A babysitter

Anyone know of a good babysitter - Reliable, responsible and energetic????

We want him to get used to someone right away. And get used to us going out and knowing that we are coming back. (That it is ok)

By the way, What do you pay babysitter these days??

Sleeping Like a Baby

We just got back from Calgary. It only took two hours for Marcy and Irakoze to get through customs and immigration. I think I wore a grove in the spot on the floor in the airport in anticipation of them coming through the doors. When they finally did what a wave of relief that washed over me seeing them. Then Marcy stopped and showed Irakoze his papa and as soon as he saw me he ran to me with his arms open, right into my arms (we caught the moment on tape. The first restraunt on Canadian soil was Boston Pizza, and it took about 5 minutes in the car and he was asleep :) Marcy soon thereafter. Sooooo Good to have them home!

All your prayers were much appreciated!

Not maybe, but DEFINITELY SATURDAY!!!!!!!

We are leaving tomorrow. I am SO glad. Now I really feel like he is our son, since I can come to Canada with him. We are so blessed as a family. :)

Maybe, possibly Friday ?!?!????

Maybe, You never know, have to wait and see!! Fingers and toes crossed. :)
They are doing an investigation today and tomorrow to make sure we didn't BUY him. Yeah, that's right. But you know what there are retarded people out there who do such things. Heard of one just this week. And it's because of these people why I can't go home.
I will find out tomorrow if we can go home this Fri. :)

Happy Father's Day Back at You

Thank you my love. Wish I was here or there as well. Miss you guys so very much!

I guess I should be wishing you a Happy Father's Day as at the moment you are both Mama and Papa. As a Father's Day present I long for nothing more than to have you and Irakoze being back here in Canada with me very soon.

I thank God for you Marcy, for your courage and strength, and your love.

Love you both! I will keep the prayer candle burning.

Happy Father's Day, Papa!!

Wish you were here or we were there. Probably the latter :)
Have a Great Day - Love you!
And to all the other Father's out there.

This one's for you honey!!

I never thought that I would miss you this much. You are truly my soulmate and helpmate, and love of my life. I love you with all of my heart and I love our family!! I will get through this, but not easily without you. As I type this, I am running after our son every second word, because he is getting into everything on this desk. (he just threw a roll of masking tape on the keyboard and the page disappeared.) - I know that you are laughing, because you know exactly what I am talking about. Oh, now he closed the little gate , I chased him ,and he is cracking up laughing. Now he is picking up the phone. Anyways, I need to go!!!!!
Everyone else, this is why I won't be going on the internet. lol
Mike- I am more in love with you everyday because you are such an awesome papa. You all know that Mike is a man of few emotions. But having a son has brought out many different sides and emotions from him. The son shines out of his son for him. I never had to say "pay attention to your son", "spend some time with your son"
Mike you are a great papa!! He loves and misses you so much!! :) He is always talking on the "phone" to papa.
I love you and see you soon :)

Faith was there, but it didn't happen

I had faith today that the visa would come through and that we could all come home tonight. We packed all of our bags, including mine and Irakoze's to be ready for the phone call to come. But it never did. The official's and God did not see fit. But that's ok, we will continue to press through. It will be tough to handle business with a very busy toddler, but we'll be ok.
Thank you for all your concerns, well wishes and offers to help.
Please just keep praying. They say that our file is moving, but still will give us no timeline.
Mike leaves in 1 hour. You can contact him for more of an update. Because I may not be on the internet much. I use it in a office and my son is mr. picky fingers. :)
We will be ok. Hopefully, we'll leave soon!!

Such a sad day!!

It has been a day of sadness and crying. We are supposed to fly home tomorrow. But, Mike is just flying home tomorrow. And I don't know how long I will be here. That's right, I am flying solo as a single mom for awhile. Mike has been a mess all day. He is worried about us. Irakoze will miss him so much(as will I). He is a Papa's boy. He will be looking for him everywhere.
We have become such a family unit. And I love my family. I couldn't imagine it any other way. :)
He is a wonderful little boy. He is changing everyday. He has come so far, with listening to us and behaving nicely. He has become such a little man. He is so thoughtful and so, so loving. I probably receive 30+ kisses and hugs a day. He shares, he helps with laundry, after putting on his shoes, he goes and gets Papa's and then Mama's. I am tearing up as I type this. I wouldn't love a birth child any more than I love him. He IS OUR SON!!!
Well, I won't be able to get to internet much with Mike being gone. Irakoze is such a busy little kid, and it is hard to get him to sit still.
Take care and please keep praying.

