Leila Pictures

What a blessing for Geoff to be able to see Leila again (he hadn't seen her since last February - the trip we felt God telling us to adopt her) and for my dad and Geoff's brother, Kameron, to meet her. All reported back that she continues to be incredibly sweet and generous - trying to give things we gave her to other people. She also wouldn't eat all her food so that she could save it for later - after many years of not knowing when they would be fed this is understandable, but hard to accept from a momma perspective. 

Geoff was able to sit in on her school (they have a teacher come to the orphanage), and he said she was incredibly studious, focused and content singing while she worked. I love it! He was happy to spoil her with pizza, ice cream (which she saved to take back to the orphanage so her friends could taste it - it had melted, but no one seemed to mind) and soda. 

Geoff returned home with a lot of paperwork for us and our friends that are adopting. We are waiting on verification that we are her legal Nigerien parents (woohoo!), and then we can file the I-600 form with the US Citizenship and Immigration Services. They are the ones that will approve us to go get her. Come on, we are close!

In the meantime, we are setting her up with English lessons in Niger. This will be awesome for her to have a base before she even gets here, and the fact that she's eager to learn is a true blessing. 

Please keep praying for this process and for her emotions and questions, as I can't imagine what she must be thinking. She asked Geoff when Momma was coming, and he had to explain that I wasn't coming this trip and that he would have to leave, but we would both be back to pick her up as soon as we could. Tears.