Give Thanks

Overall I would use one word to sum up my African experience to date…HARD! Not completely bad,non-educational, or non-productive…just hard. There are some bright spots on a daily basis, though:

1. Having access to the Word. I watched the movie
Luther last night (from James and Megan’s movie collection) and was reminded
that to have the blessing of reading God’s Word in my own language is something
to be thankful for.
2. Our caretaker’s name is Limited. He’s a very nice man. Josie has gotten very comfortable with him and I love hearing her say his name because she says “Lemonhead”. Bahahaha that’ll make any bad day seem betterJ
3.
There’s quite the assortment of animals to keep you on your toes. I had to chase a
chicken down on Saturday, we have bunnies, I’ve already stepped on a roach, and
found numerous lizzards in the bathroom. The lizzards seem to be getting bigger…I hope that’s normal.
4. The food here is actually pretty good. I was worried that I would be forced to eatsome really weird stuff. So fareverything has been tasty.
5. Josie is awesome. Terrible sometimes too, but I love talking to her about the "Yidzzards" and she gets excited when we "Pray Jesus" every night. Right now she is playing with play-dough at the table. It's fascinating to watch her mind work. I don't think I am thankful for her as much as I should be. She's pretty great.

Today was a day of blessing for sure. My attorney told me on Monday that we should
meet with Elizabeth together on Wednesday (which is today) to iron out some
things. I never heard back from him…I tried calling and e-mailing. By last
night I was furious because I knew I had to get a babysitter, but she would
need to know by last night if she was coming and what time. So I told her 9 a.m. and prayed like crazy. This morning, still livid and fed up with the entire process, I e-mailed the attorney at like 7 a.m. and told him that I had a babysitter for the day that I had already hired so we needed to meet and I needed to know what time.

Poor man calls me 5 minutes later and apologizes and says he lost his
Blackberry. Plus he got married on Saturday so…I guess he has reasons for not returning my calls. I told him I thought he was ignoring me andhe said no and that he called Elizabeth (also at 7 a.m. for which she was not happy) and set up a meeting for lunch. He said he would tell me exactly what time.

In the meantime I wanted to take advantage of having a
sitter all day so I ran some errands. I got done early so went to the social welfare office at 11. Of course, Elizabeth was not in so I told the
other social workers I would wait for her. They talked to me for a while. About
an hour later, Elizabeth calls one of the social workers I’m in the room with
who tells her that I’m there waiting on her. The social worker says, “Elizabeth says she has a few things to do and that she will tell your attorney to reschedule.” Lord, my heart CANNOT handle a reschedule!!!!! So I send up a prayer, go
outside and call Elizabeth and say “I’m at your office. I have to take a taxi every time I come down here. I have a woman staying at the house with my baby all day and the taxi says he will wait as long as I need him to. So…I’m not leaving until you meet with my attorney and me. I've got all day” (Yeah, Mama bear came out just a little) so FINALLY at 1:30 all three of us were together. I
heard the attorney walk through the door and someone pointed and told him “The
white woman is down there.” By that point they ALL knew why he was there.

It was a great meeting! The attorney is wonderful. He knew what to ask and how to interpret what Elizabeth is telling me. Apparently, Elizabeth has been trying to get
a hold of the orphanage director who is the only person who can give the OK for
her to have the files. He won’t call her back so…we’re trying to work through that.
The paperwork I filed on Friday must have been approved because Elizabeth said she was cleared to work on our case and that the only thing standing between me and a committal order is the orphanage director.

The attorney even said that if I keep going to the orphanage to see the kids, that that will be viewed as bonding with the children and that the “3 month fostering” can be dated the first time we met the kids. That would be nice!!! I believe this is still up to the judge when he wants to make that date official, but the attorney seems very confident that it will happen that way. I do feel much
more confident in our attorney after today. I think he really knows what he’s doing.
I’m going back to the orphanage on Saturday to spend time with the kids
and to meet the younger girls’ father (for various reasons I won’t say here). I’m a little nervous about that, but I guess it could be a good thing. I
AM dying to see them again. I had been staying away because I didn’t want to get attached in case something went wrong. The attorney thinks it’s better
to spend time with them and that he can work out the paperwork so…I guess I’ll
believe him! I will definitely feel better when that adoption decree is signed
and they are actually ours.

So I got back exhausted.
I literally felt like I had been in a fight. Spiritually, this has been a very rough 2 weeks, but I also can’t remember ever praying this much…so I guess sometimes
sanctification happens in the dark. Ready for the lights to come back on, please!!! I just remembered the story about the persistent widow and as I sat outside of Elizabeth’s office for hours today I
just prayed that I would be fighting for the right thing. I don’t want to come off as rude or demanding (which is the assumption about Americans anyway) or that this whole adoption is just about me, but the Bible also has a lot to say about fighting for the fatherless and justice for the poor. Today definitely felt like a fight, but I knew that God was with me and I left actually feeling like Elizabeth, the attorney, and I might possibly be wanting the same thing…to see these 2 girls adopted. Praise the Lord, it actually looks like this
might work out.

The next step is to (get a hold of the orphanage director). I’ve got three different people trying so…Attorney said he will see Elizabeth in person on Monday again if she still hasn’t made contact and we’ll go from there. I’m not exactly sure what that means, but I think legally, they can go around this man if he refuses to cooperate. Hoping he will just call her back. Maybe he lost his phone too:p

I made pumpkin bread! Thanks to Katryn, I inherited some canned pumpkin and made some
Thanksgiving food!!!! We are spending the afternoon with some American missionaries here. I really hope they have REAL thanksgiving food. I would be so excited! Hoping to skype with Darren and one or both of my sisters tomorrow! YAY!!!
Thank you all for your prayers and have a wonderful day of special thanks to the Lord for the Great things he has done!