First Court Date (Revised Post)

(Note: This post is revised since Little Angels is reading it...Wouldn't want anything to impact our process, now would we?)

We had our first court date on Feb 15. Thank GOD we were able to get the 15th instead of a later date. I'm not sure how my lawyer pulled it off, but I am so thankful.
I honestly hate writing about it because it's something that you just kind of want to forget ever happened. (Not that it was terrible completely, just annoying and inconvenient.)

Anyway, so we left our house at 7am and drove through 2 hours of traffic to downtown Nairobi (or rather to Community/Upper Hill as they call it).
I just hate being in Nairobi traffic. Terrible roads. Congestion. Lots of people. Lots of people walking randomly in the road. Lots of dirt. Lots of smoke from other cars. I got car sick of course and felt like I was about to puke the whole way.

Finally make it and have no idea where to go. The driver dumped us out at the front. We had to hire a driver to take us because there is no parking at the courthouse. We found out a few nights before from mutual friends that our agency is supposed to provide transportation to all our court dates, though no one at the agency ever told us that. Unfortunately the agency happened to have 10+ cases going to court the same day, so they ran out of cars and we just needed to call our own driver. It's expensive (about $45 for the trip) but whatever. Considering the tens of thousands of dollars we've spent on the adoption, I guess $45 each trip to the courthouse isn't that big of a deal. Just annoying that we weren't told.

We stupidly wander around the courthouse not having a clue where to go. Getting close to 9am so we just follow all the other white families carrying black children. Obviously we are all going to the same place.  I see two sets of families that I know. FUN!

There are probably 50 families there, and guess what. The second adoption judge didn't show up for court (they only have court once a week), so the ONE judge has to preside all the cases. There are 4 initial motions, 20 GAL hearings (that's mine), and several final hearings. Our case should've been pretty quick since the GAL ones are heard first, but we didn't get heard until 11:30am. By that time, Isaac had gotten full on crackers, gotten tired from running up and down the halls for 2 and a half hours, and he completely fell asleep in arms. Our name is called and he sleeps during our entire 6 minute hearing.

Completely unprepared. That's what I felt like. As a lawyer myself, I was always prepared for court and knew what would happen. I made sure my families did too. But that's par for the course in this whole process: never knowing what is happening next.

I couldn't hear anything happening in the hearing because the noise in the hallway was too loud. I know our attorney spent 4 minutes talking the judge through our case: "The child was freed for adoption on...." etc. Then the judge asked the GAL to stand up, asked her a few questions I couldn't hear, then we were free to go.

Easy peasy. LOL.

We literally drove home in 20 minutes, quickly packed our bags, stuffed the kids in the car, and were on the road to vacation in the next hour. We drove to a swanky resort on Mount Kenya and forgot all about noise and congestion and traffic and smoke-filled air and courtrooms and smelly cars.
It was a well-deserved and well-appreciated four day vacation!!
We will have to book another vaca after the NEXT court date...which will last much longer and we will have to take all the kids. (Majorly much more difficult....)
So on to the next step...

Shifting

So tonight I was washing the dishes and our water ran out.  Like, it just stopped flowing from the tap.  Or the cold water, at least. (Guess the hot water tank was full, so it scalded my hand when the cold ran out.)

Here's the scoop.  A week ago we got this information from the embassy: 

The main water feed pipe for all of Nairobi broke, ironically because of the flooding.  Engineers thought it would take 3 days to fix, but they cannot access the area (again ironically) because of the heavy rainfall.  They are now saying that it may take 10 days to repair.

Houses in Runda and Rosslyn Ridge (THAT'S ME!) access water via bore holes, so these families should continue to have water.  If you are not in these areas (and this includes the chancery compound), it is likely that you will not get water for the next 10 days.  Your house has a water tank, but the tank will not last for nearly 10 days.  The embassy can truck water when you run out, but obviously the large number of houses we have will be difficult to service quickly.  PLEASE CONSERVE!  Take all steps possible to minimize your water usage. 

So after that initial email a week ago, having been told that we wouldn't be impacted by the shortage, I sort of forgot about it.  And why wouldn't I? I'm here on this little compound and never have to leave if I don't want to.

So imagine my shock when my water ran out while washing the dishes. I immediately felt a panic - - how would the kids bath? how would I clean dishes or clothes? how would my water distiller fill up (that's where we get our drinking water)? I immediately started filling up pitchers of water JUST IN CASE!

