home!

We're here! We're home!


Oh, it feels so good to say that... and it feels even better to be here: Sitting in my 2nd favorite chair in the world, a cup of coffee - with a dash of eggnog - on the window sill next to me, enjoying a cloudy day in Texas during naptime. It's a good day. :)


Our trip home went well! We had two attempts to nail it, and Attempt 2 was a great success. During Attempt 1, we were thisclose to boarding the airplane when the man checking our tickets asked us about our Schengen visa. "Oh no," we said, "We have all the visas that we need - we're going to America." But not so fast - we needed to be educated on something really important: if you are not an American citizen and you need to travel through Europe, you need a transit visa for certain countries.


Oh no.


So, long story short - they off-loaded our luggage, and we went back to Kampala. Our friends, Kerry & Neltia, were gracious and invited us to stay at their home for the remainer of our time in Uganda. The next day was spent visiting the airline's office, the Belgium embassy (to find out about transit visas through Brussels), and on the phone with Continental. In the end, we were able to book flights so that we could bypass the transit visa issue AND have plenty of time to clear customs before we arrived home. Yay!


We can not stop thanking the Lord for how He has provided for our trip home:

- We found out about the visa issue before we arrived in Belgium... Can you imagine? What an expensive headache that would have been! At that point, no one had caught this or brought it up...and let me tell you, there had been ample opportunity for it to come up. Thank you, Lord.
- We got to see the Hendersons for 2 more days.
- Continental basically gave us additional frequent flyer miles for free with our new itinerary when they heard our situation.
- The kids enjoyed take-offs/landings and slept well on the airplanes, and the length of our 2 layovers were perfect for what we needed to do during each of them.
- On 2 full flights, the Lord kept 1 seat open near me or Andrew so that our family could sit next to each other. (Even though they did great, the idea of sitting with 2 kids by myself where the in-flight meal involves red sauce and crumbly cake is a little crazy.)
- Friends and family were waiting for us when we landed!

Thank you all so much for your prayers from the time we got on the plane to now. We are so thankful for each of you and have rejoiced to see how the Lord has provided. We still have a long way to go as we transition to life in America and figure out what this family/parenting thing is all about. The Lord continues to remind me that:

He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young. (Isaiah 40:11)

He is faithful!

monkey-ing around

The past two days have been full of fun at the Brown house! Yesterday, we went with our new friends Rob & Amy to Friday Market to look around. It reminded me of the craft shows that my mom used to take us to - only with an African twist (read: hot and outside). :)

Let me tell you, these vendors are good. Not only were their crafts - jewelry, bags, dolls, rugs, carvings, drums, etc - top notch, but they were great salesmen too. As soon as we walked in, a boy put a toy in Ibra's hand while a woman put a doll in Suma's arms. Ten minutes later, we walked away with both. Note to self: next time, don't bring empty-handed children along. Even though we got taken in, we had a great time, and Andrew really enjoyed negotiating with the vendors. The kids were so excited to play with their toys, and they scarcely ate breakfast today because they wanted to play.

After the market, we joined our Aid Sudan friends for a Rain Festival that was hosted by one of the international schools nearby. It was like a fall festival, and each grade had a different theme: North Pole, rainforest, ocean, forest, etc. There were some really creative costumes! We enjoyed watching the costume parade and eating dinner with our friends. Below are some pictures of the kids playing outside. You'll see Ibra with our friend Blake. Blake is homeschooling the kids for one of the Aid Sudan families here, and our kids have loved getting to play with him. (Thank you, Blake, for loving on them so much!)

The kids were zonked after such an action-packed day, but oh wait, there's more....

One of the things that has made me laugh is that no matter what animal we see, they'll call it a monkey. They know the names for goat, cow, lion, elephant, dog and cat - but "monkey" is always the first thing to come out of their mouths. So when they heard that they were going to see monkeys with Rob & Amy - well! - they were so excited they could hardly stand it!

The zoo was such a fun experience. It was amazing how close we got to stand to some of the animals! We could have petted an ostrich, and the lions & hyena were really about 30 feet away (eep - do you know how big a hyena is? I hope I never run into one outside of a zoo!). We got to watch the zookeeper feed the chimps - which kept all of entertained for a long time- and the BEST part is that the little spider monkeys were all over the park. Yep - no cages for those guys, they were free-range all the way. 

The kids fell asleep in the car on the way home from dinner with our friends, the Livingstons. You know they're tired when Suma, who is usually very particular about having a bath before she goes to bed, didn't even fuss when we skipped the bath/pj thing and put her in bed.

blankets

Yep, they love their blankets!

the magic word

Today was THE day - visa interview day at the embassy!

After completing an amazing amount of paperwork...
After meeting the kids and growing together as a family...
After being awarded legal guardianship by the national court...
After purchasing our return tickets...

