Visa!

I haven't updated our sleep status lately, and I'm sure you've been desperately wondering how we're sleeping. Palamang usually goes to sleep around 7:30 pm. He's experimenting with some stall techniques - water, toilet, sucker (as if!), play - but once he's in bed with stories read he falls asleep quickly. We read a bit and try to check mail if we have MB left, then we go to sleep shortly thereafter.

Paul wakes up anywhere between 2:30 am and 5:30 am. This morning it was 2:30 needing to use the bathroom and crying. He crawled in bed with us and fell back asleep. We tried to sleep, but not easy with a squirming, flailing boy in the middle. Then he was up again at 4:30. Finally, at 5:30, I let him watch Toy Story with earbuds on the ipad. This usually occupies him for about 30 minutes, then he played a couple of games. Around 6:30 Paul and I took a walk and got breakfast while Trent and Sam tried to get a little more sleep. That's usually the gist of our morning. We're all (except Paul) getting a little tired and testy. Hopefully once we're home Sam can stay asleep in the privacy of her room while Trent and I tag-team mornings. And some day he may sleep in!

Wednesday's visa appointment was an interesting process. First we had to get the TB test read. Paul got a little nervous when we walked back into the doctor's waiting room, but he did great. There are only two doctors in all of South Africa - one in Johannesburg and one in Cape Town - who can do the immigration physicals. Dr. Cobb, in Johannesburg, is so friendly and kind. I think in other circumstances Paul might have liked him! Paul passed his physical (powerful lungs, very strong) and we waited for the paperwork. Then we went to the Consulate.

The security let me through with the kids, then I had to wait in another area while they screened Trent. They take ALL electronics, so we waited without the benefit of music or iphone games. But Paul was great. I bet over a hundred people were waiting for immigration visas. They called number after number. Two hundred thirty-seven, window seven, etc. We were the only ones waiting on an adoption visa, so we had a special window. They took all our paperwork, then we waited, waited, waited. Then the consular officer talked with us (through a little window. Awkward). It was hard to hear, especially as I was trying to keep Paul from climbing the counter, but it seemed everything was in order. Trent swore an oath and signed his part of the paperwork, then we got an appointment to pick up the visa at 2 pm on Thursday. Hoorah!

I don't propose to know God's plans and processes. His ways our not our ways. Why a year wait between being matched with Paul and finally meeting him? Why such an easy process with US immigration once we did get him, in spite of the fact that his passport hadn't even been started when we arrived? Trent trusted that the dates would line up perfectly, and that God was in complete control. I knew, too, that God was in compete control, but I also know that God being in control doesn't mean that things will go the way we want or the way that's most comfortable. I know too many godly Christians who have struggled and who have faced obstacle after obstacle. It doesn't mean that God has left them or is not blessing them. He is still there, and we must still trust. I'm enormously grateful that we can fly home as scheduled (even though everyone is tired of Jo'burg and wants to come home now!), and I majorly thank God for that. But I hope I would still trust him and thank him if we had faced obstacles. Even our struggles are a blessing because struggle produces perseverance and perseverance character and character hope.

Today - Thursday (I'm starting to lose track of the days!) - we visited the Jo'burg Zoo. Palamang was nervous and clingy the first hour, and I was regretting the zoo idea, thinking we should have just stayed holed up in the hotel room. But then he had a little lunch, discovered the monkeys, and had a blast! He ran and jumped and skipped and talked - "Monkey!" "Elephant!" "Sam monkey!" "Tiger ja (eat) Mama!" His energy, activity and fun is so dependant on how comfortable and safe he feels. And it's becoming easier and easier for him to feel comfortable in new situations as long as we're there to encourage him.


Home Sunday!

Love, Trent, Kristi, Sam and Paul

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