God Made Them All, And They Were Good!

OK Nola this is just for you so that you have something to read before you go to bed :)

We are at a new location. We are at the Karen Holiday Guest Home and it is so different from where we were. We were at the heart of the city, but now we are out in the boonies...literally. (No pics to attach at this time but it is so beautiful). It is a Catholic owned and run facility. There are 7 cottages (huge houses with five rooms and tons of room) each with huge yards, individually fenced, on a contained street, and the whole compound is then surrounded by a wall and electric fence. It is in an exclusive area and I must say it is very impressive. Presently we have a whole cottage to ourselves although we expect that sooner or later we will have house mates as people, groups arrive daily. Lots of room for Jaxon to move around inside and out.

Today we went to the Giraffe Center which is just down the road and it was amazing. There were nine giraffes in a 40 acre treed area and an observation/feeding deck. We stood on the observation deck and hand fed alfalfa pellets to giraffe. You see them in zoos and such but this was an amazing up-close and personal experience. They are such incredible creatures. So beautiful! And God made them so graceful (despite the way Madigascar may represent them :))
We went on a bit of a nature walk to see a couple of giraffe in the jungle. We walk through some trails in search of these giraffe but all we ended up seeing are a lot of trees, giraffe poo, and bugs. Other than that we got lost for a spell but it was a beautiful walk.

We are holding up well. We thank for this new facility to stay in, it truly is a blessing.
Bless you all and, GOOOOOODDD NIGHT FROM KENYA!

Mosquitos LOVE me!!!

Why I don't know, but they love me. Besides berry picking with my mother, this is the most mosquito bites I have had. I have a couple on each foot, a couple on each leg, a couple on my waist, several on my back, 3 or 4 on each shoulder, 3 or 4 on each arm, several on my chest,several on my fingers, several on my toes, etc, etc.
It was kind of funny; when we were coming to Africa and laded in Nairobi, Kenya, there were mosquitoes in the airport, and then when we boarded the plane to go to Kigali, Rwanda; mosquitos got on the plane with us.
It seems like they come out at night (of course). As soon as I get asleep, they start buzzing in my ears. And I start smacking myself in my head trying to kill them. But, no they keep buzzing - AND I CANNOT SLEEP. So I turn on the light to try and kill them and Mike says, "what are you doing?"
And I explain that I cannot sleep. So last night after turning on the light, trying to kill them, and had no success, I tucked the blankets around me like a cocoon, and put a pillow over my head. Within minutes, I couldn't breathe, I made a little hole for my mouth. And then I thought what if the mosquitoes give me lots of bites on my lips and I end up looking like Angelina Jolie, or worse Lisa Rhinna. lol It would be cheaper than botox, I guess. lol!!
Mosquitos are just another thing than Kenya has more of than Rwanda. Kenya has more mosquitoes, more people, more traffic, everything cost more, etc. (Nairobi alone is 3 times the size of Calgary. ) Kenya is no Rwanda, and Rwanda is no Canada. They are just all different with good points and neg. points. it surely opens your eyes, that's for sure.

Thanks Nola for making those calls!
Irakoze likes to build things and sort things. He will sit for an hour taking large leaves and putting small leaves inside. He is very curious.

It's a Good Thing God Is In Control!

Sorry it has been a while since our last update but other than waiting for news there has been nothing really to report.
Well, yesterday we got in to see someone from immigration and the short of it is that she took some more info and told us she would read our file and let us know what they would do today. Well when she called this afternoon and said she did not have time to look at it, maybe Monday. The short of it again is that we were supposed to fly home tomorrow and now we are not. Have to change our flight again.

It is a good thing God knows what is happening and is in control because it is enough to drive someone around the bend.

Thanks for all your prayers and please pray that the visa will get passed early next week.

Love You All!

Happy Birthday!

Well, it's Irakoze's birthday today. Not really, but it is. lol
The staff brought a birthday card and a decorated cake with his name on it to our room. The name on the cake was Daniel. His name is Irakoze Daniel. The staff here find Irakoze too hard so they call him Daniel. Why Africans would have a hard time with an African name is beyond me?? lol
And we call him Irakoze. (This is one that he knows) And then when we get home we will probably call him Jaxon. The poor kid - so confusing.