It was still entirely possible for the kids' visa applications to be denied. I don't know how this is possible, but it is (and we have met a couple who has experienced this...they are now living in Uganda so that they may finalize their adoption here before moving back to the US. They are 6 months into a 3-year timeframe). So were we a little nervous going into the interview? Yes.

We dropped off our mountain of paperwork before we met Ibra's great-aunt and Julius for lunch and returned to the embassy for the interview. The kids did well, even with our rookie parent mistake of ordering them spaghetti for lunch (given the choice between ordering them something that we know they'd like & is still somewhat ok for them vs. ordering them a soda and a plate of fries...I think we made the right move. We'll just remember to always bring bibs with us in the future).

Our interview was at 2pm, and the man who interviewed us reminded me of a guy that I used to recruit with - very even tempered, gracious, and 100% on top of his game. He asked us some questions about why we wanted to adopt from Uganda, why we wanted to adopt these kids, and how did we find out about them. He reviewed our papers with us and was pleasantly surprised when my rock star husband had an extra, blank copy of a signature form that we needed (yay Andrew!).

At one point, Interview Man asked about a relinquishment form that he didn't see in our paperwork. Oh gosh. Fortunately, Julius was right there with us and was able to help point it out for him. Whew. And then he said the magic words: "Congratulations. We'll have your visa paperwork for you soon."



That. Is. Awesome! Just about everyone we know has experienced at least one hiccup with the visa process, and the Lord took care of everything the first time. Even Julius, who has seen quite a few of these, was surprised. He turned to Andrew and said, "You are one blessed man."

Yes, sir. That is true. Thank you, Jesus.

big day

Tomorrow is one of our last BIG DAYS - our visa paperwork is due tomorrow at 10am, and our visa interview for the kids is at 2pm (also known as 1am and 6am in some hemispheres). Ibra's great-aunt is supposed to join us for the interview.

Please pray for:
- Complete and correct paperwork
- Safe travels for auntie
- Visas for both kids to be in our sweet little hands on Friday

Thanks so much!

a few of our favorite things

A few of our favorite things from today:

- We got to skype with our home church and share a little of our story with them in the evening worship service. The power was on, the connection didn't drop, and our little girl - who woke up at 1:30am and came out to see what was going on - sat quietly and went back to sleep afterward.

- We went to church yesterday with Wilfred, the man who runs Ibra's children's home, and we got to see some of the kids that Ibra knows. One boy - Elijah, who is about 8 or 9 - was thrilled when he saw me and realized that Ibra couldn't be too far away. He gave Ibra a big hug when he saw him - such a sweet boy!

- At lunch, Wilfred scanned through our visa paperwork for us and noticed that we were missing a form for each of the kids. Thank you, Lord, for pointing this out early. We were able to get these forms from our attorney this morning, and we pray that the interviews on Wednesday will go smoothly.

- Our friends, the Henderson family, invited us and other Aid Sudan family over for homemade ice cream this afternoon - yum! We also got to sit out on the veranda - which is the best in the world, no kidding - and see Peace's twin babies who are only 3 days old!

- Sumaya is running to her daddy more and more. She was wary of him the first few weeks, so it is really wonderful to see her call for him and want to be with him.

- Both kids decided to pray with us before bed time tonight, instead of simply listening as we pray over them. Ibra wanted to repeat phrases after daddy, and Sumaya wanted to thank Jesus for all of her friends in the babies home...especially Frieda (who we pray will be established in her family without further complications), Eric, Jemima and Adam (who came to her home the day before we met her - our new friend Jake got to see the process of him being admitted into the home...such a special baby boy).

- As they were (supposed to be) falling asleep, Ibra spent time teaching Sumaya the words to "Jesus loves me", which we sing every night as we tuck them in. He went phrase by phrase, repeating them until he was satisfied that she knew the words AND pronounced them correctly.

And finally...I've had a stanza from "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing" in my head for the past several days. It's been my experience that when I need to hear something from the Lord, He often places songs in my head to remind me of things that are true. When I'm tempted to get frustrated or worried about how things are going over here, I find that I'm also singing:

Here I raise my Ebenezer - yes, "thus far, the Lord has helped us". Thank you for a smooth process thus far.
Here by Thy great help I've come  - this is true!
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home. - soon!

life in the slow(er) lane

After all the whirlwind of activity in our first few weeks, things have slowed down a bit - hence the slow-down in blog posts. We have only 2 more big events - the visa process and a possible visit to Ibra's family village. In the meantime, we have been playing with Play-Doh, running small errands, and getting out to see the town.

The past few mornings, Andrew has taken one of the kids to a local vendor to get chapati for breakfast. Chapati is similar to a tortilla, but it's made with red onion, carrot and a ton of oil. Add a fried egg to it, and you have a fantastic breakfast for the family for only $0.50. We're all ok with that!

