Day 4 - The Act d'Adoption

October 3, 2011

The Sisters signing the Act d'Adoption

Jeff signing

Me signing!

Today began with a big step. Jeff and I signed the Act d'Adoption, which is the official adoption document at the sector level. This document IS the adoption. The remaining steps are simply final approvals of our act. It was signed by the district head later in the day. We go to court later in the week for a judge to sign off.

The day started when Peter, our POA, picked us up at the guest house around 8am. We all piled into our wonderful white Toyota van, driven by Julius. Julius is an amazing driver and parker. It's amazing where he can squeeze that van. We drove about 15 minutes through traffic, pedestrians, motorbikes, and trucks in what's almost a high-speed, chaotic dance. Back at home, we shriek when someone gets within yards of our car on the road. Over here, cars get within inches of pedestrians, bikes, chickens, anything... and nobody even flinches.

We met Norbert (our lawyer's partner) at the sector court. We hopped a curb (there are no driveways...everyone hops curbs) and walked down a dimly lit hallway into the 2nd door on our left. Inside there were two assistants filling out giant ledgers in a tiny sweltering office. I'm sure it was cool at some point during the morning, but after you cram 10 people in a small office and another 5-10 in the hallway outside, it's a hot mess.

Sisters from the orphanage came and signed their approval of the adoption. After a few minutes, the Act d'Adoption was ready for us to sign. We each had to sign three times! Jeff signed the documents and then I went up to sign. It's amazing that after all of the waiting, paperwork, sleepless nights, fundraisers, etc., these are some of the most important signatures that we will ever pen, announcing to the world that we LOVE our BOY and that God has chosen HIM to be with US. Who knew that six signatures could cause so much emotion?

After we finished up at the sector court, we headed off to the Home of Hope. On our journey to the orphanage, Peter gave us the original photo of Miles. This is the first photo of our boy, standing on a stool, with a cute little outfit. This image that I have studied so much... I know his eyes, his lips, his ears, his hands. I have THAT photo in my hand... the ACTUAL photo!

While we continued on the bumpy road to see our boy, Peter told us that Miles was found when he was just two months old. I thought about this for a moment. If he was two months old and at the orphanage in July 2009, why wasn't he adopted with a family that requested a baby and traveled to Rwanda in January 2010? March 2010? Anytime 2010 or the beginning of 2011? He was and is a healthy boy and would've surely met someone's specifications. The only reason that I can come up with is that he is MEANT to be in our family. There's something about the finality of that... that he was chosen for our family... for me to love and call my son. I know that no matter how hard these few days, weeks and months may be, I know that I need him and he needs me.

Once we arrived at the orphanage, the nuns went to go get Miles (to them it's Ignatius or "natius" as he is called) and we waited to see him walk up the little hill. He cried when he had to be given to us (he still just loves those sisters!) but his crying didn't last long. He is still very stoic, but that's okay. We have all the time in the world, and we know just a little bit about being patient. (This was the morning visit. Our afternoon visit is where a little bit of magic happened.) Once the visit was over, he waved to us, but felt the most secure in the sister's white habit.

We left for lunch at Afrika Bite (pronounced "bee-tay" which means "what's up?" in Swahili). It was a buffet-style meal, served with Peter's favorite passion fruit juice. Yum. The food was wonderful and gave us all a little bit of the region's flavor. After lunch, we came back to the guest house to rest/nap and then headed back to the orphanage to see our little man again.

Once Miles calmed down (minute or so), we had a very nice visit. We read some books and tried to play with the car. It turned out he had the most fun taking things out of his backpack and then immediately putting them back into his backpack. Keeping his things organized? A child after my own heart!

Then the magic happened. I took a drink out of my water bottle and he looked at me, put his hands out, asking for the water. So, I handed him the water bottle and he started to chug it down. After each sip, we clapped and praised him, and then immediately asked for a high five. He did it! Several chugs and high fives later, we even got to see his elusive smile! It was a great moment. Progress.

Andrea, sound asleep under her "princess" mosquito net

We are all starting to feel a little sick, in various ways. I'm in a perpetual state of...well, you really don't want to know. Let's just say if Imodium had a Facebook page, I'd "like" it. Joe's strep throat has gotten better with antibiotics, and Jeff felt a little flu-like during the night. Andrea has fared the best thus far, just being tired...so tired that she skipped dinner tonight. We'll get through it. We have our eyes on the prize.

A beautiful boy has entered our family. We love him so much already and can hardly wait to get back home and start living!