All of the staff here "oh and ah" over him. He is such a friendly kid. He wants to wave and shake hands with everyone. He just loves the attention. He will run up to even the guards (who are carrying guns) and want to get up with them. It is funny. But then he wants back with mama and papa.

So we sang happy birthday and ate cake. He liked the cake but not the icing. Funny kid!

Heads up

Hey guys, it has been a laid-back day here on this Saturday. The shopping at the market was pretty painless :) There was lots of really nice stuff that there was no way we could have brought it home on the plane though.

Just a quick heads up. We got a message from the lady at the MP's office telling us that she has been in contact with the immigration side of things here in Nairobi and that she is doing all that she can for us. We ask that those who have and are thinking about calling her on our behalf (which we are so thankful for friends and family who care enough to do this for us) to please let her do her job. We will let you know if it comes to the point of having to call in. But again thanks for caring. We appreciate you all and we know that you have our backs there at home.

The time difference here is 9 hours. It is 9 pm here right now and it is noon back home in Alberta.

Bless you all, and we can't wait to be home with you all again.

Distractions, Distractions

As Marcy said we are here in Nairobi and it was a rough beginning. Actually it starteds the day we left Rwanda and carried forward.
OK nobody laugh but as we were leaving the house that we had been staying in we were half way down the road in our cab when Marcy said "Oh, we didn't get a picture of where we stayed." So being the good husband that I am we turned the cab around. I just finished taking the pictures when I stepped backward and all of a sudden there was nothing under my foot (definitely a KodaK moment) and down I went into a trough about three feet deep that runs down the length of one side of the street. One foot in the ditch and the other planted firmly on top. I was a little scraped up but the scary part was that I heard popping and crunching in my knee that wasn't in the ditch. I walked away but all day my knee got stiffer and stiffer and I thought for sure that I tore ligaments and tendons. Well today I did a little hobbling but knee seems to be working well Praise God.
The drive through Nairobi to the hotel was like driving in a traffic jam with a tube hooked from your mouth to the exhaust. It was unreal!! But then as Marcy wrote there were a number of unreal moments in our day yesterday. We did get most of our money back from that scam of a hotel we started at yesterday. I had my doubts.
Apart from the trip to the Canadian Embassy, today was pretty laid back. Please pray for Jaxon as he has picked up a little bit of a sniffle (didn't know the human body could hold that much snot) and adjusting to the time change after our crazy day yesterday.
It is all in God's hands! He is above any power here on Earth. All things are possible with God!!!
Pray for me as tomorrow there is a special market set up here at the hotel (which they do only once a year). Marcy currently has all our cash in her purse. ENOUGH SAID! Just kidding we saw them setting up and it looks like some really nice stuff. We could use the distraction tomorrow. Well it is good night from Nairobi, and good afternoon to you all.

GOD BLESS YOU ALL!

We're in Nairobi

Well, we are in Nairobi, Kenya. Bev, we may need to call upon the bank of Kurt yet. LOL
Because Immigration is threatening to keep us here for 6 months, they said the minimum for 3 months. I know!!! Rediculous! Please pray hard. :)

What a night! A travel agent at the airport got us a hotel. It was gross and disgusting. And on top of that, we were coughing, couldn't breathe, eyes burning, and it felt like I was swallowing gasoline or something worse. We asked the personnel at the hotel and they said "oh, that's tear bomb gas"
The police were fighting with people, and trying to catch them and throwing tear gas bombs. We're not in Canada anymore. It was scary. The hotel was something that you would pay $40 in Canada and it was $150U.S. I know crazy! I was wiping everything down with lysol wipes. But we couldn't handle the pain in our throats. Irakoze was coughing too. We left. We paid for 8 nights, and don't know if we will get any money back.
Now, we are safe, healthy and happy, but for a much larger cost. The cost of living is INSANE.

Please pray for safety, peace, and URGENCY!!!

Things are moving

Things are moving here. Not in our time, but in God's time. It's hard, isn't it.
I was reading in the Bible a couple of days ago: "my ways are not your ways, my thoughts are not your thoughts... my ways are higher than your your ways, my thoughts are higher than your thoughts."
A Rwandan man here said "You don't need God in America, you have everything. We need God everyday. He is our daily helper. We call on God everyday. And eventhough you pray everyday, you don't REALLY rely on Him."
This has really struck Mike and I, because it is true. And we are brought back to the basics here with less distractions. We are really learning to rely on Him everyday as our daily helper. We give Him the day and ask Him to help us handle whatever may come our way.

