Hopeful News!

This is our one year anniversary of leaving to get the kids from Liberia. It also is the day that we heard from the USCIS office in Accra, Ghana, about Abraham's case. The last we'd heard was in June that the file had been sent from Washington, D.C., USCIS office to either Rome or Accra.

Ruth Lincoln from the Office of Children's Issues has been a great help tracking down the case and reported that it was in Accra about a week ago. We then sent the file with the doctor's evaluations of Abraham's Mercy Ship xrays to the Accra USCIS office since they were reviewing the Consular's denial of his visa. Today we heard back that we needed to update the paperwork to more accurately reflect his age i.e. a sibling group under the age of 16. Then we need to update the I-600A with the Jacksonville USCIS office and get the updated paperwork to Accra to "reflect approval to adopt a child of Abraham's age".

SO...I THINK this means that they intend to approve his visa!!! Now we need to continue to lobby Liberia to open their borders so we can bring Abraham home with the other 30 or so kids that already have their adoptions completed.

Thanks to everyone for their prayers. We're getting closer....closer than we were all year!

In the meantime, Abraham has been with a foster family attending school in Liberia. He is having a struggle since he is so far behind his class in his schoolwork. We know he is still hopeful that he will join us in America, though, so keep praying for him and for the officials to get him home.

Abraham news.... not much

I haven't been very faithful in providing updates these last few weeks. We've been working hard at getting back into our schoolwork and regular routine. We've also been pestering the Liberian doctor to give us his conclusions after he reviewed Abraham's x-rays from the Mercy ship. I finally spoke with him this week and I think he accidentally told me more than he wanted to. He said that since the x-rays he reviewed were obviously from a much younger person they (the x-rays) COULDN"T be from Abraham. When I asked if he would evaluate Abraham again the doctor said no. When I asked if there might have been a clerical error, he said no. When I asked for a copy of the original x-rays from the doctor, he said they weren't for personal consumption and he hung up on me. So I think we've followed that path to its end. The silver lining as we see it is that even the Liberian doctor recognized that Abraham's x-rays validated what we believed, that he was much younger than 17 even though the doc wouldn't admit he made a mistake.

We are proceeding with interviewing an immigration attorney to help us with our government's paperwork and procedure. Hopefully this person can help us make some progress.

I have more to add about the rest of the family in a later post.

Abraham Update

For all those who've been waiting for an update on our efforts to bring Abraham home, this is what we know so far.... not much.

We have had no success with having our congressmen contact the Consulate in Liberia or trying to get the Consular to review her decision.

We know that Abraham's paperwork is back in the US now because the Office of Children's Issues in the State Dept. notified us. A woman in the Children's Issues office said that the USCIS office will review the information returned to them by the consulate's office in Liberia. Then they should send us a letter telling us what is happening and giving us time to submit new evidence to refute the findings of the consulate. The review board then makes a final decision.

Please continue to pray for our efforts to bring Abraham home.

We're back but missing Abraham

Many of you have heard that we were unable to bring Abraham home with us. We had gotten clearance from the US Consulate's office prior to making travel arrangements that everything was ready to go with the kids. However, when we got to our appointment on Tuesday morning, Consular Gurski told us that Abraham would not be granted a visa because the age determination test which she had ordered came back with him being 17 to 19 years old. After attempts to change her mind with a second set of x-rays and medical opinions from three doctors associated with the African Mercy Ship, she said she would not reconsider. In fact, she refused to look at the doctor's conclusions from the new x-rays. We tried to appeal to the American Ambassador only to be told that they didn't interfere with the Consulate's decisions. Abraham was found to be 4 foot 8 inches and 82 pounds at the Mercy Ship. His actual age is about 12.

So we came home with Diamond (5 years) and Kindness (2 years). It was a very sad day for all of us when we had to tell Abraham that he couldn't come now but that we would fight to bring him home as soon as we could. We've started the fight by contacting our senators and representatives and whomever we can think of that might be able to help our case.

The girls are adjusting well and are busy playing with the whole family. We've had some tears at bedtime and other quiet times when Diamond (5 years) asks about when Abraham will be coming home. Kindness (2 years) points to Abraham's picture and looks around so we know she realizes something isn't right. Other than that, we are doing okay. Thanks for all the prayers and please continue to pray that we can resolve this issue and bring Abraham home as soon as possible. I am working at getting pictures ready for you to see.

If anyone has had to contest the American Consulate's decision, please leave a comment so I can contact you. Thank you.

Abraham dancing at orphanage circa 4/08

This was taken by a family that recently traveled to pick up their kids. Abraham is well known in the orphanage for his dancing. Another performer?????

More new pictures

New pictures of Abraham...

Abraham is the next Fred Astaire according to Donna.