US Embassy

Hey to Everyone! I have been a slacker in updating our blog, so I am a couple days behind. Today is Sunday morning in Armenia. We had our US Embassy interview on Friday afternoon at 2pm. It was our first visit to a US Embassy anywhere so I have to admit that there was a level of coolness to it :) The US Embassy in Armenia is located in Yerevan and is the 3rd largest Embassy anywhere in the world and filled with all the latest technology. You may wonder why Armenia has such a large and high tech Embassy. Well first of all the Armenian US Embassy has over 300 stationed Marines working inside. We thought this was interesting too. Well some information that might explain this...because Armenia was a Soviet country Russia still offers protection in case of war against Armenia. Russia also does not approve a US military base to be in Armenia. So the country of Armenia allows the US to station military in their US Embassy. Most of you are probably thinking like we did, over 300 stationed soldiers is a military base. The Armenian government wants to please the American government so they allow these Embassy assignments. This allows the US to have operations set up very close to Iran for intelligence, etc. Yerevan is located close to the Iranian border. This piece of education was all very interesting to us. Maybe some of you already knew this, but we certainly didn't.

Now back to the interview. It was very very easy. Our appointment was scheduled for 2pm. We waited to see a consulate until 3pm. Once we were able to have our interview. He interviewed us and our attorney. He was essentially asking questions to make sure all the Hague adoption guidelines were followed, that we did not pay any monies outside typical adoption expenses, and we outlined the process we went through starting from the beginning until now. We really talked about the adoption very litte. He was most interested in the YMCA partnership that has been established with the YMCA of Armenia. He asked about this because he was curious about our visit to Armenia in June. He thought very highly of the program and was excited about the great opportunities that this will bring to the youth in both America and Armenia.

Once we finished the short interview process, he told us that her VISA was approved and that we would be able to pick it up Monday or Tuesday of the following week pending no database issues out of Washington DC. We are really praying that the bad weather going through DC right now first doesn't cause any injury to the people in that area and secondly doesn't delay our getting home. Our plan is to leave Armenia as soon as we have the VISA in hand. We are looking at Wednesday as our most likely departure day.

Payson is still thriving. She is learning so much and is so much more interactive and active than 9 days ago when we brought her home with us. She still has a minor freak out when it comes to meal times if she thinks that the food isn't coming fast enough. She is also teething like crazy so there has been the normal fussiness that comes along with that.

Will and I have both been pleasantly surprised at how the bonding process has gone. Of course there will still be bumps in the process, but she really appears to feel a strong sense of comfort with us and we have really bonded with her. We have even seen bonding occur between her and Caleb. It is totally and completely a God thing! We know that we will have more adjustments once we get back to the US and she has to adjust to everyday life, but we feel confident that God will see us through that too.

Today we are planning on traveling to the head Armenian church to take in the culture of their national church. Love to everyone and hopefully we will get to see everyone soon!

Jenn

Our American Goverment Doing What It Does Best

Hello to everyone. Well we are now completing our 11th day away from home and 9th day in Armenia. We are becoming very familar with Yerevan. We do all of our grocery shopping and eating out without our translator now. We have learned our way around, learned where there are English speaking people, and have learned a few Armenian words to get us by. Our life since Monday has been just sitting and waiting on our American government :) To clarify where we are in the process, the adoption is final and we are complete with everything through the Armenian government and court including her medical examination and passport issuance (btw it only took 24 hours to receive her Armenian passport). We are now merely waiting on the US Embassy to give us a VISA for Payson so that we can leave. Even though by law when Payson lands on US soil she will become a US citizen, she still has to be issued an American VISA before we can leave. I do not for any reason understand this logic, but I guess our American government has to have more paper to push. I'm not sure. We have all ready received three...count them three...separate approvals from the USCIS (Immigration office in US) before we could even come here to finalize the adoption. They have received our paperwork multiple times and issued us a preapproval for her VISA in June. We now have to wait for the US Embassy to review all of our paperwork again, interview us, and then issue the VISA. It really reminds me of the short story that you have probably seen come across your email talking about if Noah had to build the Ark in the US in 2011.

Well we received our interview appointment with the US Embassy for Friday at 2pm. After the interview, it takes 2-4 days for them to issue the VISA. Our attorney, Ed, is hoping that the wait for the VISA will be short since it has taken them an unusual amount of time to set our interview. We will pray hard as all 4 of us are becoming restless.

