I have been a little reluctant to post specifics about the girls on the blog because they are not officially ours yet, but according to our Social Worker, they are ours. We are waiting for the official documents to come from the Philippines, expected within the next two weeks, for us to sign and pay the matching and visa fees. It is then that we get to send letters and books to the girls.
After this set of paperwork gets back to the Philippines, then we are sent the documents needs to finish Homeland Security pre-Visas. Then those documents are sent back to our contact in Philippines to begin the girls exit Visas and medical to be cleared for American Visas and passports. Once this is cleared, we are given the travel date and must travel within 60 days to get the girls and return to the US. While in PI, we will be there for about 7-8 days, but it takes 24 hours in flights to go to Manila and another 24 to return.
Chriselda, we are trying to get confirmation on the spelling of her name as we have seen it spelled 5 different ways. Chriselda is very close to Bella's age, loves to make cards to show her love and gratitude toward others, and likes to help her house mom (the ladies in charge of each of the orphan houses at this particular orphanage) with her tasks in caring for the younger children and meals. She is progressing in her studies and starting to help other with their studies, however math is not her strongest subject. Chriselda can read and write on an elementary level in both English and Tagalog.
Christine, called Christy, is currently 7, loves to build with Legos, prefers to be outside swimming, riding a bike, climbing, and (this cracked me up that the report found it important to mention) prefers to wear shorts. Well, if she is an active little girl who likes to explore, I would think shorts is more comfortable than a dress when on the climbing equipment where she is most happy. She excels in her math studies, probably due to the Legos, but also likes to draw. She is in the first grade program at the orphanage (like a home school program).
These are our girls! They will find out in a couple weeks they are spoken for and we are working to bring them home before Christmas. The American Director of the orphanage already knows as she has been in contact with our Social Worker. Oh, the girls are in an American Christian run orphanage about two hours north of Manila. I guess I will need to bring some motion sickness bands for the girls because everyone seems to remark about how motion sick Filipino children get in cars, not just our family friends but those in the adoption classes who hosted for the Summer Program.
