traveling at the speed of a distracted snail

our new diggs

So we found out today that some of the good work that we did last week was a waste of time.  What a shock, I know I am stunned that we would have actually wasted our time on something here!  Last week we spent hours at a local chairman's office to get letters we needed proving residency and orphan status of the boys.  These letters were required in order to get official death certificates printed up, a US Embassy requirement. Births and deaths are rarely registered here as a rule.  Today we received a call from our lawyer.  When they requested the death certificates they were told the letters weren't done quite right and also there's another step required where we need to have the papers registered at the town office.  Seems simple enough if you live in the US.  We found the chairman in his office and he was his pleasure to help us again.  He knows the boys and their families and said he was once like they were and had no one to help him and if could help us in any other way to just let him know.  So that was great.  The trouble is that no one has had power all day.  As in not one store in town had power.  Try to imagine that and then you MAY realize how life is here and why no one is in a hurry.  Things literally cannot be accomplished and there's nothing you can do about it.  Our lawyer wanted us to drive all the way into the city to his office and pick up the forms but I asked if he could scan and email them which he did.  There was no point to that however since we can't print them out.  There is a print shop about 10 steps outside our gate but without power it is just a tease.  How does anything get done here you may ask...we ask that a lot too. the answer is very slowly if at all.

SIGH

The woman we are staying with has friends staying here as well.  They are staying inside the house (as opposed to we who are outside in a little apartment) and are really great people like our hostess is.  They left their life in England for a 6mo. commitment to come and support her work.  We a tired and discouraged but are not giving up. 
I have pix of the boys but am having trouble w/the internet so I will be thankful I can even do this much and call it a day.  It is nice to know you are there and that you care about us so far away from home.

"I was never much for roller coasters" or "Adoption take 2"

Couldn't decide which name to give this blog.  other than those 2, "opposed at every turn" "the truth is a rare and wonderful thing" "all's well that ends well" may have worked as well.  The lyric "you give and take away but my heart will choose to say Lord blessed be your name" is quite fitting for yesterday's experience.  All's well that ends well.  Our day ended well.

If you can recall a time when you could sense that you were getting personal attention from a being working against all the good you were trying to do, you can relate to our experience yesterday.  Witchcraft is quite rampant here.  A lot of darkness permeates the culture.  Child sacrifice is common as well as other unpleasant things.  Until you have been here, is seems cheesy to say you can feel the heaviness in the air, but you really can.

Yesterday we rode quite a roller coaster.  Church was great!  We went to the early service and were encouraged by the music and message.  We returned from church to our host saying he needed to talk to us and -in a non-direct way- asking us to leave his house.  Hours later after much stress that I honestly don't want to rehash... we were literally without a place to stay and had no prospect for the night except to walk down the street to a friend of Elizabeth's place and ask to stay.  I was not comfortable with this at all but it was literally our only option.  As we were walking (with Elizabeth- our 1 true ally here) around the corner from Elizabeth's house we were passing a beautiful property that I had admired last time we came to see Elizabeth.  In my heart, not out loud, I said "this place looks so nice I wish we could stay here." She intended to continue, but said something like "let's ask here.  this is a nice lady."  we knocked and a British woman opened up and invited us in.  We explained our somewhat desperate situation and she said she was pretty well booked up (she has several out buildings as well as her main house)  Her house is so beautiful.  Everything is quality and she is such a generous and dear person!  She and her husband had been living here for years and they have worked with orphans and the poor for all that time.  He recently passed and she is still here doing good.  I was holding back tears from our very stressful day and almost lost it when she said she'd move some things around and be happy to have us stay with her.  She didn't want to talk about price.  When we asked she replied, "just go and get your things and you can eat supper with us tonight."  The house felt so safe.  The air felt so light and clean.  We slept so peacefully.  HOORAY!! She's a missionary.  We talked about faith and prayed over our meal together.  God is good all the time.  more later.  off to feed the ever hungry boys

A family outing day

the power came back on just in time for us to watch the news...not the most encouraging thing to watch in any country but in a 3rd world country it makes you question yourself as to why you are still here!  [http://af.reuters.com/article/ugandaNews/idAFLDE74D05U20110514] please keep praying hard for our safety.  There is not a cure for this.  Yikes what a tough place to live!  Death is a part of life anywhere of course but here it is more like a way of life.  It is so sobering.  We watched a man get beat by a mob on the news tonight because some people thought he may have stolen a bike.  You watch the news and part of you wants to say how can these people be so violent etc. But them you see 50% unemployment and see where they live and how they must live just to survive and you instead ask, how would I act if I lived here since I was born?

While the house was being fumigated for mosquitoes today I took the boys to get new shoes.  They cost 14,000 shillings (or $7) for both pair together.  The boys were singing about their new shoes a few minutes later.  Translated the song went somethings like "I'm wearing the new shoes that mommy bough for me" this was chanted over and over with big smiles. 

