Passport, guesthouse, contractions....

OK...so a few things have happened since my last update! On Friday we went souvenir shopping all morning and then came back for a quick lunch before heading to the Immigration Office for the passport. We ran into Pastor Augustine in morning and he called the Director and he apologized for the passport not being ready on Thursday and assured us that it would be ready today. Praise God...we went in the office and it was ready and waiting for us! We were so excited...one more thing done and now just lodging to find (in 2 days!). When we were in the immigration office Brock was holding JP and a Rwandan man came up to us and said, "Your baby???" (with a puzzled look). We said, "yes, he is our boy!" The man started giggling and patting Brock on the shoulder and said, "Strange, very strange!" It was so funny...he could barely speak english, but he knew enough to make us laugh!!!
After getting the passport we continued the hunt for lodging in Kenya...it was not looking good and I am so thankful that Robin kinda took over the search for me using the internet and making the phone calls... We were starting to get a little nervous and yet I knew it would all work out eventually. We called a few places and there was no room for us anywhere. YIKES! At about 5:00 that evening we finally got through to a Methodist Guest House in Nairobi and they had room and the receptionist said that they are only 2-3 miles from the US Embassy. We were so relieved for God's provision of a place to stay. You can check it out online to see pictures...it looks really nice; a pool and a business center so I should have wireless internet so that I can try out the phone program on the laptop and hopefully talk to the kids soon. http://www.methodistguesthouseke.com/ Then today Robin was talking to a friend of hers telling her about it and her friend had actually stayed there before and said it was very nice. Praise God AGAIN!!!
Today JP was being kinda fussy..he has cut 2 teeth this week!!! So we left him here with Robin thinking he would take a good long nap while we went to the orphanage to pick up JP's immunization records. When we returned much later she said he only slept 20 minutes! Little goober!! She said he ate non-stop all day! I might need to get a part time job to cover the new grocery bill!
At the orphanage we asked how all the babies were doing and the sister said that they were all doing much better. It turns out it was NOT meningitis after all. The docotrs came to run the tests and it was something else entirely...some virus. A few babies went to the hospital but it sounded like it was more to prevent the spread to other kids.
After the orphanage we went to run a few errands and then we were going to visit Peter and Ruth at their home. When we got there we learned that Ruth had begun having contractions. She said they started earlier that day and that her water had dripped a little. I started timing her contractions and they were about 5 minutes apart and 30 seconds long. I told her that we should go pack her bag because it was almost time to go to the hospital.. By the time we got in the car to bring her to the hospital her contractions were about 2 minutes apart. You would not believe the condition of the roads we had to travel on to get to the hospital....I don't know how she handled all the bumps so well. She was quite a trooper. Just another evidence of God's perfect timing...if we did not visit her when we did she may not have had a ride to the hopspital. She had no idea she was ready to go to the hospital...we had to explain the timing of contractions and what it all meant. She is adorable with the most beautiful smile. I think instead of catching a church service we may go to the hospital to see the baby before our flight to Kenya.
We didn't get back home until 5:00 so poor Robin had JP all day with no nap! It's hard to believe we have only been gone a week...it feels much longer.

Passport problems...oh dear!

Hello everyone. Yesterday was a pretty relaxing day. We just hung out here at the house for most of the day until it was time to go pick up the passport. Pastor Augustine stopped by in the morning and he called the director of immigration to make sure that the passport was ready. He said is WAS! However, when we got there to pick it up they said it was not ready. GO FIGURE... We had dinner at Pastor Augustine's house last night and when I told him what happened he said he would take care of it today. So we are praying that the passport really will be ready today so that we don't have to change our flights! Also the guest house that told us yesterday morning that they had rooms and would hold one for us emailed last night to say that they had guests that wanted to extend their stay so they could not accomodate us after all. So we are back on the hunt for a place to stay in Kenya with 2 days to figure it out! I'm sure it will all fall into place and we will be exactly where God wants us to be. I think today we will go to the Genocide Memorial and of course to Immigration to get the passport and maybe there will be time for a little shopping. We will see. I guess that is all for now.

