"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].