We're Home

We are finally home with beautiful baby Jameya. Our short time in Ethiopia was remarkable and so is our brand new baby girl. We just spent 24 hrs flying home from Ethiopia to Vancouver and the only time Jameya fussed is when we woke her up from a dead sleep to get off the plane(and even then it was for about 15 secs). She is remarkable and has made our transition into parenthood very easy. We will post a lot more info and pictures in the near future. Thank you everyone for all your support in this process. It was definitely worth every minute.

WE ARE IN ETHIOPIA!!!!

We are finally here....and all the papers are in!!So we hope to see Jameya today or tomorrow. Will post pics and everything soon. Love to you all. WE CAN'T WAIT TO HOLD HER!!!!

Going Soon.....

Well, the papers will be in on Monday...so we should be going soon....will post soon and let you know!

Still here...but have booked a ticket..

Well, we are still at home...so that means that we didn't get the visa last week :( We are HOPING for this Friday. We have actually booked a ticket for Saturday the 18th. Let's hope we can go. I don't think we can wait another week, minute or second to get Meya!

Cross your fingers.....pray......bring us positive energy....anything!!!!!!!!!

Well Jason and I are REALLY hoping that tomorrow will be our lucky day and that we will get the news that we can go and get out baby Meya.....but if it's not they think that it should be next Friday. So, please send all your positive vibes for us tomorrow ( you don't have to all day, just like one or two minutes when you wake up!!!!! :) ) We are SO ready to go - everything is bought, organized and ready -now all we need is Jameya!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMEYA! (another one too many without you..)

Well...today is Jameya's 5 month birthday and I thought FOR SURE that we would all be together to celebrate her 5 month and my 32nd bday together....unfortunately that is not the case. So today, as any day, I am sending all my thoughts and energy to my little girl on her birthday. I can't wait to meet you little one....I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!! I know that I will have a great birthday with my friends and hubby who are all joining me up at our summer cabin. I just wish that Meya could be with us. Soon I hope - SOON............

Getting Closer...but not close enough!

Well, Jameya had her final medical done for immigration last week ( all good!) and it was sent back to the embassy...now we basically have to wait for them to issue that darn visa and off we go. We are REALLY hoping for August 10th - the 3rd would be great too because Leah's bday is on the 4th, and what a bday present that would be: "Happy birthday...now go and get that beautiful daughter of yours!!!!!!!!" So for the next few Fridays, we will be sitting very close to the phone and will post as soon as we know anything.

AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I hope the title can describe how we are feeling right now! It has been almost 12 weeks since the court decision on April 30th ( and almost 5 months since we got the proposal), and we thought that we would have gone and been back by now with our little baby girl....but as you can see we are still here :( I think the past 3 weeks have been the hardest, knowing that we should be there but we can't just because of one tiny little piece of paper from the Canadian Embassy in Ethiopia. Every moment of everyday Jameya is on our minds...really she is. SO many questions run around in our minds: What will it be like to hold her for the first time...what will she look like....what does her laugh sound like...what kind of personality does she have...what will the LONG plane ride be like on the way home?!?!? It's so hard to be SO FAR away from her, and not having any control over this entire situation. (And as we all know....Leah likes to have some control!)
Just thought we could vent a bit on the blog instead of venting to each other! It's somehow therapeutic to write our feelings down...and one day when we have Jameya here we hope that these feelings will be a long lost memory......

Answer to a few questions

Hey everyone, just letting you know we are still awaiting Jameya's visa. Leah is finished work now and spending some down time at her family's cabin trying to relax before we get the word that we can fly to Ethiopia. We have been getting a few questions from people and thought that if they are asking them, there are probably a lot of other people asking the same questions so I thought I would answer a few.
1. If Leah is not working why doesn't she go to Ethiopia and wait? At least there she could be with Jameya?
Trust me, if it were possible for Leah to go to Ethiopia and spend her days waiting with Jameya she would be on the first plane out of here. Unfortunately, due to orphanage, and to a lesser extent, canadian immigration rules, we are not allowed to see Jameya until the visa is issued. There are a lot of reasons behind this, but it would take forever to mention them.
2. Whats the hold up?
As any of you know who have been trying to get a passport recently, things do not happen very quickly. We are just waiting for Candian Immigration to go through all of our adoption papers and all of Jameya's papers in order to issue her a Canadian Visa. Unfortunately there is no exact time lines and basically when they get it done it will be done. We are now hoping that July will be the lucky month.

Leah and I would like to thank everyone for being so supportive and can't wait to introduce Jameya to such a great group of family and friends.

Take Care

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMEYA!