The latest...

Yesterday we left at 8:30 in the morning to go on a safari. It took 2 hours to get there and then it was a 4 hour loop through the game park. It was really cool. We saw water buffalo, giraffes, warthogs, hippos, baboon, velvet monkeys...etc. The giraffes were my favorite. JP was so good all day in the car. We didn't get home until after 7:00pm.
Today is the day we pick up JP's passport and we might go to the Genocide Memorial too.
A few things we have noticed about JP.....
He wants to be held 24/7
When he is tired he rubs and scratches his head
He is really smart...I will make a noise or a face and he will stare at me for a minute as I repeat a few times and then he does it.
He is tough too...he just whacked his head on the table and doesn't even cry...by the way daddy was in charge at that moment not me....
His feet are so small compared to his chubby body
He can sit up by himself but no crawling or standing yet, but I think he'll be crawling very soon.
He sucks on his pointer and middle finger when he is tired.
For those of you who might be concerned about the meningitis outbreak at the orphanage...let me try to set your mind at ease...They had viral meningitis which is usually not life threatening if treated properly. Yes, it is contagious however we have had JP for 5 days now and he continues to be the picture of health. The symptoms for viral meningitis in babies are...
fever and chills
NO interest in eating
lathargic
vomitting and diarehea
fussy when handled
JP is the polar opposite of ALL of these symptoms. The incubation period is usually a few days so if he was going to get sick...he should have started with at least one syptom by now. Also...Rich and Robin have over 30 years experience in nursing and they have commented more than once at how healthy he is...not even a diaper rash..his biggest problem is a little constipation! I hope that helps and that you can be assured that he is doing great and being monitored!
We just made our Kenya arrangements this morning. We will be staying at the Heart Lodge with the couple we met the other day. They gave us the brochure and when we called they still had room! YIPPEE!

God's perfect timing!

It is now Wed morning and we are going to go on safari today since we have no adoption paperwork to do. I’m so excited!!! JP is such a good baby. He sleeps through the night and is very happy and playful. He is so funny…he can be laughing one minute and then turn very serious the next.

One other thing I forgot to mention was how God’s timing was so perfect. When we met up with the other couple at immigration yesterday they told us that the babies at the orphanage were suffering from an outbreak of meningitis. It seemed like such a quick decision at the time to only have 3 days to get ready to travel but now we know why. It is very possible that if we had not left when we did…JP could have become VERY sick. Just another example of how God’s timing is PERFECT!!!

A Whirlwind of activity!

Well here we are only 5 days from flying to Kenya and we still do not know where we will be staying....a little stressful...yeah! We are looking into a guest house that we heard about from another couple that is here adopting a baby boy. Actually we leave on the same flight to Kenya on Sunday. I met her at the immigration office this afternoon. The funny thing is that I had been in contact with her before through an adoption chat room and here we are in Africa at the same time and maybe we will spend 2 weeks together in Kenya if this particular guest house has room. I wish I could tell you everything that has happened in the past 24 hours but I’m sure I would bore you to tears so I will just say that we spent ALL day driving from one office to another trying to fulfill each demand of the minister and immigration. It was not looking good last night and I think I prayed most of the night instead of sleeping. There were some loose ends that needed tying up and it seemed there was noone willing to do any tying. There are only 2 notaries to certify documents in ALL of Rwanda and one of them was sick and the other has been on maternity leave for the last month or so and they were not expecting her back at all this week!!! As Brock and Robin were talking to the receptionist who was unsympathetic at the time…he began to pray…within minutes this woman not only became sympathetic but she made a way for us to have the documents taken care of the next day! There are so many other stories and I hope that over the next few days I can journal them all to remember all the amazing things God has done in these past 24 hours. As it stands we have everything complete! We were told this afternoon by the director of immigration to come back on Thursday to pick up JP’s passport. We then will have a few days rest and then it is off to Kenya to see what craziness awaits there!

A belly laugh and some more hurdles to jump!

