Just too cute for words! She has brought us more joy than we could've imagined. Sometimes I still can't believe she is really ours!

Anela's Indian Shower

During the puja, with the priest, Anela could not stop playing with the fruit. It is sacrificed to the gods during the puja but she kept taking it and throwing in that big bowl and clapping for herself!

Anela just loves Laney and Mayon, she also loves to give kisses!

Daddy's Girl

Anela loves her silky but even Dad's tie works!

Fun at the Beach!

Showing off the belly!

Hanging out with Nanama, TaTa and Mayon

It always feels great to get a nice bath after a long plane ride!

This was the night we came home, guess she might as well learn life may be a little crazy around here!

Big bro Mayon was thrilled to finally meet his little sis at the airport!

This was morning two at home, as you can see we are still a little sleepy!

Showing off in her new swimsuit!

Home at last

We arrived last night to a wonderul homecoming. So many family and friends came, we could see them as we walked past security at the airport, they were all clapping and holding signs, it was unforgettable. Anela let all the girls hold her, she is still a little unsure with men, but it will come. She is sleeping right now, poor little thing so worn out from all the traveling. Big brother Mayon is such a helper. I will post some pictures soon, by the way thanks for all of the prayers, she did so well on the long flight. Tired but very happy and relieved mommy, Melissa

We are on our way

yeah we got the visa today at 12:30 so we are getting ready to leave for the airport, it is nighttime here, can't wait to get home and see everyone especially our Mayon. Right now Anela is sleeping so hopefully she will do the same on the flight, either way we will make it. See you soon, Melissa

forgot one thing

Just wanted to tell you all that I forgot to mention that another lady at the embassy who is adopting and runs some program in the US to bring kids over to get healthcare and gets their visas issued said that the picture recognition program, the one that is down is the program used to identify that anyone entering the US is not listed as a terrorist. So we have to make sure Anela is not one and really with her bow in her hair and her white sandals with butterflys on them she does looks like a terrorist, can't tell you how many terrorists I have seen with those exact sandals, anyway, we just have to laugh, Melissa

embassy delays

Hello everyone, it is tues evening here and we have just spent our second day at the embassy, they are having some kind of server problem and we have to go back again tomorrow to hopefully get visa. that will be our fifth trip!!! Hopefully tomorrow evening we will be getting on our flight. We are ready to come home but this time with Anela has been wonderful. I am so glad that we will have had a full week with her before putting her on a plane and changing her environment yet again. she is doing so great now, she wakes up smiling and laughing, and she is sleeping well too, around 11 hours at night and a couple of naps during the day. we just fall more in love with her everyday. we have done some shopping and sightseeing with the other family here getting their baby, it has been so nice to travel together. Today we bought Anela some indian dresses and bangles, they are so cute. yesterday we went to the embassy doctor and she weighed 17 lbs and was around 26.5 inches long so the orphanage was right on. She is small but looks really healthy and she eats well. by the way we bought some gifts for people today and they were wrapped and she unwrapped them all, guess she thought it was her bday presents!! Anyway please pray that this visa process is over tomorrow, we will let you know. Melissa

Anela and Paisley together at the Hyatt. Paisley's mom and dad picked her up right after we picked up Anela.

Made it to Delhi

Hi everybody, we are still alive!! hope you like all the new pics. It is Easter Sunday here in Delhi and we are staying at the Hyatt. It is super nice and convenient to the embassy by the way for all you soon to travel families. We are doing really well with our little one. Last night she finally started letting Daddy carry her which of course thrills him and thrills Moms back. She is adjusting pretty well I think, laughing and smiling a lot, she says Da Da alot which at first was just a saying but she now looks at Krishna and says it, she is also saying Ma Ma some!!! Let me tell you this girl has a set of lungs and endurance. The plane ride from Kolkata to here is two and a half hours and she screamed for one and a half of them. Stephanie and Nathan can attest, they had the fortune of sitting across the aisle from us with super calm Paisley. Anyway Anela got herself way past the point of exhaustion. Finally as the plane literally touched ground in Delhi, she passed out on me and slept all the way to the hotel and until the next morning at 6 am. It was so hard, I really didn't know what to do, I felt like we should buy the whole plane a drink or offer them a refund, everyone was really nice though, no nasty looks. Anyway, today has been fun, we did some shopping and Daddy bought her her first pair of bangles, which she loves. Tomorrow is embassy day so hopefully things will go well. We are going with Stephanie and Nathan and Paisley. Will post more later, take care, Melissa

