Introducing JAELA RAVEN

Sarah has adopted a young girl named JAELA RAVEN.  

Jaela arrived yesterday afternoon from Los Lunas in New Mexico and was picked up at National Airport by her new Mum, Sarah.  Jaela is 9 years old and she will be 10 in October of this year.

This is not the first time that Sarah has met her.  In fact, she was required to go out to New Mexico twice in the last month to meet Jaela and her current foster mother, Miss Liz.  Jaela and Miss Liz visited Washington DC about 2 weeks ago to see Sarah and where Jaela would be living very soon in Sarah’s apartment in Glover Park, DC. 

Jaela loved the whole experience.  She looked around Washington DC a little bit--the Spy Museum and the Lincoln Memorial were on her list--and she wants to visit the Air & Space Museum one day.  She says she wants to be an astronaut.  

The photo above is the only photo I have—it was taken on Sarah’s first visit to New Mexico at a restaurant in Albuquerque about a month ago.  

Jaela is half Navajo and half Hispanic.  Her full name is Jaela Raven but she likes to be called Jaela.  She found a very happy home for the last 1.5 years with her foster mother, Miss Liz. 

Because Jaela had been placed in the New Mexico foster care system a number of years ago, Sarah had to deal with the New Mexico Social Services agency rather than an adoption agency. The whole adoption process for Jaela took quite a time, with a lot of delays and uncertainties. However, about 3 months ago it all started to fall into place and yesterday Jaela arrived!

When Jaela was here a couple of weeks ago, she stayed the night with Sarah.  She loves (I mean really loves) animals and immediately became big friends with Maggie, Sarah’s dog. 

 

Maggie slept by Jaela's bed that night, and slept by her bed again last night.  Jaela has already taught Maggie to shake her hand when she says: “Paw,” something we had all failed to achieve for the last 3.5 years!

Jaela met Jane on her first visit and she met Paul (and his dog Slim) for the first time last night.  Regee and I have not met her yet. She will meet everyone else in due course when she has settled in a little bit.  Sarah has been told to "limit" new contacts for the first two or three weeks because Jaela will have a lot to absorb and reflect upon during this time. 

She is very excited about her new school which she can walk to, and looks forward to meeting new friends. She also likes basketball and wants to play flag football at school. Sarah says she loves to eat.  She had a big plate of Spaghetti Bolognese last night and loved it.  A good start.

Not going to say any more because I don’t know any more!

All the other details will follow as we hear about them and I do hope you will be able to meet her one day.

We are all so thrilled for Jaela and Sarah and for our family. We feel blessed to have found this young girl who is so sweet and loving.