We didn’t have electricity last night. Bummer.
(I swear I’m not going to give you our electricity status in every
update.) We were teased for a little bit
around nine, but it was short lived. On
the positive side, something miraculous always happens between three and four
o’clock- it gets cool. It’s such a
relief.
Not having electricity during the day means no fan, no warm
shower, and no Internet. During the dark
hours it means no fan and no light. It
also means you hear everything that goes on outside because we have all the
windows open (with screens, of course), and there isn’t the sound of the fan to
block out some of the noise. It,
unfortunately, seems as if the electricity has been off more than it has been
on. On the bright side, the stars are
amazing when there isn’t electricity.
The electricity doesn’t seem to really affect Zane
much. He has finally started to get his
days and nights straight. He is still
eating every two hours pretty consistently around the clock, but he goes back to
sleep in between the night feedings for the most part.
During the day Zane prefers the outdoors, and when he’s
indoors he likes to look out the window.
When we go outside he doesn’t mind that some people stare, laugh and
talk about us. Or that some people talk
to us in Luganda and expect us to understand them (awkward!). It’s also not a problem that it’s dusty and
we have to carefully dodge goat and turkey poop in the yard. He’s also not afraid of the 8” lizards that
are scattered everywhere, or the mice that shuffle around in the backyard. And the smell of the trash pile that is 20
yards from our back door isn’t a problem.
Nope. But, my mom and I have had
to get used to these things; however, It’s is worth it to make him happy, to
have a change of atmosphere, and to be able to capture whatever breeze there
is. And if he’s happy, we’re happy. What also makes us happy is when the school
kids pass and they are excited to wave and ask us in their cute accent, “How
are you?”, and before you can answer they say, “I am fine”.
Baby Tip #67:
“African babies don’t sit up at his age.
They only lay flat.”
We got that tip yesterday as my mom was holding Zane before
his bath. She wasn’t holding him in an
unusual way- just the normal baby’s bottom on her legs and her hands supporting
his neck and back supporting him as he sat up.
At first we were confused and clarified that we know that they don’t sit
up at two months on their own and that is why we were supporting him. But, no.
Apparently, they just don’t sit up at all.
Don’t worry. I’m not
offended by the tips. I know they mean
well when they point out the differences.
I’m convinced Americans raise babies totally different than Africans do-
and that’s okay. It’s sort of ironic
that their babies don’t seem to cry much- so I guess they are doing something
right. We have observed that Africans
typically don’t communicate a lot with their little ones, unlike us who are
often talking (or singing) to Zane. If
you don’t communicate (talking and listening) with your baby, then maybe he/she
doesn’t try to communicate back with crying or cooing. Just a thought.
I learned yesterday that our social worker/probation
officer, Meresi, can’t do our final home visit this week because she doesn’t
have child care. You can probably
imagine my disappointment when hearing this.
As of right now the attorney has her tentatively schedule to come on
Sunday, even though she originally suggested next Friday. This is essentially the third time we’ve had
to re-schedule the appointment. I’ve
found that typically “third time is a charm” in many circumstances here, but
it’s unfortunate that an appointment or a deadline can’t be made the first
time. If you’ve been to Africa, you know
exactly what I’m talking about.
After her visit she will have to write up a report to give
to our attorney. Then, our attorney is
hoping to file all the paperwork with the High Court next Friday.
PS. The power has
been off all day except an hour in the morning and an hour now. I learned that this is only because they have
the hospital generator running so that they can pump water to the hospital and
so they can cool off things in our refrigerator. They are actually waiting until I finish this
email to shut it off. When they have had
the power running there have been problems with the Internet (of course, that
would be too convenient). They said they
may run it again this evening for a bit.
March 17th
We haven’t had electricity for over 3 days, but who’s
counting?
We really have nothing to complain about. We’re surrounded by extreme poverty. You know when the local children daily dig
through your trash pile to see if they can savage anything you have nothing to
complain about.
We learned this morning that the electricity is most likely
a local problem and until someone calls the electrical company things will
probably not change. Of course it’s
Saturday, so nothing will be done until Monday at the earliest.
Like babies do, Zane is growing up so fast. He has almost grown out of a few of his
Newborn size onesies, and he’s finally starting to fit into a few of his 0-3
month old clothes. He is starting to
smile, grip onto things, and cry real tears.
His hair is continuing to grow.
It’s mostly cute ringlet soft curls, but he has some hair in the back
that is long and straight. It’s so
adorable and you could almost call it a mullet except he doesn’t look
Redneck. He does this self-soothing
move where he bobs his head really softly, and on other occasions he’ll
repeatedly stick out his tongue. When we
give him kisses on his check (which is an absurd amount), he will sort of smile
and lean into your face....
Basically, he’s the most precious boy and I can’t wait for
you to all meet him!
March 18th
It's a miracle... We
have had electricity since 3:00 today (and it's currently 9:30 pm)
And, to top that off, I am current writing this on our new
WIRELESS Internet! Yes, you read that
right. We no longer have to go to the
office across the street- we have Internet in our house! And guess what the password for the wireless
connection is? "Oklahoma". We asked why they chose that and they said
the Internet guy that sold them the wireless router assigned it to them. Crazy since we are from Oklahoma!
PS. Our attorney,
Alfred, and our probation officer, Meresi, were tentatively supposed to come do
a final home visit tomorrow but I haven't heard from them in a few days. I tried calling our attorney today, but neither
Isaac nor I can get a phone call to go through.