Today is our little one's 4 month birthday....so happy bday Meya! I thought for sure that we would have her before now....but hopefully soon. I woke up this morning to my cell phone beeping...I forgot that I had set up a reminder for July 3rd - it said "Meya is 4 months today!" Got a little teary eyed...but then I came and saw her pictures and realised that as soon as we get her we will be able to wish her happy birthdays for the rest of our lives!

Still waiting......

Just spoke with our agency and the couple who had their court date two weeks before us is leaving this weekend....so it looks like we should be going in 2 weeks (around Friday the 13th....maybe it will be a lucky day for us!) So keep your fingers crossed that it will be then...cause we know that we can't wait any longer than that to get our little Jameya!! And now that Leah is off work we know that she is going to get more and more antsy everyday that she can't go :) When we hear anything more we will let you all know. Thanks for all your messages of love and support! It will all be worth it in the end....but these two weeks will probably feel like the longest two weeks that we will ever have to go through in our lives....

NO VISA - NO ETHIOPIA - NO JAMEYA :(

Still waiting for Jameya's visa to arrive...the second it does we will be on a flight to go get her! We hope that it will come on the next few Friday's... We are guessing the 6th of July. But we have guessed and been wrong before...so who knows. WE JUST WANT TO GET THERE and HOLD HER!!! At least we have some new photos of her...(which makes it both a little harder and a little easier). We will keep you all posted.

More Pics

We just received a couple more pictures and wanted to post them for everyone. It looks to me like she wants to come home.

Hey everyone,
We just received another picture of Jameya. She would be around 13 weeks old here. It is nice to finally see another picture and know she is doing well. Just wanted to share this with everyone. We will update, when we learn more.

Getting Closer

Well the count down is on. We were told it would be about 8-10 weeks from the court decision to the time when Jameya's visa is ready. Officialy that is on Monday. The diplomatic pouch from Nairobi to Ethiopia comes once a week on Fridays. So starting next Friday the 22nd, there is a possibilty that her visa will arrive. As soon as we get the call we will book a flight to Ethiopia, probably on the following tuesday. The last few weeks have been the hardest as we know it is getting closer, but we have no idea how the process is going and whether or not there are any delays. There is a possibilty of getting some updated pictures soon. So if we get any we will post them right away. Hopefully soon we will all get to meet her and take our own pictures. Keep your fingers crossed.

New Update, No info

Hey everyone. Just a little update with basically no info. At this moment in time we are just waiting for all of Jameya's Visa paperwork to be completed. The one frustrating part is that we have no idea where they are at in the process. We were told that it would be up to 8 weeks to get this completed which would be around June 22nd, but we can get no updates of where we are in the process and if it is going according to plans or delayed. I guess there have been some issues with our agency recently where people have planned to go down at the eight week mark and when they have got down there the paperwork is not completed and after two weeks they have had to come home without their child. To prevent this from happenning they are basically not saying anything until all the paperwork is completed and then informing us. The problem with this is that you can't just hop a plane the next day to Ethiopia and if you do travel right away the price is astronomical. Also if you do go down there and the paperwork is not completed you are not even allowed to go into the orphanage to see your child. (Does not make sense to me as Jameya is legally our child now) So Leah and I are planning to go down on the 29th of June which would be 9 weeks but it would be a lot more comforting if we knew that even if we had to stay down there longer that at least we would be able to spend it with Jameya. The last thing is that we have not received any info on Jameya since we got the last pictures and do not even know how she is doing. Needless to say We can't wait until this final part of the process is finished so we can finally begin our life as a family. If we get anymore info we will update right away.

SHE'S OURS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On Monday, April 30th Jameya became OFFICIALLY OURS!! We got the call in the morning to tell us that everything went well in the court, and that Jameya's birth mother came and signed all the papers. We are very lucky, because we only needed one court date. We are planning on leaving in the next 8 weeks....the sooner the better!!!! Will keep all of you updated. And thanks to all of your nice emails, cards and messages that you have sent us..they mean so much, and we have kept them all for Jameya to see how much she was loved before she even arrived in Canada! Thanks again...we love you all.....

Counting the days

Hey everyone. Well we are still waiting for the court date in Ethiopia. When we last spoke with our adoption agency she emphasized that it was very close. For those of you who do not know we have to have a court date in Ethiopia to do all the legalities to make Jameya (Mimi) officially our child. The adoption agency used to let the adoptive parents know when the court date was scheduled for, but in Ethiopia these dates often got postponed and changed. As you can imagine this was quite a roller coaster of emotions if your court date came and went without any finality. So, although our agency knows when the date is, we do not. Although it is tough to wait, I would rather just get one call with the good news that everything was done than constantly be disappointed. Once we know the court date is done we have about 4 weeks and max of 5 weeks until we can finally go to Ethiopia. What needs to be done in this time is Jameya needs to receive an Ethiopian Passport then all the paperwork gets sent to Kenya, which is the closest Canadian Embassy. What they are doing there is giving her all the proper paperwork and visas to come to Canada. During that time they will also need to get another medical report done and verified. All of this takes 4 weeks from the conclusion of the court date. So, when we have the good news from the court date, we can schedule a flight for 4 to 5 weeks after that. Leah and I are planning on spending 10 days to 2 weeks in Ethiopia getting to know not only our child, but the country that she was born in. Hopefully we will get the good news this week and start to plan to fly to Ethiopia the first weeks of June. So please cross your fingers, pray, knock on wood, send good vibes, toast or whatever you can to help the next 4-5 weeks go smoothly. We just want it to all be done so we can bring Jameya home and introduce her to you all (and of course love her to death and Leah SPOIL her to death!)