Payson is doing well. She had a fussy morning today, but took an almost 2 hour nap and woke up in a much better mood. This is by far the longest nap she has taken so far. You know the term, he/she sleeps like a baby. Well Payson has not been that way. You can tell that she has never felt at ease enough to truly rest. For the first few days she would sleep during the day with one eye partially cracked. She is becoming more at ease and with that she is closing her eyes all the way and sleeping more peacefully. This short experience with Payson, has put me on a mission to advocate for children to be adopted out of orphanages and see as many brought to forever homes as possible. No child should have to be scared to sleep or scared to not have food. Every child deserves a mom and/or dad. I understand on a deeper level why God commands us as Christians to take care of our orphans.

Please continue to pray for our patience and sanity while we wait. Those of you who know me well, know that sitting around doing nothing is something that I just don't do very well. I know God has a plan and knew the timeline before we did. I just allowed my hopes to rise when the Armenian government finished their part ahead of schedule. Love to everyone!

Jenn

Monday of Week 2

Hello to All!

We have now started the second week of being in Armenia. Payson is still adapting to non-stop care. You she really likes to cuddle with us now and she is not so upset during feeding time. She was crying between each bite of food scared that I wasn't going to give her more food. Now she just cries very hard initially, but is calming down once we get started. She is pretty laid back at most points during the day. She hates getting hot and all the buildings that we have to go in are not air conditioned so if she gets too hot she gets fussy. She still sleeps at night like a champ and at times just likes us to lay her down in her crib and let her be alone to just play. She is laughing alot more now. She actually laughs from the belly instead of just grinning.

Sunday was just a day to hang out. We spent some time in the apartment and went to the big weekend market. None of the goverment buildings are open on Sunday obviously so we just hung out.

Today we went to meet with the minister of justice to get our Hague Adoption Certificate. This is just a formality. We then had lunch in front of the Cascades and Caleb played on a playground for about 2 hours. He loved it. Payson just chilled in her stroller watching everyone play. We then went to one of the government hospitals for her "medical review". This too is just a formality. They took her blood on Saturday and checked for contagious diseases then a doctor briefly looked at her today. The doctor signed off stating that she is a healthy baby so we can take this to the US Embassy when we have our interview with them. Later this afternoon, I will go pick up Payson's Armenian passport. At this point, we are just waiting on the US Embassy to give us our interview date. We are really really praying to be out of here by this weekend. We love Armenia, but feel that it is time to get home and get Payson adjusted to life with us in Prattville. And of course of I have two boys wanting to get back for football season :) (Lions and Auburn). Everytime we get in a taxi Caleb askes, "Are we going to Auburn now to watch football?" Please pray for a quick US Embassy process. (BTW, we met 2 spouses of US Embassy employees on the playground today. Their children were playing with Caleb. We told them what we were doing and told them we would be going to the Embassy soon to get our VISA. Maybe they will pass it along to their husbands that they met us)

Love from Armenia,
Jennifer

First Full Day as 4

Yesterday was our first full day all together. It was a good day. Payson is adjusting well to us and we are adjusting well to her. We are starting to learn her different cries and attempting to figure out her schedule. She is still sleeping well at night. She lays down without a fuss and goes to sleep on her own within about 10 minutes of laying down at night. We are still trying to figure out her food and nap schedule. When she eats, she eats like it will be her last meal. We learned that this is a trait of an orphanage child. This morning she actually slowed down a bit and had more trust that we would be feeding her again. She is also teething right now. She has 3 teeth coming in, but is being quite tolerable of the pain. We are giving her Tylenol every 4 hours to help with the pain. Please pray that we continue to understand her schedule and cries.

We had a very productive day yesterday in regards to completing all needed paperwork to come home. We received her updated birth certificate and then we applied for her expedited passport and will receive it on Monday. She had blood taken so that she will be ready for her physical on Monday. The next step is to have our interview with the US Embassy. Please pray that we get that interview on Tuesday. Once the interview happens then the US Embassy can issue our visa for her within 2-3 days. This means that we can come home as soon as we get that visa. Praise God for our wonderful attorney and Hopscotch staff. Pray for a smooth process moving forward so that we can go ahead and come home. I will update you on our interview date on the next blog post hopefully. Thank you!