Yesterday, we had an added treat and went to Suma's babies' home to visit the aunties. We meant to go back the day that we received legal guardianship of Sumaya, but by the time we got the ruling, it was time to get the kids fed and go to sleep. After that, we felt it would be best for her to stay home as a family for awhile - the first few days that she was with us, especially as we were getting ready for bed, she would say, "Motorcar? Eva?" She hadn't quite understood that she wasn't going to live there again, though I think she understands now. :)

Here are a few pictures from our visit yesterday. We all had a great time! It was fun to see how happy Sumaya was to see everyone - especially Victor and Eva - and especially how happy she was to come home with us afterward. She told all of the aunties about eating chapati. When she wanted to see her bed at the home, Eva told her that there is a new baby sleeping there. Suma took it well and said that it was ok - she gets to sleep in a big bed at our house! They were happy to see how cheerful she was and how "smart" she looked in her new clothes and tennis shoes. Ibra made a special friend in Auntie Jennipher - everytime we visited, she loved to read to him and feed him part of her tea snack, and he always helped her with the little babies. It was wonderful to see each of these very special friends!

Today, we went swimming at the ARA. The Lord kept the rain away just long enough for us to enjoy swimming in the big pool without freezing. The kids loved jumping into the water to us, and Ibra had fun being dunked under water with daddy - brave boy! They went down right away for naps, and now they're racing around the house so that daddy can catch them.

Tomorrow, we will visit the church of Wilfred - the man who is the director of Ibra's home and the pastor of the local church. He mentioned to us that it is baby dedication Sunday for them, so we will join them to dedicate Ibra and Sumaya before going to lunch with Wilfred and his wife.

Other things that we'll do this week include: going to visit Ibra's family, completing the visa interview process, and going to the zoo with friends. Exciting times ahead!

learning

As of today, our son has been with us for 13 days and our daughter has been with us for 5 days. Every day has brought a new challenge as well as a new joy. Thanks for your prayers and encouraging comments/emails! There are some days when we have struggled, but we continue to see progress as we learn how to be a family.

Things we are learning about our kids:

- Everything that Sumaya does is rhythmic - whether she chants, sings, cries, or snores. It's so funny! On the way home from the Henderson's, she wanted all of us to chant with her:
Suma: Alle!
Us: Luia!
Suma: Amen!
*repeat x100*
Maybe she'll be a worship leader when she grows up. ;)

- Ibra is a details man. We were coloring pictures of tractors, and he was very careful to color in the lines and color according to a pattern of colors he had in his head. He is neat when he eats, and in a matter of minutes, figured out how to operate the camera buttons and how to play with the DVD controls on the computer. Maybe he'll be an engineer when he grows up.

- Ibra is also an imp. His favorite tricks include hiding next to doorways to jump out at his sister and dad (I'm usually with him on these), and hide things from me. Before dinner tonight, we played a guessing game where I hid a piece of napkin in one of my hands and got him to guess which hand it was in. He wanted a turn, but when he opened both hands, nothing was there! He was so thrilled to pull one over on mom...we're going to have to watch this one...

- Both of them have been practicing their English small talk. Also in the car today:
Ibra: Suma, how are you?
Suma: I'm fine. Ibra, how are you?
Ibra: Fine. Suma, how are you?
*repeat x100*
 The only thing that beats this in length, is when they get into an "I love you" war. THAT is my favorite!

We're excited every time we realize that we've learned something new about our kids' personalities! There are things that we can learn by observing their behavior, but with the language barrier, it takes a little more time for some things to come to the surface. It's such fun to see the details emerge!

Here are a few more pictures for you...

Some days are like this....

 Others are like this...
Some are like this....

 And 5 minutes later, they're like this....

Wouldn't trade it!

passports & blessings

Great news! Isaac, our attorney, called us this afternoon to say that he may be able to have Ibra & Sumaya's passports ready by Friday! Holy smokes...if that's true, that would be really fast. Obviously, it would speed up the visa process, and we could be home a lot sooner than we thought. (Pray for our itineraries to work out well, if that is the case.) I'm trying to manage my expectations since it sounds too good to be true. We have loved being in Uganda, though I have to say that I will be glad to be home and into more familiar territory.

There are little things that I have missed: Sunday football (yes, I admit it), HEB (big time!), consistent power and hot water, my cell phone, extra hand towels, a Swiffer, morning coffee, and using tap water to brush my teeth.  All of these things are easy to work around, but I have felt a little lost without them.

There are things that I will miss here: 2-gallon bottles of water that cost $.50 (sweet), chapati (like a tortilla, but made with carrot, onion and a lot of oil - I have to find out how to make it), Watoto church that meets outside in a tent, temperatures in the high 70s/low 80s every day, getting eye drops and other necessary meds without prescriptions, and getting to see friends that we haven't gotten to see in awhile.

We'll see!