We had good communication with out lawyer today and he emailed us the documents he had edited and corrected for us to look over.  Unfortunately we lost power soon after so hopefully we can finish editing them tomorrow and get them resigned Monday.  Please pray specifically that we will find the probation officer/social worker in his office and able to sign the papers we need signed. 

redeeming the time

wow I finally have access to the blog and the power is still on so here I go w/ a quick update.  I don't believe a day has gone by that we didn't lose power.  for all you sci-fi fans, you've heard the term "an interruption in the space-time continum."  Well that is pretty much how we feel.  Just the ups and downs hurry-up-and-wait-y-ness of it here is enough to drive you over the edge at times.  For example finding out there was something important we needed to do yesterday but we didn't find out til 5pm and since it was Friday afternoon we can't do anything about it until Monday.  Couple that with the heat and learning to be patient with 2 2yr olds who can't speak English.....and, yeah, there are some hard moments. 

Today we woke up w/3 mosquitos inside the net :( so pray against malaria!  I made pizza last night from scratch!  What a nice change!  Our diet here is about 80% starch (Pastor Scott, you'd love it here!)  The stuffed bunnies took their first bath yesterday.  Even w/o a dryer they turned out ok.  Our boys have a very hard time sharing, normal 2yr olds do, but people who have never had anything nice have an even harder time.  If you are getting gifts for them, a tip: duplicates in different colors is a great idea.  Meaning get one boy the green car and one boy the same car in blue etc.  They love toy cars, ride-on toys like a tricycle and playing outside kicking the ball around.  They are definitely going to need stuff to climb on and jump off of like a swingset/jungle gym etc. 

Even though we have a new lawyer who is very great, [for the curious: http://cms-advocates.com/] this will still be a huge miracle to have completed in just a few more weeks so continue to ask for miracle on our behalf!!  We have an appointment to apply for our visa ahead of the court date which is great news!  we are going early Wednesday AM for that (remember we're 7hrs ahead of you on the East coast) pray that every single necessary document is deemed acceptable and we can move forward with speed.  Also ask God that our lawyer will feel a strong sense of urgency and compassion for us because of our prior bad experience and will honestly do his very best to expedite our case. 

Also, we don't want to wear out our welcome with our hosts.  Pray for favor with them also.  They were pressed into service in a sense because they are related to the person we were originally going to be staying with but it was her 50th anniversary celebration the week we arrived and she had house guests.  They have a 4 yr old son (turning 5 in a few weeks) who is perhaps a bit sick of not being the baby and not getting his own way and having to share his toys etc.  He woke up grumpy this AM.  I can hear him whining right now as a type.  I'm sure it is hard for he and his sisters to have us here every day and also this is their last week of vacation before school starts up again for them.  Well it is 9am, time for breakfast. My boys woke up at 6:30 as they always do, but the maid doesn't serve until 9am. we usually  get food and serve ourselves but I wanted to write an update before we lose power which usually happens early on weekend days.

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

our day in pictures

there are several geckos who live in the house. they are well fed w/all the bugs

blue lizard

out Norm's window on the way to Kampala yesterday. they have machine guns w/tripods

sad little child in a slum near the city

thirsty?  coke sold here

still asleep early morning

too funny not to share w/you! "topless pub and pork takeaway"

Empty Handed

these soldiers are just a few meters from the end of our lane

armored car in Kampala. they shoot tear gas

our lodging. the top room is ours

So we met with our new lawyer today who is wonderful and just excellent and efficient and connected.  Our confidence in his abilities is very high and he is a huge answer to prayer.  We are not going to live in the past or feel regret etc.  We will return to Uganda to get the boys in a short time.  There were police and army personnel as well as armored vehicles out in full force in Kampala today.  Threats of riots and government shut down are imminent.  This is absolutely NOT a time to get anything done in a timely manner.  It doesn't make any sense to stay and keep not earning any income while waiting on a hope.  Our new lawyer could not give us a confident answer or any assurance that he could get a court date even if we extended the trip to the following week because of the political situation, so that is a pretty obvious closed door. Our original lawyer was promising things he had no way of delivering.

Elizabeth, the woman who found us the boys, will keep them at her house which is a great safe place.  It is nicer than many homes in the USA.  She has lots of space and is the mother of 10 and grandmother of several.  The family we are staying with is her daughter and son-in-law and 3 grandkids.  She is an elder at her church and a wonderful person who really loves these boys.  They know her and are very comfortable with her.  Also the 3 kids here whom the boys are great friends with are over at her house all the time since she is close by.  The boys will keep getting fed the great food and milk they have been getting since we arrived, so all is well.  We will SKYPE with them and be back in a matter of several weeks.