“Stuck on Ellis Island”

Well, at this point, not too much has happened since our last update, however, things may be about to! I’m getting pretty antsy to get on the plane. Our daughter is still stuck on Ellis Island- metaphorically speaking. You know, that island off of NYC where immigrants used to have to spend endless weeks as they went through the immigration process? Well, thankfully they don’t do that anymore, however, we are still waiting for her paperwork to be approved by immigration. They have communicated with us however, and requested more info about her history. Our adoption team has that paper work now and has been trying to e-mail it to us but are dealing with a slow computer connection at the moment. When we have it we’ll e-mail it to our immigration officer. We would appreciate your prayers that this additional information is all the officer needs to prove her adoption was ethical and that he’ll approve her for immigration to the U.S.!!!! Also, of course, please pray that the team is able to e-mail us the papers today!! That would help. After that, she just needs a medical for entry into the U.S. and her social worker will need to bring her to get her PASSPORT PHOTO!!!!! After that, a meeting between our power of attorney in Africa and the US Embassy there- which is basically a formality at that point because she will have passed immigration and then we buy tickets!!!! Unless the tourist season makes the tickets unbearably high, we plan on bringing her brothers to pick her up in Africa. They are old enough to remember her home country and we may never have another chance to go and see it.
So that is the story. I’ll keep you posted.

Sorry for not having photos and more descriptive info yet on this blog. We have decided to wait until the immigration process is past since this and facebook is so public. That is also why we have not allowed the posting of comments that included her name. If you would like photos please e-mail me at ellenpswenson@gmail.com