Love-
Jenn

Payson is Officially a Barrett

Hey! Sorry there has been a break in the blog posts. We had some internet diffculties, but we are in Yerevan now and have many more Wifi spots to connect to get internet. Well, it has been an exciting couple days. We spent Wednesday and Thursday just killing time in Gyumri. We couldn't go to see Payson from Wednesday morning until we picked her up on Friday. Friday slowly, but finally came. We were excited and anxious all at once. The same feeling we got before we went in to have Caleb. You are so excited that this long awaited gift is finally coming, but nervous about being the parent and family they need. God answered every prayer and concern with Payson. She has meshed right into our family. God truly chose her to be our child way before he told us that we were suppose to adopt.

Friday we had to go to the court and to the municipality to sign important documents and around 4:30pm Armenian time, Payson offically became Payson Elen Barrett. We then went to the orphanage to get her. I must say that the farewell that the staff gave was disappointing. They just handed her to us and turned around. I guess they can't get too attached to these children. Their job is to feed, bathe, and keep them healthy which they did for Payson until we could get her to us and for that we are forever thankful!

She did great last night. She ate two jars of baby food then slept all night and woke up at 7:30 this morning. We had to learn how to feed her because of the cleft palate. The orphanage would not show us how they fed her so it was trial and error the first time, but we figured it out and she devoured her food.

Caleb has been doing remarkable with her. Once again another answered prayer. He even, on his own, gave Payson his favorite Thomas the Engine train to play with. That is a huge thing for those of you who don't know Caleb's love for his trains :)

This morning we are at Square One in Yerevan. It is a western style resturaunt that serves PANCAKES! Calebs favorite breakfast food. He is in heaven right now! :)

Some more great news... our attorney called us this morning and said since Monday was a government holiday, the government buildings are open today so we are going this afternoon to apply for Payson's passport. The next step in the process. That puts us a little ahead of schedule right now. If things stay ahead we can possibly leave before Sept 3rd. While we love Armenia and the people, we are ready to get our new family home and introduce Payson to everyone. We miss everyone. Lots of love from Armenia!!

Jenn

Here are some new pictures of our new family of 4.

Payson's Eating Habits

Today we went to see Payson at 10am like every morning since being here. When they brought her to us, they brought her out again in two layers of footed PJs and it is literally in the mid 80s outside. We took her inside to try to keep her cool, but she started screaming at the top of her lungs which was the first time we had seen her this upset. We then noticed she was sweating like crazy so we decided to strip off a layer of clothing whether they liked it or not. We just decided that it was time for them to understand that we are her parents and we could not stand to see her miserable. She got so hot and upset that she got an upset tummy :( We used the skills we learned from the nurses in the NICU at Baptist East when Caleb was in there to soothe her stomach. I leaned her tummy over my hand and rubbed her back hard to push up any gas that was in there. It is cool to see God prepare you for each situation by events in the past. She calmed down, cooled off, and started giving her sweet smile that we are so use to seeing :)

Our translator that we had last time we came to Gyumri was back with us and he speaks English better than the lady we had the first two days and his brother works for the orphanage as one of the assistant directors so he is more successful in getting us information from the orphanage staff. When we went back in the afternoon to try and see Payson again, he was able to get the nanny to write down Payson's daily schedule and eating schedule. Payson's nanny, btw, is very loving and affectionate to Payson which is so nice to see and know. We learned that Payson is completely on baby food. She does not take a bottle at all anymore. She eats porridge, yogurt, and pureed vegetable soup most days. This was something that the doctors at Children's Hospital in Birmingham had said would be beneficial to her. They said that the sooner she got off a bottle the better because cleft palate children really struggle with bottles. God answered another prayer in getting Payson to where she needed to be eating wise. We had not been able to give the orphanage the information from Children's Hospital, but God gave them that knowledge without our help. We also found a market today that sells baby food and baby porridge so we will go tomorrow and get Payson the food she needs.

We found out today that the orphanage has some sort of review that happens twice a year tomorrow so we will not be allowed to go see Payson tomorrow. We will just use the day to wash clothes and go to the market to prepare her homecoming with us on Friday. One day left before Payson is legally ours even though she has been ours since we accepted her referral on Dec 21st. Good night from Armenia and I will talk to all of you tomorrow.

