Day 10

Let's start with some photos from our day.

I mentioned the lines on the road are more of an idea than a hard fast rule? Seems the same theory applies for parking lots too. Not a problem though, because you can just park in a perpendicular line behind all of the regularly parked cars. And then if you want to move your car and someone is behind you, simply notify a security officer and they will track down the driver of the car parked behind you. Its really quite fascinating.

This is what we spend much of our time doing, waiting. And melting. It didn't rain today and it was HOT! So the kids and I spent the morning and much of the afternoon in the car in the sun waiting while Sean ran all over the place taking care of documents. Don't the boys look excited? Let me assure you, they are. Really. They just don't know it. Thankfully, our driver, John, made a paper airplane to entertain the children. Then he was nice enough to take the youngest to the bathroom. John has really become part of the family. We've adopted a son and a driver. Sadly, neither of them speak English very well.

While we were waiting, we were treated to a special show of criminals on their way to court. They are handcuffed together and put in the back of this truck then driven to court. Isaac was disturbed that they were all wearing pink, men and women.

We're about done with this adoption process. It has been stressful and difficult to say the least. Norbert, the attorney that the attorney that we hired sent over, really doesn't speak English very well and we are constantly having communication challenges. Plus, he isn't terribly consistent in what he tells us. So today Sean had to go to a completely different location, twice, to pay for part of our paperwork. Really, couldn't the attorney have had that all figured out ahead of time. This process has really been a pain. Part of being ok with not getting a girl here is not having to go through this again.

That is why we were less than thrilled when our original attorney finally called us today, well, she spoke to Sean after she had been talking to Norbert about something. This is the first time we have actually spoken to the woman. Ironically, she said she would talk to the MIDGEPROF on our behalf. We're not holding our breath. Earlier in the week Norbert asked for a final payment for Agnes (original attorney), Sean told him she could come get it since we hadn't even talked to her. So we are sure the offer to talk to MIDGEPROF is simply a ploy to make us feel like she has earned her fee. Whatever. If you ever consider adopting from Rwanda, do not, I repeat DO NOT! hire a woman named Agnes. She is really not helpful. We've paid Norbert for what he says are extra services and we can't argue because Agnes never gave us a list of what we were paying for. Lesson learned. Get that before you pay money. We were just so anxious to get our paperwork filed before the country closed its doors to adoption we didn't care. We thought we would be saving money not using an agency, again, lesson learned. All future adoptions will be handled through an agency. It is totally worth the expense.

Whew, ok, I'm all done with my rant. Good news now, David is officially ours forever!!! I probably should have started this whole blog post with that because it really is big news. Isaac can finally quit asking when David will officially be ours. Thank goodness. It's hard enough when we don't know the answers ourselves, but when our detail and plan oriented kid doesn't have the answers it kinda makes everyone crazy. When we went back to the orphanage to drop off the final papers, David shut down and became the super serious kid again. 20 minutes prior to that he had been running around laughing. He has the best laugh. His laugh will just make you laugh. As we drove away from the orphanage, he turned around and watched it go, but seemed fine. Before we left one of the nuns asked if he wanted to stay there (orphanage), he answered no. Then she asked if he wanted to come with us and he said yes. Joy!!

Here is our first family photo. Batiste, our house dude, took the picture. Good thing Sean isn't any taller. I don't think Batiste takes many pictures.

Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow. We will be spending it doing something new and different. We're gonna drive back and forth all over Kigali working on paperwork. It should be a nice change. Oh wait, that's what we do every day. Oh well. We are going to a Chinese restaurant for our mid-day meal. We just thought that made sense. So while you are enjoying your turkey and stuffing, think of us, sweating, eating Chinese, and really enjoying life as a family of five. Happy Thanksgiving All!!