We had a great day with JP yesterday and we had decided to tell the sister that we were concerned about the sickness of the other babies and would prefer to bring him home with us to sleep. When we got there...you could hear the babies wailing! Brock and Rich went down to where the babies are and two of the sisters had babies out in the hall and were putting IVs in them. Apparently many of the babies had a virus or something that is causing vomitting and diarhea and were in danger of dehydration. Praise God we got JP out of there before he got sick too. He slept all night long sucking 2 of his fingers! We even got him smiling a little yesterday. Today I was able to get giggles and 1 big belly laugh! We had a very busy morning going to all the offices to try to complete paperwork. We ran into a few problems where God intervened within minutes and now we have run into another issue with immigration (concerning the passport). They are back to saying they need the paperwork from the minister before they will start processing it. We are fervently praying that the minister's office will be able to give us the document tomorrow so that the passport will be done in time for our flight this weekend. We have tried to call a few times and will continue to try throughout the day. I heard that Rich was able to send a picture to the pastors at church and that they showed it on the big screen on Sunday! He thought that my picture went through the day before. So Rich apologizes to friends and family who do not attend Grace Capital and have not seen a picture yet. We wil try again to send a few more pictures. JP says DA DA DA. We just heard from the woman at the minister's office and there is hope...but I have an hour to be the vessel for God to work another miracle...I'll let you know how it goes.

Day 2 with JP!

Hello all...it is about 1:00pm here in Rwanda and we went this morning to the orphanage to spend some time with JP. We waited about 10 minutes and finally the guard went to go find a nun. Within minutes a nun came up the stairs with JP. She handed him to me and he didn't cry!!! We decided to take him back to Rich and Robin's house because apparently a bunch aof the babies are sick and we didn't want him getting sick. He snuggled me the entire ride back to the house. We fed him a bottle and he inhaled it in about a minute...seriously!!! He continued to snuggle for quite a while on the couch and he seemed tired so we tried to put him to bed but he wanted no part of that. I wanted to change his clothes as they seemed too small for him and they were flowery girls pants and a yellow flowered shirt with a girly collar. =) So he cried a little while I changed his clothes and put on a disposble diaper. We were able to distract him with some toys for a while. He seemed to be itchy so we gave him a bath and he LOVED it. After his tubby we rubbed lotion all over him and he played with a little toy and began to coo and really come alive a little bit. He even smiled a few times. What a great day and what an easy baby. I cannot get over how chubby he is. The sister asked us to return around 5:30 so that they could get him settled back in before their time of prayer, but Brock and I decided to tell them that since we had such a successful day of bonding with him we would feel more comfortable keeping him with us so that he does not get exposed to any sickness. We are praying that they don't have a problem with that. He is beautiful as everyone has said. So far he doesnt smile easily but when he does it's adorable. Take care...I'm sure you'll be hearing from me soon. Oh...by the way when we got to London I got an email from Peter saying that he went back AGAIN to the immigration office and this time they let him submit the paperwork!!!!! Praise God. We head tomorrow morning to all the different offices to get all paperwork completed.

Heading back to see JP...

Today is Sunday and we are getting ready to go back to the orphanage in time to feed JP and spend a few hours...if things go well we may bring him back to Rich and Robin's later this afternoon for a few hours. I think I will have him sleep another night or two at the orphanage before we take him for good. The orphanage is very willing to let us go at any pace that is comfortable to us and JP. So we are praying like crazy that today he gets a little more comfortable with us and can relax and be at peace. It's hard to know when to back off and when to try to be the one to comfort him. It's a good thing we have a week here to get aquainted before we take off. I will write more later to let you know how things went today with JP.

Greetings from Rwanda!