Love, Jenn

Court Hearing

We had a very successful day in Gyumri today. We went to the orphanage first thing this morning to see Payson again. This time we stayed outside with her so that Caleb could play on "Payson's plaground" as he calls it which is the orphanage playground. The visit went really well. They actually had her in normal summer clothing today instead of 2 layers of footed PJs. When they first brought her out to us, she was spitting up alot, but the nurse said that she does that because she likes to eat so much that she won't stop even when she has had enough. We could tell since she had on shorts and a sleevless shirt that she is definitely getting nutrients. She has a nice round belly and some plump to her legs that she did not have last time we saw her :) She got sleepy towards the end of our visit and I could tell she was ready to nap. I rocked her and would get her close to falling asleep but not quite. I handed her off to Will because he seems to have the magic touch with her and she fell asleep within minutes in his arms :)

Caleb played with all the orphanage children that were outside while we were there. It really grabs a hold of your heart to see these precious children that need homes so bad, but in reality you know that their chance of finding forever homes is very slim because of their age and disability. One little girl in particular who is 4, but is the size of most American 18 month olds really tugged at my heart. She has spina bifida and her smile can light up a room. Unfortunately the orphanage director at this particular orphanage gives anyone who wants to adopt one of their children a very hard time so these children get left out many times because the attorneys get tired of dealing with her.

We met our attorney around 1pm so that he could prep us for court. We then went to court. Court was very intimidating. The judge kept on asking us why we would choose to adopt a child with a disability when we can have a biological child of our own. We continued to give him answers, but he seemed confused. The representative from the Gyumri social services finally told him that she could see our sincere desire to provide Payson a home and that she had not doubt in her mind that we would love Payson as we do Caleb. He was content with her feelings and finally issued his decision that he would allow us to obtain full custody of Payson upon receiving his court decree on Friday. This hearing had two concerns first that he would approve our adoption and second that he would allow us to have full custody of her without the typical 31 day waiting period which he granted both. We had a translator through out the entire hearing as no one else spoke English besides our attorney who was not allowed to be on the floor with us. Caleb did very well in the court hearing. He fell asleep about half way through the court hearing and just now woke up.

We now have 2 days in Gymuri to hang out and kill time. We only get to spend limited time at the orphanage as the director is not very open to having us there very much during the day, but no worries because she will be ours on Friday :)

Thank you so much to all of you for praying for us today! God certainly answered them. The overwhelming support that we have received from everyone through comments, prayers, etc while being over here means more than any of you could know. Thank you and God Bless!!!

Love, Jenn

Our First Day to See Payson

Good Evening from Armenia! It is a little after midnight here on Monday night or I guess Tuesday morning really. Today was the first day that we got to see Payson. You will see come of her pictures in the post today :) We went to the orphanage today about 10am and spent a couple of hours with her. She is doing great. The surgery that was performed on her lip is looking good. There will need to be additional surgeries on her lip and then of course on her palate, but there is a defenite improvement. She responded well to all of us once again. She LOVED Will just as last time :) She will definitely be a daddy's girl. It is so cute watching her with him. She would just laugh and laugh at him. Will seems to have that gift with people :) She cuddled with me and watched Special Agent Oso on the iTouch with Caleb. I think that this was her first experience with cartoons. She was able to roll over from her back and stomach with no problem. She was very active with her legs and she seems to be close to sitting up on her own. You can tell that she spends a lot of time laying on her back staring at the ceiling because even when you hold her she immediately starts looking up at the ceiling. Once she starts getting some time to practice sitting, I think she will do it in not time.

After the morning at the orphanage we went and got some pizza then went back to the room for a long nap. Our translator came back and got us about 8:30pm to go out on the town to some local parks. Things in Armenia do not get going until 8pm. The weather changes to feel like fall at night so everyone comes out late at night. We took Caleb to two local parks where he drove bumper cars and rode on a merry-go-round. He had a ball! We got back to the room around 11pm, but the rest of the city was still going strong including the young children :)

Finding food that Caleb likes this time around has been a challenge. We finally found some hotdogs at the local market and Will figured out how to cook them in the sink so he is chowing down on hotdogs as we speak while watching Tigger and Pooh. Will figured out how to bring our old Apple TV and connected to our TV in the room so that we could have some English speaking cartoons for Caleb. It has been a HUGE lifesaver all ready.