We went for Irakoze's medical today. He screamed when he got blood taken. It was such a big needle. Then they gave us a cup and told us to go get a urine sample. I looked at her with an odd look on my face, and asked "how do I do that? She replied, "get him to pee in the cup"
How do you get a 22 month old to pee in a cup? He may not even need to pee, and all he knows is peeing in a diaper. Well, Mike pulled down his diaper and held the cup under him. He screamed and screamed!! So Mike held him, and I held the cup under him. He continued to scream for 10 very long, loud minutes. I was praying, "Lord, please help him pee!!" Mike said, "let's just go". I kept praying and then Mike was praying. I called upon our helper!! "Lord please help him pee"
And then he peed. It was a simple thing, but not to us. It was an answer to prayer. I did not want to come back another day. (another day wasted). What takes a couple of hours in Canada, it takes 2 - 3 days here. We then had to go for x-rays. He stood there so brave and was so good. It was a tough day for him. The x-ray results were all good. Now we are going back to get the results from the blood and urine tests.

We were supposed to come home this Fri. As it looks right now, it probably won't happen. We are trying to get a flight to Nairobi, Kenya tomorrow or Thurs, to visit Immigration in person and to put pressure on them for the Visa.

Irakoze is doing so well. He has bonded to both of us like we were always his parents. His bath time, diaper changing, bedtime has all gotten better. The swimming has helped the bathtime to be better. And we get him to sleep at night, by walking with him in our arms all throughout the house. I know, "you shouldn't do that" But thanks Diane, "whatever works" right?
He has had alot of adjusting to do, poor little guy.

He's vocabulary is now at about 10 words (from 0 words). He says "mama", "papa", "beep, beep", "no", "oya" (no, in rwandan), (great eh, a 2 year old who knows "no" in 2 different languages) (no it's not funny!! lol) He says "what's that?" And he will point to one thing after another asking "what's that?" "what's that?" And we will tell him what the item is. It could go on and on for hours.

Nola-the man is our caretaker at our townhouse. He cuts the grass, cleans the house, washes our clothes, etc. And Irakoze just loves him. You are a loyal follower. Do you read this as your nightly entertainment? Ha HA!! Just joking! I like your comments and of course, miss you too. I can't wait for you to meet him. Hope everything is going well.

Not feeling well

Well, I guess we went too gung oh with the food for our little guy. He has such a good appetite and he will eat anything. We may have introduced too many different types of food at once. He has a tummy ache today. We have gone through many diapers today. lol
So for the next couple of days it will be bananas and toast to see if it helps.
Thanks Kathy, we went to Shang Hai restaurant yesterday. It was good and a nice treat. Maybe we will try out new cactus.
Mildred - he is wearing 18 - 24 months right now, I don't know how long he will be in those.
Thanks for all the tips for sleeping, changing diapers, etc. everyone. It helps!
We are now going to give him medicine for worms. We are not sure if he has them or not, but it won't hurt, says the doctor. His belly is a little distended. He is also malnurished from having a lot of starch, but not much fiber, veg. or fruit.
He is adjusting very well - we love him so much!!!

Thats it for another week

Well, we got Jaxon's passport today and picked up the translated copies. Unfortunately we were a little late getting to the notary (there is only one in Kigali and they close early on Fridays). Have to wait until Monday now.

Jaxon is having a great day. I prayed throughout the night that the wall between him and Marcy would break and it seems that today Jaxon rounded the corner. He has been running too her and loving her. I am soooo happy to see it, as does she. Thank you again Lord!

We posted a few more pictures. Have to say we are getting a little home sick for Canadian food. Not much variety here.

Tomorrow we may try the local pool if it is a hot day.

Thank you for your prayers. Continue praying for immigration we want to get home as soon as possible.
Adios for now.

Little with big attitude

He is little. The sisters at the orphanage said there was a mistake and his birthday is in August, not in June, like all the paperwork says. And even maybe Sept. or Oct. They are just guessing.
But oh, the attitude!! He makes these looks with his eyes and mouth (which makes me laugh) and if he doesn't get his way, he has a screaming tantrum. He not only screams, but he has the high pitched noise that I have never heard before. I am afraid that neighbours will call the police. When we are out in town, women and men yell at us, and ask "why is he crying?" What are you doing to him?" I guess African kids don't cry much. It is so embarassing!!

