2nd Congo Trip-Worth a Long Blog Post!

I need to reflect on the last few weeks and record all that has transpired. Partly because it’s awesome stuff that I don’t want to forget, but more importantly, because I need to give God the glory and praise He is due! I just got back from Congo for the second time, yesterday. And I have a big Remembrance Stone to set in the ground and talk about!

For months, we have been talking about making another trip to Congo, to visit our kids and hopefully to file our i600 at the US Embassy in Kinshasa, because the processing time there is potentially months speedier than filing in the US. We had just been waiting to have all our documents in order so we could plan the trip. These past 14 months of waiting to be able to file our i600 have been very difficult. It’s so hard to wait, but it’s especially hard when you aren’t making progress during the wait. It feels like the days you could be having with your children are being ripped from you. The months of not really knowing how they are doing frequently tempted me to fear and worry. But through this very difficult season, God has been so good. He has encouraged me on my darkest days when joy was hard to find, given me hope when I was tempted to fear the worst-case-scenarios, and taught me to trust Him, when circumstances around me are looking their grimmest.

While we waited and waited, our agency decided to shut down. This threw us another curve ball in the form of two months of just praying and trying to figure how to proceed with an independent adoption. We made a leap of faith and chose to stick with our attorney that our former agency had been using. Within days of choosing to do so, the Lord gave us peace and confirmation through His word, and other believers, that we should “stay the course” and trust Him to finish this. We also have been greatly blessed by the man who is now running our children’s orphanage. We have had better communication, more clear advice and direction, and increased assurance of how our kids are actually doing, than we ever had with our former agency. He has been a tremendous blessing to the children under his care, and to us as he has been the middle-man in all our communications with our attorney, out of the goodness of his heart and love for the kids.

After deciding to stay the course, we also decided we needed to make a trip as soon as possible. We are headed back to the US for 6 months in November and have a crazy busy schedule up until we go…but we carved out a week that we could both go to Congo and prayed everything would fall into place to make it possible. We were able to get our invitation letter from the Congo (kind of a miracle mailing something from there to India and getting it on time J ) and Kit flew up and back to Delhi to get our visas on the last possible day he could go before the trip. The week before we left, I randomly met another adoptive mom on FB whom we share a very good mutual friend with and found out they were arriving in Kinshasa the same exact day to visit their child and file their i600! This news encouraged my heart so much! Our God not only provides what we need, but He blesses far beyond all that we can imagine. But the God-designed appointments didn’t stop there.

Our sweet friends who live in a nearby city offered to take care of our boys while we were gone. It’s tough to leave your kids for 6 days, but especially when you live in a foreign country and are traveling a continent away! We were so grateful as we love and trust them so much. We knew the kids would have a blast and this made both of us going, so much easier. We arrived on a Monday afternoon and the plan was for the kids to come to us and stay with us for three days. We would meet with the attorney during that time frame and see the status of all our paperwork (we honestly didn’t know what he even had in his possession). Well, no one showed up for a while and we began to worry. But that wonderful man who runs our kids orphanage, he let us know they would be arriving that evening to meet with us. The kids didn’t come with, which worried me at first, but it ended up being a great meeting. Our attorney had ALL of our court documents, and while several of them had some errors, he was certain he could get them corrected and translated in time for us to file our i600 that week! We were hopeful and excited! Our kids came the next morning and we all walked across the road to the Embassy. We didn’t have an appointment to file (which you need in advance J)  but were hopeful they would squeeze us in sometime during the week. Unfortunately they couldn’t get us in until the following Monday morning and we were scheduled to leave on Friday at noon. So we decided to set the appointment and wait to change our tickets after we were sure we had everything in order to file. To file your I600 in country is a series of applications, court documents to prove your child is an orphan by US law, that our adoption has been finalized in Congolese courts, and a bunch of other things like birth certificates and marriage license, etc. It’s a LOT of paperwork and while we had a good idea of what we needed to supply, we had a lot of questions and confusion to go with it.