Thankfully we had enough water for the kids' bathtime, but I worried if there would be water for MY morning shower! 

And it hit me. Like a bolt of lightening.  Sometimes this is how God speaks to me.  It just hits me like being hit over the head with bricks or something. And then I just know.  This was a major shift, a major paradigm shift for me.

As you know, it took us a long time to settle here. And I've not been content. And honestly I have not enjoyed living here. There were so many things for us to adjust to and get used to. I have complained. I have gotten frustrated and sometimes very angry. We make snide comments and sarcastic remarks. None of this an indication of a Christian home. (I'm reading a great book entitled Grace-Based Parenting and have really noticed we need to incorporate more GRACE into our home!).  All along this process I have heard God say to be Peaceful in the process. Some times have been easier than others. But I definitely haven't succeeded (just look at any of my prior blog posts!).

So this one little inkling of how a Kenyan must live every day (the water shortage) really made me understand the culture to an extent I never understood before.  Sure, there is poverty all around me. There's nothing I can really do about it but get angry about it. Angry at the government for not taking better care of their country. Angry at the individual people for not trying to make it better.  But these folks ARE trying. They work very hard.  It is hard to rise out of poverty! This is nothing THEY did. There is no water. And everybody in this city is impacted by that. Half the time the electricity is out. This is nothing the individual people DID. This is something they have to ENDURE. So I realize it does no good to think, "Gosh why can't they fix their electrical problems in the city?" 

The next morning at breakfast, I made the kids stop eating their cereal long enough to explain to them that we need to ask Father God to forgive us for complaining, for not being content, and for making snide comments about the problems here.

The kids put their spoons down, Kevin was there since he hadn't left yet, and as a family we asked Father God to forgive us for these things.

And that's it.  Burden lifted.  Wish I could've been at this point months ago, but I am happy we are here now. Whew. Now I can embrace our Kenyan child with a full heart for Kenya. My biggest fear was going back to the States as a bitter former Kenya resident with just complaints about our time here. Thank you, Jesus, for this breakthrough.

Two Miracles Happened Today

As I sat in bed last night (after writing that last post), I told God that we needed a miracle today. The Fedex office closed and no one had any word about my package.

I was very bold with God.  "You called us to this.  Your heart is adoption. We have to see a miracle tomorrow, God. We are going to the embassy at 9am to meet with the notary. We declare Fedex will be there with our package. We just hold on to faith that you will do this. We need a miracle.  And when you do this, I will tell everybody about it.  To your Glory."

My Bible reading this morning was Exodus 7.  You know the story, "Let my people go."
Specifically, Exodus 7:3 really stuck out to me: "But I will make Pharaoh's heart stubborn so I can multiply my miraculous signs and wonders in the land of Egypt."

God doesn't make bad things happen. But we all know God works GOOD from the bad situations (Romans 8:28).  So maybe sometimes we face the impossible so that God can show himself through it. So people can see God working through it.  So people can see that God does do miracles today.  Every day.

Getting my Fedex package today was impossible.  Awesome.  Here's an opportunity for God to shine.

We drove to the embassy at 9am, like I told the courier we would.  I texted the courier and explained we had to have the document at the US embassy at 9am. I was pretty sure they didn't fix my problem since they only opened at 8:30am, but again, we were hoping for a miracle.

I called Fedex at 9am and finally ahold of them on the phone. The folks told me the courier would be there by 9:30am. They never mentioned the reason why my package was held.  I didn't care - - I just wanted it.

The kids and I walked around the embassy.  Visited folks in their offices.  Climbed the hill outside.  Played in the bathroom for a while (!).  Cashed a check.  Had a snack in the cafeteria.  Wrote on a bunch of labels in the mail room and stuck them on each other.  Sat in the hallway and colored Spiderman pages. Picked out our favorite rocks in the rock garden outside.

And then at 10:30am we got the phone call - - - Marshall was here at the embassy.  In a tiny little Fedex truck and wearing a Fedex uniform! This was way more professional than the Fedex courier who visited me a few weeks ago!

I was so excited to see Marshall. I think all the embassy guards must think I am crazy (who are we kidding?)   because I was so happy to see Marshall.

I quickly walked back into the embassy, met Kevin at the Consular's office, they stamped my Affidavit, and I put it all back in a clean Fedex envelope and dropped it off at the mail room.

Done.