I'm trying to write what I wrote yesterday, before I lost connection and I lost 5 paragraphs. But I don't know If I remember. I am now at a internet cafe and Mike and Irakoze are wanting to leave.

Thank you for your messages and comments. It is nioce to hear from you. We feel cut off from the world.
Thank you Kelly for all the clothes. That was such a blessing. So far, they all pretty much fit. Also to Bev and Amanda.

We have been very blessed here, with meeting people to help us. Our first day here, we were at the cafe (like starbucks) and it was late and dark ( and in Africa, it gets pitch black) our waitress helped us get a taxi and negotiated it to be cheap. (you have to negotiate the taxi fare or you will get ripped off) and know we are friends with her. We went into a store to ask where we can use a computer and she said to come behind the counter, you can use mine. She then told us where to find a church. We then went to church and made connections there as well. We then met a lady at the Minister of Family (Gov. Office) and she has been taking us around and giving us a lot of tips. We are going to meet up her again.

The african people for the most part are very friendly and think that us adopting is great. However we get about one or two comments a day that he cannot be our child, and that it's not right. "no, he is black, he is not your child" or they will ask me "is the father black?"

Thanks to Kathy (and Julie) so much for the townhouse. What a blessing!!! Kathy, you have been such a blessing. Thank you for all you've done :)

Please continue to pray for Immigration and IraKoze's Visa. I don't know how long they are going to keep us here.

Well, Mike and Irakoze really wants to go now. Bye for now.

Bonding is Happening

I never thought the bonding would be so difficult. It is! Last night, I tried to put him to bed - he srceamed blue murder, for about 15 mins. Then Mike came in the room, he stopped and within 10 mins, he was asleep. Then, I cried for 20 mins. I am so, so glad he has bonded with Mike.....

Sorry guys but I am finishing this post started by Marcy as she wrote this huge post on a computer that some visiters let us borrow, and it erased most of what she wrote :(

Marcy is having a very hard time of it as Jaxon seems to have a selective club of people he will let in. For example, the people who have been staying with us had 3 daughters 9 and under. He would only let the oldest girl even touch him. He loved playing with her but if either of the other girls tried to play with him he would have a fit. He seems to be warming up to Marcy with each day, but it is very hard to see her hurt as he has attached to me like she would want him to her. I try to give them more and more time alone together to hopefully form that bond.

I got home at noon and Marcy said that Jaxon said "Mama". :) I pray the walls will come down quickly.

The first night he was great! Went to sleep and slept through the night. The problem was that about 2:30 he started to move, and move and move. Not much sleep happened after that for us.
Pretty tired yesterday. Jaxon had a pretty good day although we have found out the hard way that he doesn't like his diaper changed and he doesn't like baths. Screams blue murder!! And everyone within earshot (especially when we are on the town) yells at us or gives us a naste stare. Rather embarrassing, as it seems our African child is the only one that cries, or so the people seem to imply.

Last night we had a playpen for him to sleep in and so the night was so much better for Marcy and I. He slept through the night and when we woke up at 6:30 Jaxon was standing quietly in the pen just waiting for us :)

I hate to cut this short but I am already very late getting back to Marcy and Jaxon. We may try swimming tomorrow??? Until tomorrow then.

Praise God!!!

I didn't read all of what Marcy said yesterday, but yesterday when we went to the minister's office to inquire about our final letter the minister's assistant suggested that we might not get Jaxon because there was suggestion in our documents that the mother is still out there somewhere and that the police report would not be enough. It took the wind out of us for a moment, but then we reminded ourselves that God is in control and not this lady. We prayed and then carried on with our day. A lady, whom I am convinced God put in our pathway, called this morning and told us that a connection she has in the minister's office texted her and said our documents were ready. She picked us up right away and we all went together to the minister's office. We got there and as we were told they were ready for us.

One problem though......our names were wrong on the document :( Thank God this lady's contact came in and after some wrangling they typed up a new letter and got it signed. YAHHHH!! PRAISE GOD!!!! We went to the orphanage and picked up, now wait for it..........OUR SON!!! And we don't have to take him back.