Dear Mayon aka big brother, mom and dad bought me my first of hopefully many happy meals today in Delhi. I love french fries just like you. I am saving this happy meal toy for you.
Love, your little sis Anela

Anela's "1st" Easter dress. We hear the Easter bunny's going to make a late visit to her once we're home.

Anela met another baby in our hotel room today. They had a great time playing.

Waiting for Anela's first airplane ride at the Kolkata airport!

Smiling for the grandmas!

FIRST BATH!!!!!

What day is it????

Oh my gosh, we are so tired!!! Elated and happy and relieved but tired. It is just like when we first had Mayon. Last night Krishna and I literally could not figure out if it was 11am or pm, we had to look outside. Out little girl is a live wire just like her brother!! She loves to play and laugh and jump and go go go. We went out at some point shopping and to get her visa pictures, maybe yesterday, really I have no idea but she stayed in the carrier the whole time and stayed awake. She just smiles and grabs everything. I think it was a little too long though because she was so overstimulated when we got back. I can't imagine what is going through her head. Two days ago, all she had seen was a little room with a window and the same people everyday. Now she has seen so much and these new people are suddenly with her constantly! She really wants me to hold her a lot, Daddy can feed and play but the holding thing is coming slowly. Sometimes I feel so bad for her because if I am in the bathroom or hallway and she realizes it she just burst out in tears, I guess she thinks maybe I will never come back. I can't wait to get her home and settled so she knows we are here to stay. Our friends Stephanie and Nathan have their little girl now too, Paisley. We got them together and it is too cute, I will have Krishna post pics later when he gets up, right now Daddy and Anela are napping and Mommy is going to take a much needed shower. Thank you so much for all of your posts, you have no idea how much they help. I understand why everyone else who traveled kept saying that, it is so nice to see everyone supportive and happy. Love and miss everybody, melissa

Just finished some cereal and doing some leisure reading!

Anela's first bottle from mommy.

Sleeping Baby

Wow, what a day! We arrived here in Kolkata at 5am and were walking out at 6am with all of our luggage (thanks God). We got to the hotel and had breakfast and took showers and called Anju at the orphanage. She said we could come at 11:30. That gave us three hours so we did a little sight seeing but we were both so nervous that we just wanted time to pass. Finally after what seemed like the longest morning in the world we pulled up at 11:15. We went in and they asked us to have a seat and I could hear babies crying, I knew she was right in the next room. As we were sitting in the office with Ms. Roy this man walked in with her passport, how wonderful it was God's perfect timing that is for sure. I couldn't believe we were actually getting her and everything was finally done. Then she asked if we were ready to meet our Purni so we got the cameras ready and the Ayah carried her in and she just stared. Then she started screaming crying, I am not kidding. I took her anyway and she screamed and the Daddy took her and she screamed. Finally everyone just left the room and Krishna went to take pics of the other babies and I just started rocking her close, but I couldn't look at her or she would burst into tears. Within 5 minutes her head fell on my shoulder and she was asleep. We got in the car to go home and she woke up but no crying this time she just looked around in amazement and held onto me with dear life. The whole ride her hand was on my arm squeezing and patting me. As we walked into the hotel and elevator she was just amazed, just clutching for dear life. We came up to the room and sat down on the bed and finally the real Anela came alive. Within twenty minutes she was laughing and playing, eating cheerios which she loves and just seemed so happy. After awhile I changed her (clothes and all) and gave her a bottle. She fell asleep on top of me and we all laid down and slept slept slept. In fact 8 hours later she and Daddy are still sleeping. Tami said to expect her to maybe sleep a lot the first day or two. Okay by me because we are severely jet lagged. Every once in a while Krishna and I wake up and pat her, we just can't believe she is finally ours. By the way she is standing, not walking yet, but she did take a step to me and burst out laughing, so I am sure it won't be long!! talk soon, Melissa

......the real fun started. Anela got to play dress up and eat cheerios and goldfish with her daddy!