So it's on its way to the States to be authenticated right now.

I just can't believe Marshall made it. And now the document is on its way to the next adventure.

I was pretty bold with God in my prayer last night. And He did it. He continues to amaze me.  Sometimes I get down on myself because I'm not a quiet and passive person and I sometimes feel like society expects this homeschooling mama to be that way. But I know God made me exactly the way He wanted me to be. He made my temperament a specific way for a reason. And he adores me, just the way I am.

I praise you Jesus for doing miracles every day.



p.s. The second miracle today? I left my coffee pot on from 7am-2:30pm and my house didn't burn down! (I  had left a substantial amount of coffee in the pot this morning...it all evaporated and scorched the bottom of the pot. Thank God I didn't drink the whole pot this morning!)

The Nest Orphanage

So we have been volunteering at the local orphanage lately.
It is so good for my kids.  They love holding the babies and playing with them.
Their staff is pretty low on the weekends and they need families to foster babies on the weekends.
So we are praying about whether we should do this.  My kids are very excited about it!

Here are a few pictures from our last 2 visits. (Okay bear with me, I can't seem to rotate them...)

We bought them 75 new bibs.  The kids were so excited to take the new bibs to the staff.

Electrical Problems and No Updates

Wow I am so excited to be sitting at a computer writing a blog post!!  (I'm writing this on all my blogs!)

My computer is dead - it somehow got a terrible virus when we arrived here and is completely unusable right now.

Then the power cord on Rachel's computer broke, and we JUST GOT A NEW ONE IN THE MAIL!!!  So this is the first time in almost a month that I have been able to type out my homeschool curriculum and print things again and blog again!

It is strange; we have had so many electrical problems since we moved here.  Kevin's 65" inch TV died, our VCR (that I just bought in the States this summer), Rachel's iPod dock, our computers, and today our bread machine died.  It took me forever to set up our printer and Vonage phone.  I still cannot use my fax machine.

To say it is upsetting is an understatement.  There have been some days where I just wanted to pack up and leave.  And then I remember we are here for a reason...so we trudge on.

And actually, there has been absolutely nothing to update.  We are still waiting to review our Home Study Draft from Little Angels.  It was the end of September when we finished all the home visits.  I am preparing my Dossier materials to be Authenticated.  But I cannot resolve my fax issues - - so I cannot fax my documents to my agency in the States for review.  I have had a very, very difficult time of paperwork since moving here.  Silly issues like trying to find U.S. money orders and mailing documents and faxing materials.  Things that are super easy to do in the States but has been impossible here.  I do not know why.  I am trying to stay encouraged.  With the Spirit's help.

There have been many days recently where I have prayed:  "Okay, God, is adopting still Your Will for our family?"  That is how seriously difficult it has been.  So I still keep doing paperwork.  And I still keep praying, waiting for a Word.

Short Rains Season

We received our U.S. background clearances in the mail this week.  I ordered two sets - one from the actual FBI, which will already have the apostille (msp?) stamp on it and one from a private company that we paid to have expedited here.  I am not sure which one will be accepted by the government, so that's why we went ahead and ordered both.  The FBI said it could take up to 8 weeks to receive theirs in the mail.

Now I am in the process of working on my dossier, which means sending each of my individual documents to the Secretaries of State in which they originated.  I am so happy to have a way to mail things here!  And to have a DPO address!  It takes only a week and a half to receive mail here as opposed to 3+ weeks with the diplomatic mail system we had in Taiwan.  That cuts the time in half!  So even though we have a lot of documents to mail back and forth from overseas it will definitely be a little easier with this system set in place.

It is turning fall in the States, but it is the "short rains" season here.  It rains a little bit every day and pretty much every night.  But it is very warm when the sun is out, so we spend a lot of time at the pool during the day when it is not raining.  We are decorating for Halloween.  Apparently Halloween is a big deal here on the compound, just like our neighborhood in Taiwan.  The kids are so excited and can't wait!

There is a lot of stuff going on here in Kenya.  The military here has gone into Somalia to push back AlShabaab, who keeps coming over the border and kidnapping people from Kenya.  The kidnappings are maddening, so although I hate war, I am happy that Kenya is standing up and defending themselves.
In fact, yesterday a helicopter flew over many times with this banner attached:  "Defending Kenya".

It was a good morale booster.  Go Kenya!

Today is a Kenyan holiday, Mashujaa Day.  Happy Heroes Day!