introducing the brown kids

We had our first court date today – thank you so much for praying! The morning started out rocky with some minor melt-downs, but the court trip was fantastic! The judge asked us to come back next Friday for our verdict. The only thing that the judge wants to see before approval is a validated copy of Ibra’s birth certificate, so our attorney is working on that and doesn’t think that it will be difficult.

But now…allow us to introduce you to two little Ugandans who will be coming home with us soon!

Meet Ibra:

Ibra is about 4 years old. He has two Ugandan shillings that he loves to carry around, and is careful to place in his shoe when he goes out to play…he even sleeps with them at night. He is very brave when it comes to shots and good about taking his medicine (so far!). The men at his home called him “Ibra the Man” because he doesn’t fuss in the clinics.

We’ve tried a few different foods, and he seems to like most fruits and vegetables, he LOVES crackers (“bisi-quits”), and always seems to be hungry. We’re having trouble keeping up with him! He’s much smaller than we thought he’d be (we guessed a 4T, but he was wearing 18mo clothes when we met him…and they fit).

When we go to play at Suma’s home, he likes to ride on the push-cars. He likes playing with matchbox cars and daddy’s camera. He is a fast runner and loves to be carried everywhere, which of course, we are happy to do.

You can probably see that he does have something going on with his eyes, so we took him to a clinic yesterday to get drops for them. Apparently, it is a common eye infection; please pray that the drops will clear them up soon and not cause any lasting problems. He has taken the drops well so far, and even came to me and lay down on my lap when he saw me take them out. He also has some congestion that we are taking medicine for – and he’s taken that like a champ as well. I am so looking forward to having a healthy boy soon!

Meet Sumaya:

According to her birth certificate, she turned 2 on the 18^th of this month. She is the belle of her children’s home with her quick smile, and she is in a toddler gang. She and her friends Enoch and Eric love, love each other and look out for each other. She’s picking up English words very quickly, and she is content to flitter around the room or to sit in our laps for as long as we’ll let her.

She is consistently the last one at the lunch/snack/dinner table, but I’m beginning to think that it’s as much related to her enjoyment of the social aspect as it is to the food.

For the most part, Suma is potty trained, which I am beyond excited about! She wears a pull-up at night, and we’ll keep her in one during court and the medical exams. That rocks.

She warmed up to her daddy and brother so much today! Court day can be an overwhelming day for everyone, but the silver lining today was definitely her feeling more comfortable with Andrew and Ibra. She let daddy feed her lunch, and she joyfully shouts Ibra’s name randomly. I think she likes them!

Sumaya is often called Suma at her home, though I’ve also heard Shumma and Sumaya from different kids. Suma is a good nickname, so we’ve been using that. She doesn’t really have a favorite toy, but I’ve noticed that she likes a stuffed ladybug that has a story written on its wings and she often plays with matchbox cars as well.

So those are our kiddos! There's one other picture that we wanted to share today, and it was from a pretty unexpected (but welcome) event.

Something that we didn’t expect to happen today was that Ibra’s grandfathers and a maternal great-aunt joined us in court today! It was a joy to meet them, and I nearly cried to see that Ibra looks just like his maternal grandpa. Their eyes, the slope of their noses – I think we have a handsome little guy, and I know he’ll be a handsome grandpa (and probably everywhere else in between). I think that this grandpa will join us again at the results hearing because he will bring Ibra’s validated birth certificate, so I’m excited about that. They asked us to come to the village where Ibra lived so that his extended family can meet us and see Ibra before he goes to America. Even though we do not speak the same language, we love the same little boy, and it thrills me to learn more about his family and possibly even visit his mother’s grave. Can you imagine the pictures and information that we’ll get to share with him as he grows up? I love it. Our attorney thought that would be a nice gesture as well, so we will look into that soon.

How to pray for them:

-          That we will get to have a calmer schedule soon. Today was Suma’s first outing…probably ever, and it was certainly overwhelming to her. She perked up after lunch and a diaper change, but she seemed pretty stressed at first. Ibra is also having difficulty and is starting to make fusses. Poor baby, he doesn’t have any down time – between going to Suma’s house, going to court/clinic/etc, and hearing other kids who are in our guest house all the time...having an itchy eye infection and a cold… we are looking forward to when things calm down around here.

-          That Ibra’s birth certificate validation will be wrapped up very quickly so that our next court date will be our last.

-          That their parents will get enough rest so that we can be patient. We’re still a little jet-lagged, and there are parts of this process that are frustrating. Some aspects of our accommodations aren’t what we were told they’d be, and that’s frustrating as well. We are hoping to house-sit for a missionary family after we get the court verdict, and I think that would be awesome. I’m ready to be able to control our schedule, meals, transportation, etc a little more so that we can have a more smooth transition to home, AND it would save us some money.

I am so excited about how the Lord has put our family together. We have a few prayer requests, but we are definitely enjoying the adventure in Uganda!