Saturday, May 26, 2012

Awaiting Committee

Hi All,

Things are going well. We are still making daily visits to the orphanage to see Badaruugan. They have been slowly preparing him and explaining to him that we are 'ehj' (mom) & 'ahv' (dad). It was very hard leaving one evening when he stared to cry at our departure, but the last couple of meetings have been better. We tell him each day that we will be coming back margahsh (tomorrow) and I think he is finally starting to believe it! It is hard to tell what he will be thinking when we are finally able to leave with him from the orphanage.

We are still waiting for the determinating INS committee meeting to finalize the decision(s). There is at least one other family who is also waiting. Hopefully it will occur early this next week so that we can proceed with the US Embassy proceedings in obtaining his exit visa. Apparently years of obtaining pre-approvals, updating our unchanged fingerprints, and spending more and more money on those issues does nothing to expedite the process. Hurrah for U.S. bureaucracy!

On the plus side, we have now moved into an apartment. We were able to secure a one month lease for 800,000 Tugriks (approx 600USD). Having spent one week in the hotel already, and now avoiding the last two weeks that would have been required, we will save between 1-2 thousand USD (closer to the latter) on our overall visit. We are still very well within reasonable walking distance of much shopping for food and/or restaurants. This will also provide a more suitable environment for Badaruugan once we able to bring him from the orphanage.


I hope to upload more pictures tomorrow the day thereafter!


Thank you all for the continual prayers!


Blessings!
Jeff & Joanie

2 comments:

  1. I am so impatiently waiting for you guys to return. I think I hit refresh on the blog a thousand times a day just to see if there is some new news or pics!! I am praying continually for you guys!
    Kimberly

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  2. still waiting - not all committee members were in the office today so haven;t met as of 330 pm here. please keep praying! The teacher at the orphanage was going to let us have some alone time with him today but he started crying and didn't want to go with us. he was happy to sit with us in the big room while the other kids played.

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