Something that touched my heart today.....

Legacy of an Adopted Child
Once there were two women
Who never knew each other.
One you do not remember,
The other you call "Mother."

One gave you a nationality,
The other gave you a name.
One gave you the seed of talent,
The other gave you an aim.

Two different lives shaped to make yours one;
One became your guiding star,
The other became your sun.

One gave you emotions,
The other calmed your fears.
One saw your first sweet smile,
The other dried your tears.

The first gave you life,
The second taught you to live it.
The first gave you a need for love,
And the second was there to give it.

One gave you up,
It was all she could do.
The other prayed for a child,
And God led her straight to you.

And now you ask me through your tears,
The age old question through the years;
Heredity or environment - which are you a product of?
Neither my darling, neither;
Just two different kinds of love.

-Author unknown

First Picture

Well, it's been about 5 days since we told you we received a few pictures of Jameya and we have finally figured out how to get them on here. At this rate the next pictures will probably be of her sweet sixteen party. We haven't heard anymore about when we will be able to go to Ethiopia, to finally get her, but I don't know how much longer I can keep Leah from going down there. I am almost getting to the point where I wouldn't be surprised if I got home from work one night to a message of "I have gone to see Jameya, I will see you when you get here." Well I guess everyone wasn't lying when they said that the waiting would be the hardest part. We will update everyone as we hear more.

Jason

PICTURES!!!!

YAY - we finally received pictures today....these were taken a week or so ago..so she is about 2 or 3 weeks old. She is sleeping...but we still think that she is a cutie. Our adoption agency was down there and said that she is doing well and very healthy. We are so lucky! We will keep everyone updated when we hear anything. And it was her one month birthday yesterday, April 3rd...so Happy Birthday our little Jameya!

No objection....

Since we got the proposal we have had to do a couple of things...on March 15th we signed the official consent form...which meant that we "accepted" the proposal. That was so strange...we were signing to say that "yes" we want her...our DAUGHTER!!! Then just last Thursday (the 22nd) we received our letter of NO OBJECTION...this means that we can bring Jameya into Canada and that Immigration has "no objection" of allowing us to adopt a child from another country and bringing her into Canada. Now we have to wait for her to receive her passport in Ethiopia...then we can legally come here using the passport and the letter. Believe me....I will be making numerous copies of that letter....it is like her Canadian passport. Jason will not be responsible for keeping that one (considering that he loses his bank card EVERY month!) Now that we have received this letter it feels "real". We are ready to tell everyone that we have a daughter.....and that sounds so incredibly amazing. Will post soon (as promised with the pictures of our little Meme) :)

The Details.....

Oh yeah....we forget to tell you the important details. She was 4kg when she was born (so about 8.5 pounds or so) and 19 inches long. AND she is VERY HEALTHY!!! We took her medical report to our doctor, and he couldn't believe that all the numbers and percentages were exactly where they should be. She also tested negative for everything. We are very lucky that her mother was so careful during the pregnancy and that she is healthy. We will post pictures ASAP of our little Jameya......

IT'S A GIRL!

IT'S A GIRL!!!! Mimi Jameya Sanford was born on March 3rd. 2007 in Northern Ethiopia. We got the phone call on March 12th at 3:30pm. She was named Mimi by either the medical clinic or the orphanage....we want to keep that as her first name....someone chose that name for her and we don't want to take it away from her. After months and months of looking up Ethiopian names on the internet (ie. Wuba, Haregoing, Tisket, Meskret and so on) she is named MIMI!! We are going to use her middle name though..Jameya. Nicknames already created! MJ (thanks Murph!) Meya, Meme (Leah's personal favourite) and Sanny! Hopefully the hockey boys won't start calling her Shags! We plan to go to Ethiopia in the next 10-12 weeks. We will keep everyone posted when we get any news. We are right now waiting for her little cute photos. We are SO excited and thanks to so many of you for all your well wishes. Look out....here comes another Sanford....but with a little (well.....maybe a lot!) more colour:)