We began this day not knowing what exactly we were doing. Our lawyer, Fidele, was finished with the legal side of the adoption and his assistant Peter was going to walk us through the remaining steps. Yesterday afternoon Peter was riding a motorcycle (you wouldn't believe how many there are here) through one of the large round abouts in town and was hit by a car. He was taken to the hospital and has since been released but is obviously unable to help us. We told our driveer to pick us up at 7am and we were just going to navagaite the next steps on our own. You know God hasn't let one step of this process go unattended. We met Fidele first thing and received some papers that we needed to take to the orphanage so we did just that and when we dropped those papers off we picked up our kids for the day.
All 12 of us plus the driver loaded up and went and got the kids passport photos. Of course, when we pull up Benjamin has to go to the bathroom. I have Hope and Rusty in on the phone with the lawyer and so a kind local man walks him over to the planter on the sidewalk and pulls down his pants! At least he felt better and we could move on. So we then meet up with the other family that is here and sorted paperwork Fidele had given them (he had to get several documents notarized for us all), we had to write letters requesting our travel letter, fill out our kids passport applications and etc... to top it off we had 5 kids that don't speak English with us, sitting in the floor of an indoor mall and we were on an incredible time crunch to get it all done and get to the Immigration/Emigration office before they closed! If I haven't mentioned it yet these kids are very thirsty all of the time so we are heading to the bathroom literally every 10 minutes or so.
We made it to Immigration/Emigration and we had to pay and take a number. The husbands paid and the wives took a number. They were on about 1055 when we got there and we had number 1073 and things were moving very slowly. Hope was asleep, Benjamin was wild and of course, needed to go to the bathroom. We waited through about 5 numbers and then one of the men working the desk called me up (I think because I had Hope). John ran to find Rusty and PRAISE GOD they let all 3 of our famiies move through. It would have been a very rough wait. Thankfully Becky had some of the kids in the van.
Our next step was MIDGPROF but they were closed for lunch so we met up at Bourbon Coffee for lunch and was that ever an experience. Probably went better than it could have but it was interesting. As we entered Benjamin ran straight for a mans plate and grabbed his food! Rusty was downstairs buying something for Hope to eat and drink. Six trips to the bathroom and full bellies and we were good to go. Mybe more information than you want but we were shocked to see Benjamin (going on 4) in a diaper. We have figured out that they may put them in diapers when they visit their families. He has not had any accidents and even went #2 at the resturant. He is used to using a hole in the ground for a toilet so at first when we visited he had to be taken to use it becaue he refused to use an "English" or what we would consider a normal toilet.
So from there we went to MIGEPROF and turned in more paperwork, this is who issues our travel letter. So 19 of us in the office waiting! We were there a while and then told to come back tomorrow to get our letters! If we really get these letters tomorrow we are ahead of schedule.
We took the kids to African New Life, where we are staying to show them where they will be. About an hour later we took them back to the orphanage and toured. I won't give details about that but wow, it was hard, very hard. We also toured the mentally handicapped/genocie victim area. I wasn't excited to drop them off but it was ok because I knew we were coming back but it wasn't as easy after we went through and saw the orphanage. The sister was certain to tell us that all of those children need families.
Tomorrow we pick up our kids at 8:30, hopefully for good! Never to go back except to drop off our travel letters.
This day was very productive to wake up and not have any idea of what it held. We took very few pictures, our hands were full!
I will have to introduce Becky in my next post but just know that she is an absolute God send and she is responsible for the cute picture of Hope in my last post!
2 comments:
Wow...what a day....what a journey! As I am typing this, itis 6:29 AM here on Friday, and your Kigali ticker says it's 1:29 PM there, but your post covered the day of Friday -- so are you a full day ahead of us? Is it 1:29 PM on Saturday? I cannot imagine how exhausted and out-of-sync your bodies are!
Praise the Lord on the paperwork! I had to laugh about Ben getting the man's food! I remember that Brayden did that once! We were leaving a restaurant (after we had eaten!) and he took a piece of bread off a person's plate as we walked by their table! So funny!
I'm so thankful for you that things are moving ahead of schedule and hopefully you will have no more long waits with all the kids! Love you guys!
Kelli
He is so faithful to meet our every need, every step we walk and to carry us when we need it! It is so awesome to again see His faithfulness in the this journey that you are on....I laughed out loud at the "potty" progress, as you know I can totlly relate. Sounds like he will be good to move forward when you all get home...Awesome! Gavin was so excited to see that Benjain was drinking from the Buzz and Woody sippy that "he" picked out!! Already a bond forming....Loved the picture of Carter and Benjamin too....same ole Carter. Praying a prayer of thanksgiving for Becky, sounds like He knew exactly what you all would be needing...sounds like a job I might need to do the NEXT time :) We are so excited to meet them and see you all again. Missing you all bunches!!
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