we will be finished with the medical part of the visa application process after this visit!

It's supposed to rain all this week but Wednesday is a national holiday (their Independence Day) so we will probably try to keep the kids busy tomorrow and gear up for a rainy day at home all day on Wednesday and then the next doctor appointment on Thursday. We will most likely update again on Thursday with any news we receive at the appointment.

Thank you for cheering us on, what a privilege it is!!  We are blessed <3.

They have the neatest (and cheapest!!) indoor play places here!

The girls loved the baby area

Adoption Update: It's Official!

It has been quite the busy week!!

On Sunday we had a lazy/laundry day in the apartment so that Claire could rest and hopefully start to feel better.

Monday we decided to take the train to Auschwitz and Auschwitz II-Birkenau. Our kids are a little young but we felt like this would probably be their only chance to go and we went for it, they did great!!!! We got on the wrong bus initially so the day was much longer than we had anticipated as we had to wait an extra three hours at the train station but they really did do very well. What an experience.

Monday night we got home very late and then stayed up even later packing up the apartment to travel back to Warsaw. I wasn't able to sleep much waiting for court the next day anyway ;).

On Tuesday morning, we had our adoption hearing!  It was much more formal than we anticipated. There was a judge, panel, and court reporter. For some reason the prosecutor couldn't make it which we initially thought was a good thing but it actually ended up hurting us because the judge was going to shorten the remainder of our stay by removing some steps in the process (due to Amelia's young age and Claire's need for medical care) but she was unable to without his consent. First she read off all of the documents that we had submitted and then she called Justin to the stand (very formal and "court-like"!!).  I think she asked him about 30 questions and then I was called to the stand and asked another set of questions, about 20. Finally, she called Amelia's legal guardian to the stand and had another 20 or so questions for her about Amelia's biological family and their involvement and how she perceived our interactions and relationship with Amelia. The social worker had submitted her report in writing so she did not come to the court and did not testify but the judge said that it was a very favorable report (!!).  After that, we waited outside the court for about 45 minutes while they deliberated and then they called us back in (the kids got to come in for this part) to read the judge's final decision!  She said that she thought Amelia was very lucky to be adopted and decided that we could adopt her!!!!!  So Amelia became "Amelia Grace Howell!!"

Immediately after court, we loaded up and took two trains back to Warsaw where we will stay for the rest of our time here other than one more trip back to the court to pick up the final decision and Amelia's new birth certificate. There are larger hospitals here and this is where our facilitators and another adoptive family are staying so we will have more support.

Now there is a 7-day period during which the judge prepares her final decision and others are allowed to submit an appeal. After that there is a 14-day waiting period before the judge's decision is final. The decision will automatically become final on 11/25 and we will be able to go back to the court and pick up the final decision as well as Amelia's new birth certificate on 11/26 (this date is Thanksgiving back home, what an incredible thing to be thankful for!!!!). We need both of those documents to apply for her new PESEL number (their version of our social security number), passport, and visa. Once we have those documents, we can come home!  We hope to accomplish this all within in a few days but we aren't sure how long it takes them to process the passport and visa here so we really don't know how long we will be here. We hope to be home the first week of December but that may not be possible.

While we are waiting during this 21-day period, the only steps we are able to take are to get Amelia's passport photo taken so that we have it ready and we are also able to have her required medical examinations done. She needs these in order to apply for her Visa / entry into the U.S. as a citizen. The purpose is to make sure that she isn't carrying any infectious diseases back to the States. Her first medical exam is on Monday (11/9), we may have to have two exams or we may only need one and then a blood draw at a special lab, it will depend on what the physician says.

On Wednesday we took the kids to a science museum here and yesterday we took them to an indoor playground. We are trying to get settled in as best as we can since we will be here longer than we had anticipated. As you can imagine, the kids are anxious to get home to their toys, friends, and typical routine so we are trying to keep them as busy as we can. We will likely alternate "play" days with "get things done" days but they really are doing a great job considering!

Amelia does a little better each day. Her preference is still to be alone but she is smiling a lot more and yesterday she let me hold her on my lap for the first time without screaming and trying to get away!!!!! She isn't eating any solid foods and I feel like I've tried every last thing I can think of because the orphanage says that she does eat solids, I just can't figure out what. She doesn't even like whipped cream, pudding, or ice cream!  I tried vegetables, fruits, soups, pureed dinners, and every single grain they have here (and even combining things) before getting desperate and trying sweets (I figured since they feed her the Kiesel to drink - maybe her solid food is also sweet). We only had that one day that she ate three bowls of rice cereal and than one day a week later when she ate one more, she hasn't touched it since. She gags quite dramatically and spits out everything but she IS drinking 4-5 her bottles (of formula) happily now which is a huge step. When we are eating, she turns herself away and won't even look at our food. I'm sure it is just one more thing that will just take time. I have some ideas about things we can try when we get home and have more tools. You know you're a mom when the thing you miss most when you're living away from home isn't your bed, shower, clothes, food, ... it's your high chairs!!!!

Claire still has a lingering cough and a very runny nose but her fever is gone and her breathing is much better. And now Anna has developed something last night and this morning that looks like the chicken pox (she has been vaccinated) ... so we will be keeping her home for a few days until it passes just in case. She is miserable, covered in bumps and very itchy and has pain in one leg. What an adventure this has been!!

Thank you for continuing to cheer us on! We will be able to share all of our photos on 11/25 after the judge's decision is final. I know you are anxiously waiting and we are excited to share them.  Here are some that we can share in the meantime.

Entrance of Auschwitz I - It says "Work makes free"

Auschwitz II-Birkenau - the "Gate of Death"

The kids waiting outside the courtroom for the judge's decision!

Peek-a-boo!!!  On the train to Warsaw.

On the train to Warsaw.

Thank you for supporting us!!!  We won't have much to update about now while we are just waiting but we promise to share when we have news.