Live.....

The video you've all been waiting for!!!

If you haven't already viewed it, it's awesome ~ totally amazing to see him in action as we've already said!!!

Happy New Years.....

Julz, Scott & Brody

Brody In Action

Hi Everyone ~ so the second most amazing thing happened yesterday!! We got a package in the mail from Brody :-) LOL!!! Lois (LVI) sent us a package and the return address was Brody Grosso. In the package was a note that said "do not open until Christmas Morning" well we got it on the 26th, so we figured she didn't mean next year!!!
What was it you ask?
A DVD - it was a recording of him - just playing and checking out the items we sent over in Nov. How amazing it was to see him in action, and to hear his little voice.
He speaks more Twi in the house hold, but as we've said before, he understands English.
The video was 12:09 long, and AWESOME!!!! I'm going to try and edit it down, so I can share with everyone, but it's going to take me a bit to do that.....(timing wise).

So now we have all these pictures, and this video with him on it, and his voice.......I long to have him home with us finally......PATIENTS!!!!! Need to find out where I can buy those :-)

Cheers & Love,
Julz, Scott & Brody

Christmas Spirit

So as I said yesterday we must have received a judge that was in the Christmas Spirit!!! Who would have thought with all of the bumps along the road over the last 3 1/2 months that 1, just 1 court date would be necessary for my little boy to be my little boy!!!!

It was a relief yesterday to have that phone call. Of course Lois had been trying to reach me for over 2 hours. Apparently Scott saw my cell was on when he got home, and he turned it off. Well I never turn my phone off!!! LOL!!! So Lois finally did reach me at my office #. Ironic that we'd been trying to reach her for over a week, and the one day she needs me......... I'm not on. Monica had found out earlier in the morning so she was trying so hard to keep it in.....not calling, emailing or posting. I thank Monica for letting me hear it from Lois though!!!

So Brody's stocking was hung last night - we are sure Santa won't stop by the house for Brody.....but just in case.

So I'm ready, I've been ready. Scott is ready, and has been ready. He says it hasn't really sunk in that it went the way we wanted it to go yesterday. See I had HOPE that it would go that way, but Scott, being the protector (wink) didn't want me to get my hopes up. He said that so often I have got my hopes up, and they keep getting knocked down! I said "what judge wouldn't see what kind of life we'll be able to provide to him, and know that it's Christmas and not get it done!!!" Well.......finally a wish come true!

So now - I wanted to so badly to get on a plane last night and fly there. I wanted to put my arms around him and bring him home!!! I cried in the afternoon, I got the giggles later........ and now I'm just DETERMINED to get him home. This 6 months possibility of waiting will not be easy. For those of you that know me, I'm a bit of a control freak (hehehehe) and anything I can do to get our government to get that Visa done faster will be done. I am thankful that Scott will be able to call the Embassy and maybe get someone that is a sympathizer, and will hurry our process along. We are going to try and see if Edward can file on our behalf for the I600 at the Embassy in Ghana. If they will not allow him to, it will have to be done here state side. Either way it will be done around the end of January. WHY so long?? Because we need to wait for that Final Adoption Decree. Once we have that - it's all up to us and our government. No more waiting for Ghana to do something :-) that will be a change.

So we are about to embark on our second part of this journey. Notice that I didn't say half. There are so many parts, but finally we are making it to the second part.

Chapters to come: second, getting the Visa approved with the US. Third, travel to Ghana to meet our son, and bring him home. Fourth & final, starting our lives together!!!

Happy Holidays,

Julz, Scott, Brody, Butch & Bella

What's the Best Christmas Present ever???

Well I'll tell you that this morning at 8:46 am (pst) I received the best Christmas present ever. A call from Lois (LVI) saying that Brody wanted to come home. That's right everyone. Today was our court date, and we figured it would be the first of many. But we must have lucked out and got a Judge that was in the Holiday spirit and approved our adoption on the spot. The other two children that have been with Brody in the foster home went to court too, and they get to come home to WA to their mommy & daddy too.

This is truly the best Christmas present. To think that our adoption is final there......OMG!!!

So next step?

3-4 weeks for the finalized official Adoption Decree in Ghana.

Once we have that we file the I600 - thank goodness we did the I600A, for pre-approval. The USCIS is currently taking 1-6 months to approve and process Visas.

Hopefully a call to the US Embassy in Ghana will speed things along.