We arrived Saturday morning at 8:30 and after getting settled at Rich and Robin's we couldn't wait any longer and hopped in the car to go see our boy! When we arrived at the orphanage Sister Gracias was out front and we told her that we were here to see JP. At first she said..."John Paul???? He is adopted." Talk about slight panic....but I realized that we hadn't introduced ourselves so I said I am his mom. She just laughed and said,"Oh, yes I remember you.!" PHEW!!! She asked us to wait in a small room while she went to get him. It was probably only 10 minutes but it felt like an hour! I think she was putting nice clothes on him and getting him cleaned up. We finally saw her approaching and JP was clinging to her. His face was buried in her neck so we could barely see him. She came right to me and said, "John Paul...Here is your mommy." And of course I got all teary as she handed him to me and he snuggled right onto me gripping my shirt with one hand and my hair with the other. Even his feet were clinging to me as he wrapped himself around my waist. Robin got a picture of us. After about 5 minutes of snuggling he began to cry and he seemed a little scared so I gave him back to Sister Gracias and he snuggled onto her and was asleep in no time. We left and came home for a nap and some lunch. As much as I wanted to bring him back with us I also didn't want him to be afraid. I have to remind myself that I am a stranger to him. It's hard to pull back after waiting so long to hold him and kiss his sweet cheeks.

Travel accomodations...or lack there of!

So we arrived at Nairobi Airport in the evening in time to have a leisurely dinner in the airport and try to get comfy for the night (or so we thought!). We gathered all our luggage and the huge box with a TV as a gift for Peter and then proceeded to the counter to hopefully check our bags for the flight in the morning so that we would not have to lug them around the aiport with us. We decided to not get a hotel for the night as we were too afraid that something would happen to prevent us from making the early flight to Kigali in the morning. So we planned to sleep (sort of) in the airport! Well, the gentleman at the ticket counter advised us to not check our bags as they would be "unattended" all evening. OK...bumor #1...so we agree to keep all the bags, crib and tv with us. He then says that we cannot check in this early, we would have to wait until morning..I think to myself...OK whatever....bumor #2!
Then I ask him to tell me the quickest way to The Java House, which is a "restaurant" in Nairobi airport that is known for their great sandwiches and milkshakes! YUM...we are really hungry! Bumor #3 comin up...He informs us that we cannot go into the terminal without our tickets and we can't get our tickets until morning! Brock and I just looked at each other both of us thinking the same thing...."This is going to be a VERY long night." So fortunately I had packed a box of 6 energy bars! So we each had 2 peanut butter energy bars with no drink for dinner! Not quite the dinner I was hoping for but I was already thinking that this would make a great story to tell everyone back home! We found some very hard plastic chairs to get cozy on. My cousin, Amy made us pack 2 small pillows in our bag when she heard that we would be sleeping at the airport. Thank goodness we did...they came in handy as I sat and leaned forward on top of the big TV box to lay my head. Brock and I would sort of take turns sleeping... At one point brock woke up and nudged my arm and pointed to the ground next to him. I laughed out loud when I saw an African man laying on the floor using Brock's pillow! Brock must have dropped it and this guy took the opportunity to put it to good use! Well after a pretty sleepless night, we did get our boarding passes and checked our bags and finally made our way to the Jave House for some coffee and pastries while we waited for the flight to Kigali to start boarding.

London!

We arrive in London and meet up with my cousin Amy and her boyfriend Matty. They drive us about 2 hours to their house outside of London. What fun to get to hang out with my Amy Lynn for the night before we head to Nairobi in the morning! Of Course they would not allow us to visit England even for 1 night and not experieince a real English pub. So to the pub we went! After our visit at the pub we went back to Amy's and had a bite to eat before getting some sleep. We called the kids from the laptop and it worked great...what a cool feature. And what a blessing to be able to call the kids from so far away and it's free!!! Thanks Bob!

Rwanda, here we come!

Oh my goodness...ok, so after about a week of Peter going back and forth from the minister's office to immigration we have come to the conclusion that we need to get there to receive the travel document. The immigration office will not start the passport without the travel document and the only way to get the travel document is to get it ourselves. So...after a bit of a crazy morning trying to schedule flights we are set to leave on Thursday! I have 3 days to get organized, packed and get my kids schedules all made up for my in-laws who will be taking care of them while we are gone, with the help of some dear friends who will assist with rides to and from school and of course all their sports, etc. I can hardly believe it...in just a few days I will meet my JP and get to kiss him all over!

