(Saturday February 11th)
In front of our lawyer's office in Mbale
Downtown Mbale
School kids on our drive to Mbale
(Sunday February 12th)
Everything about meeting Baby Moses Mukisa was BEAUTIFUL! There were so many ways we saw God's hand in the circumstances of today….
The drive to the village was 1-1/2 hours. It was Isaac and I, the probation officer, the attorney and Solomon (who is the doctor's right hand man) in a small car on a terrible road (but not as terrible as the roads in Sudan).
Mukisa's great aunt, Ana
We are so in love with Mukisa! He is smaller than we thought. We actually think he might have lost a little weight since we saw a picture him last week. He looks healthy (other than a little ring worm on his face- good thing we brought Lamisil!) His hair is adorable- so soft. It's definitely grown a little since the pictures we had. He slept the entire time we were there, but he did open his eyes a little to see who was crying all over him. He fussed only when we tried moving him around and as we examined every inch of his handsome self. Don't worry- his belly button is perfect! :) He was so nice and clean for our arrival.
This was the one split second he opened his eyes
All the ways we saw God in the details of meeting Moses Mukisa :
-Driving to the village we kept noticing teal doors. I would say painted front doors aren't that common in Africa, but for the few that were painted they were consistently teal. For those that don't know, I've been obsessed with the color over the last few months. I painted a dresser for the nursery teal. I got a new sofa that is teal. I put a teal comforter in the guest room... AND I painted our front door teal.
-Also while driving to the village it started sprinkling just slightly. This was strangely uncommon and unexpected. They are in dry season here and they haven't had rain for well over a month. Our probation officer (UG social worker), who loved to tell Uganda folk tales in the car, said that if it rains as you are arriving at some place that it is said that you bring good luck!
-When we were walking to the Aunt's house it started to thunder. This again, was odd and unexpected. We immediately thought that it was God applauding.
-We drove as far as we could, but then we had to park and walk downhill for a few minutes before we reached the Aunt's house where Mukisa was being taken care of. There were a handful of village kids that followed us down. The walk was breathtaking. This area was hilly and green. I kept thinking how much Isaac's Mom and Dad would love and appreciate the surroundings as they are expert gardeners. There were beautiful banana trees, coffee plants, etc.
-When we walked up to the house it was the first house in Uganda I had ever seen painted with decoration and writing. It read, "Joy My God - Jesus. Book John 3:16". I couldn't believe it. I was praising God for yet another clear sign we were at the right place at the right time.
-The front room in the house had chairs circled around a center table. The walls were decorated with newspaper. The doors to the rooms were either covered in brightly colored fabric or lace. This was the most decorated house I've seen in a village yet. God is funny. He knew I would love and appreciate this home. (I found out later the floor in the house was fashioned out of cow "dung". Surprisingly I didn't notice a smell. It just looked like compacted clay.)
-As we were sitting in the front room waiting to meet Mukisa we heard his precious little cry from the back room. It melted our hearts and we could not wait to meet him. This was torture! Minutes later his Cousin brought him out and passed him to the probation officer… who quickly handed him to us.
-On the way home we spotted a public transportation bus that had a sign on the back that said, "With God it is a Yes".
(Monday February 13th)
Today not much progress in Uganda. We had hoped to have a meeting with Mukisa's Grandfather and great-uncle, but the plans fell through again. African society is very patriarchal and so it is important for us to meet with these two gentlemen. Our attorney was able to meet with the great-uncle and did call this afternoon advising that 'everything was going well' and 'that we had fixed a meeting for 9am tomorrow' with them both. We are still hopeful that we will be able to have a custody hearing scheduled for Wednesday.
(Tuesday February 14th)
We can't think of a better place to be on Valentine's Day. We're grateful to be here together- We love this place, and we had a fabulous day!
We showed up at our attorney's office at 9am sharp and were pleasantly surprised to be greeted by Mukisa's grandfather and three other great-uncles. It was so great getting to know more of Mukisa's family and his family history…
In the afternoon we drove to the hospital with baby's things to get the room ready. On the drive the doctor was talking about how "miraculous" everything about this story has been thus far. He was talking and said something like, "In Africa we call the family and extended family a "clan". Hello! "Kohlbacher Clan" - our adoption blog name! (My mom is going to love that!)
So we spent the afternoon getting somewhat settled at the hosptial’s guest house, which will be our new home base. We had a guy who helped us move things around and clean. We helped fold about 150 hospital sheets that had just been washed and dried. I did a little furniture tweaking and made a list of things we need to purchase tomorrow…
(Wednesday February 15th)
Today we had hoped to go to court, however plans continue to change. This morning we met with two of Mukisa’s uncles and have now made arrangements to visit his village, once again, first thing tomorrow morning. We plan to spend the entire morning at the village meeting Mukisa’s grandmother and others. Then, we’ll return to Mbale to go to court tomorrow afternoon. Tomorrow we are hoping to get temporary custody and then move to the hospital guest house with baby Mukisa.
That’s all we know for now. Here are some of the big, general milestones we still have left in the adoption process:
1. Going to the lower courts in Mbale and asking the Magistrate to grant us “temporary custody”.
Getting temporary custody does NOT guarantee we will get full guardianship later.
2. We'll have to have the probation officer do one or several home visits at the hospital's guest house to make sure things are going well.
3. At some point (this is estimated to be approximately 3 months), we'll go before the Mbale judge in the High Court in hopes of being granted "full guardianship" (this is the way it usually works with Uganda adoptions- you apply for full adoption later in the US).
4. Then, we would apply for a US Visa through the US Embassy in Kampala in order to get home. Sometimes this process takes two days and sometimes it takes months. The US Embassy will look closely at our case in order to assure propriety of the adoption. Often they will send an investigator to the village to verify the details of the story.
IF granted full guardianship this does NOT guarantee we will be granted a US VISA.
Also, just because we have been pre-approved by the USCIS (US government) this does NOT guarantee a US VISA.
As you can see there are still many steps ahead and much uncertainty. One of the first things we were told by our local contacts upon our arrival was that we ought to 'take things one day at a time'. The truth is that it is almost impossible to do anything else. We still remain very optimistic and hopeful despite the long road ahead.
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