Praying they are able to come soon, so we can move forward with the next
steps.
March 19th
Praise God, the social worker/probation officer and the
attorney showed up today for our final home visit and everything went well.
Our attorney is still planning on filing with the High Court
on Friday. At that time he should be
able to get a court date scheduled even though the judge is traveling for work
until the first of April. Our guess is
the court date will be around mid April and Isaac will fly in for this. After we present our case to the judge it
usually takes about a week to get our ruling.
March 22nd
I had a long morning in Mbale at the attorney's office, and
I'm going to spare you the frustrating details. The important part is we're on
schedule to turn in the papers to the High Court tomorrow. So, if all goes well we should know our
court date tomorrow afternoon.
I do want to say that we've had an unusual amount of
electricity here in Kanginima the last two days. Thank you to those who have prayed around
that specifically. Prayers have been
answered.
March 23rd
We had a great day here in Kanginima! Zane took great naps and surprisingly wasn’t
fussy despite the fact that he hasn’t done his “business” in three days. Even Fred, who sleeps in the adjacent room,
said with shock this morning, “I didn’t hear him cry- He must be doing better.” Fred usually greets us first thing in the
morning with, “How is baby? I heard him
cry.” Zane is still on this 2 hour
eating schedule and the only time he usually cries is to tell us he’s ready for
his bottle. Unfortunately, this baby boy
escalates fast. Even though it takes us
less than 30 seconds to make a bottle he can often be wailing around 15
seconds. And like I’ve mentioned before,
you just don’t hear babies cry very often here unless they are sick. This is a large part in why we are still on
the 2 hour eating schedule.
Transitioning to a 3 hour schedule just doesn’t seem worth it when there
is this pressure and stress associated with crying. Plus, there isn’t a lot to distract him with
here.
March 24th
The paperwork didn't get turned in to the High Court
yesterday like planned. I'm really
tempted to tell you the story of yesterday's events with the attorney's office,
but it's better I don't. There is really
no point. Just know that it would be
enough to pull your hair out!
Consequently, my mom and I were in prayer a lot yesterday.
The biggest event of the morning has been a battle with the
stupid ants. They consistently get into
everything that we don't want them to get into.
Our formula is our greatest asset here, and we protect it
carefully. We've recently switched to a
"Similac" formula which is packaged differently than all the other
formulas we've gone through and it seems to be a problem more so than any of
the others. By the looks of it you would
think it would be secure. It's in a
plastic boxed container with a lid that snaps closed. Then, to be safe, we have it sealed in a
gallon sized heavy duty freezer zip lock baggie that sits on top of our bottle
sterilizer machine which sits on top of a wood table. And, wouldn't you know... about a hundred
ants somehow got in both the sealed ziplock and in the container with the
formula powder between the hours of 6am and 10am. Ahhhh!
They even get in things like our laundry and our snacks which are in a
tied trash bag hanging from a nail on the wall that is about 6 feet off the
ground. We can't seem to win with the
ants. How hard can it be?!
March 26th
Sadly, we still don't have a court date. The affidavit we were waiting on did get
turned in today, but I guess it was too late to file (something like
that). My attorney is estimating we will
know of our future court date tomorrow around noon (which is 4am your
time). Third times a charm, right?
Yesterday Zane turned 2 months old! As you can probably see from the pictures
he's growing fast and his personality is shining through.
Zane's sound machine this morning consisted of a 100+ cows
moaning and groaning- he slept great!
About 100 yards across the road there was some sort of livestock sale-
it was nuts! Later in day, after the
cows had left, there was a huge dust storm in this same field. This was the first dust storm I've ever
seen. I wasn't kidding when I said it is
hot and dry here. We're praying for
rain.
Despite some of the challenges that I've mentioned in my
previous updates, I am so grateful to be here!
Being with Zane under my care in Uganda has been an answer to so many
prayers in so many ways. This intimate
time here with both my mom and Zane is unbelievably special, and at times I
think I'm still in shock mode. I often
remind myself that while this journey to him has been unique- I couldn't have
scripted it better.
From the moment we heard about this little boy we've been
100% in love. It's scary having to put
one step in front of the other not knowing the end result, and that's where our
dependence on Christ comes in. Packing
for the trip was a challenge because we didn't know what was going to
happen. We knew we could possibly be
coming home in a few days without him, or we could even be on this journey of
several months. So after being 7 weeks
into the journey, I'm grateful to still be here with this precious boy and my
mom! I'm also grateful for the ways this
journey pushes me to trust in the Lord every step of the way.
Speaking of trusting the Lord....As many of you know, Isaac
and I have been on a roller coaster ride with our Rwanda adoption that we've
been working on and waiting on since January 2010. The latest news we're hearing is that our
file, along with many other families, has been closed. This is devastating news for us and many
other families. We'd love your prayers
around this.
March 27th
Our file didn't get turned in today. Our attorney thought of
one more thing he wants to add before turning it in. Supposedly we'll know of a
court date by tomorrow afternoon.
March 28th
Just wanted to let you know that after yet another
complication earlier today, our attorney finally turned in our file to the judge. The unfortunate part is we still don't have a
court date. Supposedly, we'll know
tomorrow (but don't hold your breath- just pray).
March 29th
We learned that we won’t be able to secure a court date
until next week. We’re beyond disappointed.
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