He was in a much better mood after a good nights sleep and he is at this moment at the house with Marcy. I snuck out for an hour because he still has a little trouble with me being away from him, but he is getting better. I promised Marcy that I wouldn't be long so, thank you for all your prayers. Please continue to pray for our first night sleep with Jaxon, for the passport (should get tomorrow) and the visa in Nairobi.

Talk again tomorrow.
Mweregwe

It's all coming back to me now!!

Once you've been in Africa, you never forget Africa. It's not that I did forget, but when you come back, and see the view, the people, smell the smells, memories just flood back. It is taking some adjusting. The first couple of days were hard, but I'm getting there. I never grew up a city girl, but I have become one. And city girls don't do well in Africa. lol The Geckos crawling on the walls in your house, dead birds in the bedroom, dead dogs on the side of the road(that was there for days before someone picked him up). The language barrier has been tough, but we are learning. And also getting around town is a challenge. We walk or get taxis. A lot of the taxis are motorbikes, you should see it, they drive CRAZY-no such thing as a center line. The first day, Mike and I decided to walk to this cafe (it is starbucks times 10 - not kidding!!) and my calves still hurt. They don't call this the land of a thousand hills for nothing. It is gorgeous here. I am now filling my longing or homesickness for Africa since Malawi 15 years ago. Africa should be a place for everyone to visit at least once. I am glad my son is from such a special land. :)

The food is very, very expensive. We bought a package of weiners for $10, 500g of dry macaroni for $9, very small mustard for $5, cereal is $15, etc. Coke (as in pop) and bread is cheap. Hence the term "coke and a bun" is a very good idea. We ate this every day in Malawi. So if I walk all the hills and not eat much - it'll be a good weight loss program!! lol

(by the way, I should tell you, this is Marcy - Mike has written every other post. So hello (or "Jambo" to all my peeps) lol

SO... do you want to hear about our son?? I've kept you waiting. He is a great little kid. We visited him at the orphanage on Sat for an hour. We picked him up on Sun morning and took him to church and kept him for all day. He was so good. He was actually stunned and in shock, but very good. He took food from us and we got one smile from him. We picked him up today (mon), and he cried all morning, so we took him back to the orphanage and just played with him there in his environment. The poor little guy is confused. He laughed a couple of times today at the orphanage, but then it is almost if he caught himself laughing, and suddenly stopped, and became serious again. The kicker is he is a "daddy's boy"!!! Big time. He wants nothing to do with me. It's sad, but I know that it will come with time. At least he is bonding with one of us. If Mike leaves the room , he screames. And if Mike is holding him and I try and take him - he screams!!
He is the happiest when we give him food. And it's different food than he receives at the orphanage. We gave him a sippy cup and he holds onto that for dear life. They have nothing for themselves at the orphanage, and very few toys. When we drop him off, we take his sippy cup and toys, because the other kids will want them. There are SO many kids there, waiting for a home. It is sad, but I am glad that the orphanage is giving them a home.

Well, I have to go, thank you for your prayers. Please keep praying, because Immigration says his Visa will not be done in the 2 weeks. But we serve and love a God that can work miracles, and we have put this in his hands. It has been a struggle this whole journey, God has been faithful, and I will continue to trust God, to help us the rest of this journey. His name "Irakoze" means "thanks to God"

Half Way There!

It is 8:30 am back home and Marcy and I are now sitting in Heathrow Airport in London :)

Can't see much from in here, but we are here. I have seen a great deal of the city (from the plane :\ ) . The flight was good, but tough to sleep in those tight spaces. First class booths looked very appealing.

Next stop is Niarobi, but probably won't have time to hunt for a computer.

I think those goose/butterflies are getting bigger.

Big thanks to Carol and Trevor ( and the fam) for taking us to the airport.

Well, Cheerio and all That. Tah

6-5-4-3-2......

Two hours and counting before blast-off!

As the song goes, "I'm leaving on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again." It is still hard to believe. We have been so busy getting ready over the last few days that we didn't have much time to really think about it. Except, when we were trying to sleep.

Now that we are done doing all the running around and packing the reality of the adoption is starting to over-flow. I feel like I have butterflies the size of canadian geese flying around in my stomach. I mean, in a little over a day we will be in Rwanda, and a couple of days after that we will have our son. WOW! CRAZY! Whooow, down boy, down! Tried to fly out my throat there.