Tomorrow is our court hearing!!!!! We are going to go the orphange tomorrow morning at 10am to visit Payson some more. Then we are meeting our attorney Ed at noon to prepare for our hearing. Our court hearing is at 3pm tomorrow in Gyumuri that is 5am Tuesday morning in Alabama. Please pray for a smooth court hearing tomorrow and that the judge issues his decree quickly. Our attorney said that it could be as late as Friday before receiving his decree. We cannot bring her with us until he issues that decree. Much love to everyone and we miss all of you. The Armenian people are wonderful, but we are all ready home sick :)

Jenn

Arrived in Armenia

We made it to the beautiful land of Armenia. We arrived in Yerevan this morning at 4:38am their time. Apparently us and half of Europe thought that 4:30 in the morning was a good time to come to Armenia because the line for Visa applications was crazy :), but we made it through without any problems and our attorney Ed was waiting on us in the arrival area. We were able to get an update on our itinerary for this upcoming week. Of course this could change, but here is the plan for now:
Sunday (today): Travel to Gymuri and get checked into our hotel
Monday: Visit Payson at the orphanage (our court hearing was changed again due to an Armenian holiday
Tuesday: Court hearing in the afternoon
Friday: The judge will hopefully issue his positive court decree and Payson will be legally ours and we can get her out of the orphanage forever this day! Our attorney feels like we should get this court decree by Friday at the latest. Once we have the court decree, we will leave Gymuri and go to Yerevan for the next two weeks for the US Embassy process.

When we arrived in Gymuri today, we were surprised with a hotel that opened a few months ago. A modern hotel that is very nice and has comfortable beds!!! It is also located next to our favorite pizza place in Gymuri. God is watching out for us so that we can be rested during this process. We took a very long nap from about 10am-5pm Armenian time before grabbing dinner. We cannot see Payson today because the orphanage is not open to visitors on Sundays. We were able to spend the evening unpacking and chilling out. We will have pictures of Payson to post tomorrow after we get to spend the day with her! Good night from Armenia!

Much Love, Jenn

Heading To Armenia

We flew out of Atlanta on Friday afternoon. CheChe and Pappy gave us a ride. Caleb was less than excited to be getting back on a plane for 24 hours. He has been quite the international traveler the past 5 months. This makes his 3rd trip to Armenia since March. He has now been to 4 new countries and is filling his little passport up :) Once he got on the plane he was a trooper and slept most of the 9 hours from Atlanta to Frankfurt, Germany. Will and I did not sleep a wink though. We had about an 8 hour layover in Frankfurt so we decided to take advantage of our time their and leave the airport. We did some sightseeing in Frankfurt. We stayed in the city for about 4 hours. It is a beautiful place and we always enjoy seeing new places. The pictures that I am posting are from Frankfurt. Right now I am sitting in Vienna, Austria in the Airport Starbucks enjoying my $10 cup of coffee! I have to say that I never thought a $10 cup of coffee could enjoy a $10 cup of coffee, but I am! The fact the USD is not worth much in comparison to the Euro and that Starbucks is proud of their coffee makes for an expensive coffee, but with very little sleep, well worth the investment! We leave here in about 3 hours and will land in Armenia about 4:35am their time. Armenia is 10 hours ahead of CST. We are not sure what the plans are once we arrive in the morning. We might to in Yerevan and have time to unpack in our apartment then go to Gymuri on Monday morning or they may take us to a hotel in Gymuri to stay until the court hearing is over. We will find out when we arrive. Our court hearing is Monday in Gymuri which is about 2 hours from Yerevan, the capital. This is where here orphanage is so that is where we have the court hearing. I will update you again as soon as we get established internet access in Armenia. Much love! -Jenn

Recent Video of Payson

We were sent this video last week. You will notice that she has had her first surgery on her cleft lip. She will have more on her lip when she returns from Armenia and she will start her cleft palate surgery. Take a look at her beautiful blue eyes!!

Getting Ready To Go

Life is a little crazy for us right now. Will and I are trying to get things taken care of at work to be gone for almost a month and get things packed to be gone for almost a month. Our family and friends have been such a tremendous help in getting us ready.

Prayer Requests Today:
1. That God would prepare Will, Caleb, Payson, and me to be a family.
2. That we would remember all the important documentation that we need to have in Armenia.
3. That Will and I would be able to tie all the loose ends at work before we leave.

I will try to update this blog regularly with pictures and information all during our trip so that everyone will know what we are doing and how they can pray for us. This is my first attempt at blogging so I will see how it goes.