The couple we met, who arrived the same day to meet their child and file their i600, was not only great company, but a big help to us too. They filed their i600 and not only told us how it went, but offered us a very detailed checklist to go off of. Their agency’s Congo program director also arrived that day and not only knows her way backwards and forwards through this process, but freely gave us lots of helpful advice and answered all our questions! As each ‘coincidence’ unfolded, I was assured that our planning our trip this particular week was God’s perfect timing and that He was with us!

While our kids didn’t end up getting to stay the nights with us while I was there, they came each morning and spent the day with us until about 8pm. They were incredibly shy around others in the beginning, but as soon as we got in our room, they began to jabber away with each other and to us in Lingala and their lively personalities came out. We were so happy with how at ease they were with us in privacy. We played, colored (their first time to hold crayons), did puzzles, read books (they are great at mimicking and I’m sure will learn English so quickly!), and played a lot of football and Frisbee outside. They quickly figured out which bag was “theirs” and every time we went back into our room that first day, Tirzah tried on a new outfit! She is a girly girl for sure! Jeremiah LOVES soccer and is impressively skilled for his age. That’s not just a mamma talking! He and his “Papa” really bonded over soccer. They also called us Mamma and Pappa right away! They loved looking at the picture book we brought to show them pictures from our last trip and of their brothers. Each night was hard to say goodbye and as we did, we could see them get very reserved again and timid. I’m sure, even with all the explaining, it’s a confusing situation for them. But my biggest hope for this trip was that J & T would feel loved and have hope and assurance that we ARE coming back for them!

Another awesome God-incidence was in meeting three other adoptive parents who were just passing through for two days, on their way back from visiting their kids in a more remote area of Congo. They were a blessing to talk with and story swap. There is a lot of comfort found in knowing you are not alone in the hardship you’re going through. One of these parents is a pediatrician and offered to examine our kids! Besides a few minor things, she said they were in very good health! This report and seeing the well-fed kids at their orphanage were very reassuring. They are being well cared for while we all wait and seeing that with my own eyes gave me some peace in my heart. Even while we are so far, God is watching over them, answering our constant prayers for their wellbeing!

Thursday afternoon we met again with our attorney, who had ALL of our documents corrected! We needed a few more things translated, but had until Monday to get it done, so we decided Kit would stay and I would return back to India as originally planned. Getting his ticket changed wasn’t fast, but ended up being very reasonable. I had a good trip back and a great reunion with my boys! They had an awesome week with their friends but were ready to come home. We’ve been just lounging around enjoying our time together and the boys were able to skype with their brother and sister to “meet” for the first time! J and J pretty much made funny faces at each other the whole time. They are going to have a lot of fun together!

Jeremiah and Tirzah have been able to spend the weekend with Kit and enjoy some extra time with their Papa. I have to say of my husband, he is one amazing guy! I mean, obviously I already know this, but this past week he was so awesome with the kids, with the attorneys, getting our documents all in order and forms filled out (sometimes repeatedly), changing his work schedule around so he could stay a few more days, and now even taking care of the kids day and night on his own (this is no easy job especially when you can’t speak the same language as your kids!) I could NOT have done this trip alone and got anything accomplished. I am forever grateful for this man and more in love with him after this week than ever! I am sure he will have his own stories to write about and share after this weekend J

Tomorrow morning, Monday, is the big day in which he will file our i600 for our kids! I seriously can’t believe it is even possible, but like I said, only our God can “work all things together for our good”, and “do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or imagine!” So while I am a little nervous about what tomorrow brings, I know He has clearly led us to this day and event and I trust that He will continue to lead us every step of the way. The last couple weeks have affirmed again, what He has continued to affirm for the last 2 ½ years of this adoption process. He put this desire in our hearts, He has planned for J & T to be adopted into our family, and He will see this through! Please pray for a smooth and favorable filing appointment tomorrow. Please pray the Congolese immigration begins issuing exit letters for US adopted children miraculously soon! And for the hundreds of families who are like us, so desirous to see an end to this long adoption process and the beginning of a life with our children at home, in loving families!