I will post more tonight about feelings & the emotions - get ready for another good story.

A very happy mommy,

Julz :-)

Friday 12/22 - COURT

Hey Everyone ~ well it seems that maybe all I needed to post about my feelings to get an update.

This morning we got an email from Lois that Daniel would be going to court on Friday 12/22 :-) YIPPY!!! We are so excited.
So we have no idea if that really means anything because court can drag on for WEEKS over there. So we most likely will not have any sort of REAL update on Friday! But on the off chance that we do..... we'll certainly let you know.

What an awesome Christmas present HUH??

Cheers,

Julz, Scott & Brody

the waiting never ends.....

So I haven't posted in a LONG time (10 days), and I am getting many questions as to why?!?!?!? Well the truth is I didn't want to spoil this for everyone else. We have had no updates since Friday the 8th.
So I could post and tell you all about the emotional roller-coaster I'm on right now.
I could post and tell you how I fear with everything inside me that something has gone wrong or will go wrong.
All I know is I desperately want my son to come home. I'm willing to try other avenues if I have to. Don't ask what those avenues are - because I don't know yet.
I looked over the weekend for other visa's that we could bring him home on, possibly as a visitor for medical - but that's a long avenue ~ And may not be true :-)
So what do we do???? We wait and get more frustrated.
We've called our agency but had no luck in hearing from her. She did post finally on the Yahoo group - but it doesn't make me feel any better.
As most of you know Washington state was hit with a pretty crazy storm that left about 1M people without power. Well her house is fine - so thought - should be able to get on email...... and such. But that's not appearing to be the case. They have no ETA as to when the power in her office will be restored.
We need some answers. When the medicals were done that was all Daniel was waiting on to go file the papers at the High Court. So has that been done? We worry as it's the holiday's that these "friendly" judges we hear about may go on break for the holidays.....then we'd be screwed again. Good Times! NOT!!!! So if a simple email to tell us that Daniel filed last week was sent, we'd be content. If we got more info ~ we'd be happy ~ if we had a court date we'd be THRILLED!!
So......excuse me if I don't post as frequently - I hate to grip to all of our family and friends.

Keep your fingers crossed for us......

Julz, Scott & Brody (waiting in Ghana to come home)

This Just In......

This just in hot off the press.......(Auntie Lee are you happy now?)

{Photo: Brody in the front - Jeremiah is the other boy (Monica's son) }

Medical Report on Brody has been completed - that means that Daniel should have it - that means that he should file at the High Court SOON!!! That mean........getting closer!!!

Fingers crossed that we get a "adoption friendly" judge!!! Fingers crossed that we get an awesome Christmas present with our adoption being done there!!!!

So the Medical: he's healthy :-) LOL - he has a few bacterial skin infections - but they are being treated with oeintment. Everything else on him is NORMAL and clear!!! What a relief! I knew he was going to be fine, but there is always that waiting that causes you to start thinking of other things.

We will provide our doctor with these reports for final review, as they always have some medical terms that don't exactly make sense to me. I looked up a few things online to figure out what it meant, and we are still GOOD!!!

On another note ~ have no other updates on Brody this week. Thought we'd have a few more pictures! As you remember we sent over a digital camera to Edward in the hopes that he'd take photo's often of Brody and Maria & Jeremiah (Monica's kids) in their every day life so we'd have those to reflect on and in a way feel apart of. I'm hoping that we'll have something next week.

Christmas is just around the corner ~ I've decorated the house, the cards are in the mail for tomorrow, the stockings were hung.....this is what I had a hard time with......we hung mine, Scott's, Butch's & Bella's. We left Brody's down (even though bought and totally adorable) as it would be too hard to see it every day, and know that he's not going to be home for Christmas...... So tomorrow we are getting our tree ~ the shopping is almost done, just a few extra's to buy. We will not be adding any presents for Brody under the tree this year, as he can't open them, sure we could save them for him ~ but that just might confuse him to do Christmas in like Feb not really knowing what it is......

So will Santa find his way to Brody in Ghana this year? I'm thinking that maybe a little something needs to get out there for him, I'll talk to Lois about it during the week.....

My Christmas Wish List: Ghana Adoption Final!!!! That's not too much to ask is it? LOL.

Well wishing you all a very happy and safe holiday season ~ I know everyone is so busy during the holidays ~ enjoy every moment of it!!!

Cheers,

Julz, Scott, Brody, Butch & Bella