Next time I put up a post we will be in Rwanda. Be talkin' to you soon.

Bon Voyage!

Our departure date is set and our tickets bought, we are on our way ready or not. :D

Yes, it is true we have our tickets to go to Rwanda. We are set to leave this coming Wednesday evening and should arrive in Rwanda Friday morning. We could have left this Sunday, but we would have killed ourselves trying to have everything ready to go. Especially with it being a long weekend and all.

I don't know if it is because we have been mad-atter (my own word for trying to get so much done) or what but it feels so unreal as yet. Marcy says she is ecstatic, nervous, stressed, and a few other things all at the same time. I'm not sure what I am at this point. Maybe once we are on the way to the airport. :\

SO MUCH TO DO YET BEFORE WE LEAVE!

Thank you all for your prayers. Please continue to pray that flights will go well (all our luggage arrives with us) paperwork all gets were it needs to go, and that it will all be processed quickly causing no delays.

Talk to you again soon before we leave.

SAY WHAT?

We don't know whether to laugh or cry today.

You may have noticed that there is a picture of a different little boy where Jaxon's used to be.
Our lawyer e-mailed us this morning to tell us that she had the police declaration and was taking it to the minister tomorrow, and then she said, "there is a problem."

We thought, "here we go again, what now?"

She went on to explain that the orphanage made a mistake and that they took the picture of the wrong child to send to us and that they were very sorry. :(

Apparently there was another boy with the same first name and the nun grabbed the wrong one from his nap. The picture that is posted now is, as far as we know, the right little boy. Say Hi to the real Jaxon, we hope.

All you can do is laugh at this point ovber all this craziness. God what next?

Just a taste II

Mwaramutse, Hello again.

Well, since we talked last we found out that the minister wanted the police declaration after all.

Welcome to our world!

So, the police went out yesterday and did an "investigation" and they didn't find anyone. The police then wrote the letter to give to the minister. :D

Can the celebrations begin??? Until the minister gives us the green light, as you can understand, we will be cautiously optomistic. Hopefully tomorrow we can book our tickets XXXXX (fingers crossed).

This is just the latest of the many things that have happened in the last year through this process. Not sure what God is trying to teach us exactly, but we continue to put it in his hands and trust in Him.

Murabeho for now.

Just a Taste

It has been a week since our last post and, just to give you all a little taste of the roller-coaster ride we have been on through this whole process, yet another dip in the ride.

Once we got the court decision we thought all that was left to do was to buy our plane tickets and off we would go. This was not to be the case, however. Our lawyer in Rwanda sent us an e-mail saying that there was no police declaration that Jaxon was an orphan. The police declaration is a letter signed be the chief of police stating that they have done an investigation into seeing if they can find any living relatives or not. If they do then we can't adopt Jaxon. If they don't then he is officially an orphan. She told us that we would have to speak to the police to get them to do the investigation into whethter or not either of the parents could be found.

Yes, we were shocked as well.

All sorts of things were going through our minds as you can imagine. Needless to say we did not book our tickets this week. Instead we spent the week trying to get answers as to what we should do next.

Finally, on Thursday night we called and spoke to our lawyer ( 2:00 am ) and she told us that this same thing happened to another couple last week, and when they went to the police they were told that because there was a new police chief they were not looking into any cases of children orphaned over a year ago. They could not get a police declaration. They then went to the minister and explained their situation and the minister gave them their final letter.

Our lawyer said that she would take a letter to the minister explaining about the police declaration and that we could then call the minister a couple of days later to get her response.

Please pray that the letter will be well received by the minister and that we will get a favorable answer. Once we get this then we can buy our tickets.

It's Official!!!

Today we got the email from our lawyer, in Rwanda, that we have been waiting for, what seems like an eternity. It is official....Marcy and I are the proud parents of our son, Jaxon. :)

Thank You Lord!

Now, we need to book our flight and finish preparations for our son's :D arrival, a little paperwork, and Lord willing, be on our way to Rwanda, Africa.

And We Wait

This is the first entry into our newly formed blog, but by no means the first step of the adventure to get our son.
In the following days you will be reading about our journey in preparation for our trip, as well as walking step by step with us in Rwanda through the final stages of adopting our son Jaxon and bringing him back home to Canada.
Hold on tight as, if the process to this point has been any indication, it could be a wild ride.