She can't wait to see big bro, Mayon.:]

......Anela felt right at home!!! Then.....

We finally made it to the orphanage for our baby! She was crying at first, but then....

We're off!!!

Well we are finally ready to go to the airport, we dropped Mayon off this morning and he did great, and we did (held off tears till we were back in the car!). Even his teacher hugged me everyone is so excited to finally meet this little girl. Anyway the bags are packed, the house is clean and the washer's flooded (seriously) so we are ready to go. Tami said the passport was mailed out friday to the orphanage so I really hope it is there wed. Anyway our next post will be from India!! Gotta go, those of you who know Krishna know he is dying to get to the airport on time!! talk soon, Melissa

3 days to go

Well, we are really close now!! After all this wait it is unbelievable that we are finally going to get our little girl. We are basically packed and just doing last minute stuff. Tami let me know today that we have ICPC clearance which is good, means we can definitely come back to the US with her. They believe that Anela's passport will be issued tomorrow and received at the orphanage on Monday. Either way we will have her on Wed!!!

Mon- leave from Chicago around 8pm
Wed- arrive in Kolkata at 5am and go to hotel to call orphanage
Wed- pm- go and pick up Anela!!!!!
Thur and Fri- bond with our little angel
Sat- at 5:30pm leave for Delhi
Easter Sun- rest in hotel
Mon- Embassy Day
Tues and Wed- finish up Embassy and sightsee
Thur (12 am)- leave for home to see our little boy!

Will keep you updated!

The rest of Anela's family

Laney and Henry are also anxiously awaiting Anela's arrival.

Anela's Family

This is from Mayon's fifth bday!

Names

Just wanted to let everyone know what Anela means and how we came to it. Anela means angel, I found it in a baby name book when we were looking for a name for Mayon. Of course he turned out to be a boy, so no Anela, but I always knew I would have my Anela one day. So, that was her name from the very beginning. Her middle name is Marie which was my mothers middle name just like Mayons middle name is Roy which is my Dad's. In India they are calling her Purnima, which means moon. We will tell her one day about that name and what it meant but to us she is Anela. The funny thing is we received her referral on July 17th, we had just gone to India in June and stayed at the Hotel Poornima, coincidence, I think not.

legals on the way!!

Tami (our dillon social worker) called today to let us know that she has our legals in her hands and has fedexed our copy which we will have Monday morning. This was the main thing we had to have in order to travel so it is a great relief to have them in the US even though we knew they were on the way. Today I received Anela's airline ticket. It made me want to cry seeing her little name there (it actually says Purnima). It kind of sunk in that this is actually going to happen after two years of waiting. I feel like time is sort of crawling now but at the same time I am going to be so sad to leave Mayon, so I am looking forward to this next week with him, he is on spring break. Tonight we went to one of our favorite mexican restaurants and Krishna told him that Anela will be sitting there with us the next time we go there. He laughed of course and said we better get her a highchair. We are going to start doing some packing this weekend, will send another update next week.
Melissa

Here It Is!

Well I have finally decided to do a blog! As most of you know we have been on this journey for awhile now, with a few bumps in the road. We are finally getting our baby girl home. Currently we are waiting for her passport which was applied for on Monday the 19th. Krishna and I are leaving Monday April 2nd. We will be picking Anela up April 4th and returning home on April 12th. I will post our itinerary later. As most of you know, our son Mayon who is five is excited about becoming a big brother, but he opted out of going to India to stay at Grandma and Grandpas instead (hmm wonder why). Please keep us in your prayers as we continue to get ready to travel.