So confusing!

OK...I will try to help you understand what has been happening although I'm not sure I understand it myself. I should start by saying that Peter was told the other day (I guess) from someone in the immigration office that it would be OK to start the passport process without the final letter from the minister's office. This final letter is called the travel document or the "To Whom it May Concern..." letter. So Peter went to immigration today and they looked at all the documents that we had and they said that we are only missing one...the travel document! They told him that they need that document before they will even begin the passport process! He immediately took JP to the minister's office. Unfortunately, the woman he has been dealing with was not there, she was attending a meeting. He called her and she said again that she will not give him the final paper until the adoptive parents arrive. She said for him to call her again tomorrow as she was going to check again with the other people who work with her regarding this policy. So tomorrow we will hopefully have a definitive answer and we pray that they will give the travel letter to Peter so that we can start the passport process before we arrive so that we don't have to be away from home for such a long time. It could be a month or longer if we have to wait 2 weeks for a passport in Rwanda and 2 weeks for the visa in Kenya! I'm praying for peace!

Passport pictures!

Ok...I'm not sure if you enjoy Peter's words as much as I do but here is what I received today...I cling to every word he shares about how JP reacts and responds to people and his surroundings. I stare at his picture and imagine how it will feel to finally have him in my arms!

"JP is doing well. He seems to be joyful these days! Today I took him for passport photos, you know I had wanted to take express photos. As we were in th studio, he refuse to show his face so that a cameraman to take photos. He feared the big lamps which I think he not very much used to. As I was deciding to take him back and find someone with a cameraman so that to take picture at home, I sat a while with him watching cars as they were passing by, behold the baby was very excited about that and I called a cameraman to come and he took photos but not the express ones. Because these always take some time waiting for them, I was not able to go to immigration today since they only receive documents in the morning hours. But I have paid the money for passport and I have a receipt with me. Tomorrow I will be taking JP directly to the immigration. I also called the minister's office and was told that they cannot allow me to receive the final paper from their office. In order to get the final paper, you will be the one to come and receive the papers. She said that this will not take more than two days."

These final steps are a little confusing and we are just trying to do whatever these offices tell us to do. It is quite difficult as we do not have anything to guide us as we are going about this on our own, but God has been so good and we have seen His hand on this journey even though we feel as though we are "flying blind" at times, He is our light and we trust Him to lead us!

The next phase

Peter has gotten the papers from the court today! He paid for 2 originals, one for immigration to begin the passport process and one for the minister's office. Now he needs to take the papers from the court to the notary and he will do it on Monday. Then he will need to have JP's birth certificate translated into English. He is planning to go to immigration on Monday to inquire about the passport process.

Praise God!

Again, you need to read Peter's words for yourself...they are precious...
"It is amazing to see how God is doing things on his own! Today we went to the court and they were able to sit as a council for our case. It is now OK. The president ordered that we get the paper we needed by tomorrow! Oh, what a wonderful God we serve! I will go and pick the letter tomorrow! Also, my lawyer friend suggested that I take him to see JP. He just wants to see him! You know he was very thankful to the Lord for His plan for JP to receive a family."

I am so humbled by the generosity of these men who are giving of their time and resources to help our family. The body of Christ is an amazing thing to behold! I am amazed at how the Lord can bond people together when they have never even met! I am now connected to my brothers and sisters in Africa, what a mighty God we serve!

A message from the courts!

Today Peter received a message from his lawyer friend that they were needed at the court. They went there immediately. There were "some papers which they could not see as they were examining our documents." These were Peter's words and I'm not quite sure what that means but they were told to come back tomorrow!

The meeting at the court...

Well actually there wasn't much of a meeting at all. Peter and the lawyer went to their scheduled appointment yesterday but the president of the court was not there and they connot make any decision without him since he is the chairman of the council, so they told Peter to come back on Monday because it it the only day they meet for that kind of case. UGH...MORE WAITING!