Playing Catch Up!

I’m so sorry for not blogging since Friday. It was a jam-packed weekend and then my power cord blew for my laptop again! I forgot tell Cody to unplug it when we left the house. Oops! Anyway, there is so much to fill you in on, I don’t even know where to start. Here's the important stuff...


So, we showed up for court on Friday at 9am. Beth asked me several times on the way there if I was ok. Apparently, my blog post from Thursday night made her concerned for my sanity. Sorry if I seemed “scared”, but I was just keeping myself guarded and trying to prepare myself for potential problems. This is the way I operate… expect the worst and then rejoice when it’s good. Anyway, we got in the courtroom and it was jam-packed. Just a few minutes later my attorney came in and then told me and several other families expecting rulings, that we’d have to come back at 2 o’clock. So, we decided to take advantage of our extra time that morning and ran to the US Embassy for a preliminary meeting. They wanted me to go ahead and drop off her birth certificate and her parents’ death certificates so they could start their “orphan investigation”. Funny thing, I walked into the room and there were two of the other families from court. Great minds think alike! Then we had a nice leisurely lunch and a quick trip to the grocery store. Mercy had her first experience in a shopping cart. Hilarious! Her eyes got really big and she had a death grip on the handle. She did relax a little bit after a few minutes. Then we headed back to court. We walked in a few minutes early and there were the other families (all moms) awaiting rulings. It was sort of nice just having us all there together for a few minutes. We all totally understood what the others were feeling and we anxiously waited together. Then the judge entered and he began reading off the first family’s ruling. We all waited on pins and needles for those precious words “adoption granted”. When he read them, we all sort of sighed and the first mom started crying. Then he read the next and there were more tears. Then two more. Finally it was my turn. I know he had just granted all of the others, but there is always that worry, “What about me?”. John Mary sat next to me and said, “It will be ok.” He started reading mine, but he stopped several times. He basically was proofreading it while he read it. So he’s stop to change up a sentence. It was so nerve-racking. Finally he said those precious words, “Adoption granted”. I sort of collapsed, John Mary hugged me, and I started to cry. Then the gravity of the whole moment hit. Five children just received forever families. Their lives were forever changed. Wow! You may wonder where was Mercy during all of this… she was with Beth in the back of the courtroom rolling around on the floor. Sort of funny, but this huge, life-changing moment just occurred and Mercy just rolled on the floor oblivious.

That night, Mercy and I went to the airport to pick up Cody. I cannot tell you how excited I was to see him. Waiting for him to come out of immigration was killer. But here is another amazing God moment. While standing there waiting, I noticed a white couple next to me. The woman commented on how beautiful Mercy was and asked if I was adopting her. I quickly filled her in on us. Then she went on to tell me how she was the first person to adopt from Uganda through legal guardianship and how she was the one who discovered the “loop hole” in the law and then taught other lawyers and orphanages how to go ab out all of it. Wow!! She also told me how she was the one that made it possible to get the child’s visa in Uganda and not have to travel the central office in Nairobi. Seriously, on the day of Mercy’s adoption I meet the woman who paved the way for hundreds of children to find families. God is amazing! Finally, Cody came through the doors. Another funny note… my driver, Brian, could see over the crowd better than me. He told me to describe my mzungu to him and said he would point him out for me. He said, “If you see him first, don’t tell me. I will know which one he is.” Hundreds of white guys walked out, but he got Cody right on the first guess. Amazing! Brian took a couple of pictures of our first moment together. What a treasure! Mercy had been asleep most of the ride to the airport and woke up for a few minutes to see Cody and quickly fell back asleep.

Cody’s bonding with Mercy is going well. Friday night she would not really look at him and cried if he looked at her for too long. Saturday, she looked at him, but wouldn’t smile. Several times, I could see it in her eyes that she wanted to smile so bad, but she wouldn’t let herself do it. Sunday, she started smiling at him a little. Monday, she openly smiled at him and even gave him a few kisses. Today’s been awesome. We spent most of the day.. just the three of us. The “real” Mercy was on full display. She’s been laughing, hugging, giving lots of kisses and making the most hilarious faces. I’m glad she finally feels like herself around her daddy. She still likes Mommy pretty close, but she’s come a long way in just few days.

This weekend, our dear friends, Doug and Kathryn Taylor, who are missionaries in Arua, Uganda drove down to hang out with us. They moved here in January. It was great to get to see them , their kids, and hear all about their new ministry. I laughed that Cody’s first couple of days we went to the most American places in town and ate American junk food. The Taylors’ don’t have much shopping or American food in Arua, so they try to stock up in Kampala. Cody says he’s going to be the only person to come to Africa for two weeks and gain weight.  It’s great to hear how God is using the Taylors and shaping a ministry for them. They stayed with the Southern Baptist missionaries in Kampala. So we also got to meet them and hear about their work. It’s great to get to be an encouragement to our missionaries, see firsthand how God is using them, and see how our mission offerings are being used to spread the gospel in Uganda.

Today, Cody and I got alot done. We had to get Mercy’s visa photos redone. They were not the correct size first time around. Mercy screamed through the whole thing. It will be a great picture to show her some day. We also picked up the written copy of our adoption ruling and delivered that to the Embassy. Hopefully, tomorrow we’ll get her passport and Thursday get the Adoption Certificate. I hope to find out tomorrow when our official visa interview with the Embassy will be held. We hope it will be Friday or Monday so that we might still be able to return on the 8th. Please pray for this appointment and our timeline.

I’m so glad Cody is here now and getting to experience Mercy and Uganda for the first time. No matter how much Cody’s heard me, our friends, and Aunt Trudy describe Uganda, he says, “You just can’t comprehend it without seeing it firsthand”. I’m excited to see what God is going to do with the rest of our time here.