leveling the mountains

The local pastor prayer over our family of 4 on Sunday that God would make the crooked places straight and level all the mountains and smooth the rough places.  I held that prayer close to my heart these days since then.  On Monday we decided to hire a new lawyer and had a great meeting with him.  On our way home, there was a LOT of traffic on the main road so our driver took a side road through a village (some pictures on the prior blog are from there).  It was a great idea except for the fact that they were repairing that road.  The traffic was extremely slow there too and it was a lot dustier!  Something struck me as symbolic about that physical detour we took with those words still ringing in my ears. "He will make the crooked places straight and smooth the rough places" (this is from Isaiah).  I dared to hope that it could be a foreshadow of good things to come.  Tuesday we returned to the lawyers place and Wednesday as well.  By Wednesday we were asking...if we have gotten this much done in 3 days could we possibly make this work all in this one trip?  This guy is amazingly efficient...a VERY RARE quality in this country.  On Wednesday the entire country was concerned about the opposition leader returning to the country and everyone was poised near a radio wondering if the riots would break out any minute.  We, however, decided to head to our meeting w/the lawyer despite this situation and were rewarded by having almost NO traffic.  He actually needed some official documents from their hometown verifying the boys' orphan status  to be brought back to him so another miracle occurred. The chairman we needed to see was in his office and was able to write us the letters needed and officially stamp them and send us on our way.  Then we were able to take each guardian to her home and get their official ID cards so we could copy those to have on file.  Each woman invited me into her home and I was able to see where my babies used to live... I'll tell you about them in person.  John's home has 7 residents and 3 small rooms (kitchen, living rm, bdrm).  Benny's has 2 small rooms and 5 residents (both not including our boys in that count)

In short we have decided to stay here and see it through now.  We humbly ask for any support you feel you can offer.  Prayers and encouragement are wonderful as well as more tangible support as well.  love you all