"Africa Time"

Things just work a little differently, here in Uganda. It turns out that "Africa Time" is a real thing. Sometimes, things that should take a day, take a week. Then, just when you get used to everything moving slowly, it seems like someone set the throttle to full speed.

 At 9:00 p.m. on Sunday night, we were informed by the mother of the family that we're staying with, that we were to leave at 7:45 Monday morning to go meet our case worker in Kampala. I don't think any of us thought much of it. I was just surprised that we were going to be getting anything done this early in the week.

So, the next morning after chatting with our case worker, he informed us that Gideon and his Ja Ja [grandma] were on their way.

My legs felt a little weak at that point. We had informed our case worker that we didn't want to meet Gideon [and therefore, become attached] before a judge had given us a court date. But, for some reason, they overlooked that request. So, Gideon and his grandma, along with a sister and aunt, showed up about ten minutes later. We were delighted when Gideon didn't freak out when he saw us. After only a few minutes, Kristen was able to pick him up as we proceeded to the car! We went to our attorney's office where we continued to try and play with him. By the time it was our turn to talk to the attorney, we had him rolling the ball across the table to Kristen while sitting on my lap!

During all of this, I kept thinking, "Crap, this better work out or I'm gonna be livid" [that's the PG version anyway].

Then, we all went out to lunch. Gideon sat on my lap the whole time and straight up devoured my french fries. He was also eating some of my chicken and some of Kristen's fish strips. We learned that none of them had eaten yet that day. Afterward, we all went our separate ways.

It all seemed a blur since we weren't expecting any of it; especially in lieu of how court went with Viola's case just three days prior [see previous post]. We feel hopeful for Gideon's case because it is actually a stronger case than Viola's. Gideon is the youngest of all eleven children that they care for. Also, the grandma seems to have a little more 'with-it-ness' when compared to Viola's grandma. She seems very excited at the prospect of us being Gideon's parents.

This Saturday, we're going to visit Gideon's village [which is much closer than Viola's, thankfully]. We plan to take some gifts and some soccer balls as the kids really seem to enjoy them. It should be a good time and everyone is hopeful.

Lastly, we've been informed that we have the same judge for both Gideon and Viola's cases. This is good news because our attorney has worked with this judge on several occasions. Also, since we've already seen this judge, he know's we're here and he will [hopefully] agree to schedule our court date[s] sooner, rather than later. We were supposed to have a court date on Monday, but still have not heard from our attorney's assistant on this matter. Hopefully, we'll know in the next day or two.

Once again, thank you for your encouragement, prayer, and support. It makes us feel good that our two prospective kids would have such a loving environment to come home to!

Derek, Kristen [and Ellie].

Shell Shocked

So much has happened in the 3 days that we've been in Uganda that it will be hard to squeeze it into this post. I will try to keep it short as the kids of the family who live here want me to come outside and "bounce the ball." Rough life eh?

Everything is different here, yet there are odd similarities. All the signs are in English, yet its often hard to understand people because of their accents. Its very modern in some places, but blocks away it can look like a complete slum. Almost everyone is exceptionally nice including the family we're staying with [huge bonus]. Traffic in Kampala is a nightmare, but it's just normal to those who live here. Motorcycles are everywhere. People are always getting rides on them and their just a normal part of the taxi system in Kampala. As we were crossing one street today, we had to wait for about 200 motorcycles to go by right in a row. Also, you just drive wherever you want. There is a side of the road you're supposed to stay on, but that's about the only real rule. Other times, you just budge in and out of where you want to be; similar to what it would be like to walk down a busy sidewalk in New York... only you do it with cars, trucks, SUVS, and motorcycles.

Now, onto the real matter at hand.

Yesterday, we went to Luweero to visit Viola's probation officer and Viola's family [we've decided to call her Viola instead of Violet]. The drive to the probation officer's office was around 3 hours. When we got there, she was quite harsh with us. She asked us many hard to answer questions; some that even felt like personal stabs that the fact that we're not yet parents. She seemed to indicate that we would most likely be inadequate parents and did not know what we're doing. Halfway through this interrogation, I started to get the sense that maybe she was being harsh because she wanted us to be aware of the decision we were about to make. After all of this, we went to visit Viola

We made another 45 minute journey mostly down a road that had pot holes and ruts so big, that I wasn't sure we would make it through. When we reached the end of this road, we walked around 500 feet and arrived at Viola's home [i.e. her home is in the middle of NOWHERE]. Her grandma was coming down the path with a basket of nuts on her head. 87 years of being in the elements definitely shows on her skin and body. However, she was quite a pleasant, welcoming woman. Then, she called for Viola. Viola is the CUTEST little girl! She also had quite an attitude that first day. We couldn't really get close to her or even have her look at us without her hiding behind her grandma. I rolled a soccer ball towards her and she let it run into her leg and turned away. After a half an hour visit, we left to go back to the probation officer's office, then take her home, then return to Kampala. Once in Kampala, we ran into the worst traffic jam I've ever been in. On the way home, I was constantly nodding off to sleep and then coming back awake, confused as to what was going on. I felt like I was hallucinating. In hindsight, we had a light breakfast, and packed very little food and water for the day. I guess we just thought we would stop for lunch in the middle of nowhere, Uganda.... nope. I think we were pretty dehydrated and hungry by the day's end. We got home around 8:00 and went straight to bed.

TODAY:

We had our court date today. We met Violet and her grandmother outside the courthouse and she was much less fiesty than the day before. She let us give her some cheerios and a sippie cup of water almost right away [although, we learned an hour later that she wasn't drinking any because she didn't know she had to suck on the sippie cup]. When we went into the court house to wait, I got to sit by her and she even leaned on my leg for awhile! We showed her grandma pictures of our family and gave Viola a beaded bracelet. All seemed well.

Then, we went into see the judge. When grandma got in front of the microphone, she said some things that were inconsistent with the probationary report. When the judge basically said that he cannot grant us guardianship under these conditions, court was dismissed and we went to another room. Our attorney, probation officers, and case worker all talked the situation over. All agreed that she had told them exactly what was in the report many times before. My guess is that grandma is getting cold feet. Our attorney has a good relationship with the judge and will be re-filing our application early next week [we hope]. We're lucky that he didn't throw it out altogether. We're a little shell-shocked, but our case worker seems to think that it will get solved, it just may take a little longer.

SO... we ask for your continued prayer. I think I've said more prayers in the last 24 hours than I have in the previous 24 days. God continues to remind me that He is good and if this is supposed to happen, than it will. He also continues to remind me that doing what is right is not always easy/convenient [how fitting, eh?]. 

-------------------------

Gideon's case is sort of on hold [as we have the same attorney for both cases]. Please be in prayer for this too. If Viola's case takes longer, I'm guessing that pushes back things for Gideon as well.

I hope to get a chance to write more throughout our trip so please check back. I'm posting the updates on Facebook and Twitter, so get in touch with me there if you want notifications of the updates. Our internet is weak, but seems to be consistent [at least for the last hour].

Love ya'll!

Derek and Kristen [and Ellie]