Beautiful!!

Emma, Eli, Wyatt, Josey, Della

Things I've come to appreciate

I have come to rely on things a little too much, and at times let them consume me.  What I see in the lives of African people - less earthly things, more reliance on God.  As a dear friend here in the US has often discussed with me, are we better off in our society, where we need nothing?  It's so easy to forget about God when all our physical needs are met and even surpassed.  I forget my breath is not my own, I am not in control of it all.  I need to surrender everything to Him, can I really do that?  Am I really accepting His unconditional love and and am I willing to give up whatever He asks?


I have found a renewed appreciation for..... automatic clothes washer and dryer, dishwasher, screaming children, every day chores that never seem to get done, more than one room in our living quarters, an over abundance of food and choices of food (including grocery stores!), eating at a restaurant and not worrying about if I will get sick from it, the clean smell of the US air, people who obey traffic rules and peaceful driving, having a car to transport people and things SAFELY.  I know, not a big deal, right?  Well, after having experienced the Africa for two weeks I have come to appreciate these simple things in life.  I really missed these things when they were gone, and now that I've got them back I appreciate them more.



Here was my clothes "washer and dryer" situation while in Africa, and it took a minimum of 2 days for things to dry:

We ate at this buffet restaurant which tasted awesome and cost $60 for 2...but we suffered the whole next day:

We had almost nothing to do while in Africa.  Therefore, I will try to appreciate my crazy, busy, "seems like I never get anything done" life here in the US:

Sit outside

Watch lizards

Watch Doug read, and read, and read.....

Try for many days to capture a photo of this fast little bird

It's so nice to have more than one room to live in, and have the freedom to go wherever you want, whenever you want.  Here's where we called home in Africa:

I'm learning to not stress when a little one's crying, but to enjoy the sound (sounds crazy, huh?) because that child is alive, in my presence.  I think back to the day we thought Josey was lost last year at Myrtle Beach where this whole thought of adopting stemmed from.  (Check out post titled : I once was lost, but now I'm found )  We were back at the beach house and she was crying because she didn't want to nap, but I loved hearing her cry because she wasn't gone.

And now, as Della screams because she doesn't like that she can't throw a toy across the room in a rage, it doesn't stress me out as much...because she's finally home.  I can hear her with my own ears:

Home at last!

That is the worst "labor" I've have ever experienced!  We returned late last Sunday night from Africa.  I was starting to feel like we would never make it back to the US.  It all started out with us being evicted from our hotel on Saturday afternoon (our reservations had expired) and sitting outside waiting to hear whether we were to go to another hotel or leave on an airplane to come home.  We already had plane tickets booked but didn't have our exit letter yet.

To the left is our friend, Heather, who unfortunately still remains in Africa with her baby awaiting an exit letter.

So our attorney/guide/friend, Etienne, arrived around 4pm and stalled on telling us whether or not we got the exit letter.  He handed us our passports and went to the car and pulled out our file with the exit letter!  I hugged and kissed him crying.  It was bittersweet because we of course wanted to go home, but we hated to leave our new friend and her baby.  We really enjoyed spending time and sharing pizza with them.  Since her husband had to return to the US the week before we had been helping watch her baby while she showered and washed clothes.   We said our goodbyes and went to the agency office where we helped Etienne make copies of our file.  The agency was closed since it was Saturday, so he needed our assistance.

Our flight was scheduled to leave at 8:25 pm and it was now 5.  We were nervous knowing it is advisable to be at the airport 3 hours before departure.  We still had to drive to the airport which in real time takes 20 minutes but in the countries traffic could take up to three hours.  And, by the way, now we had to check our baggage at the airport which was an added stress.  We finally had everything ready and left for the airport at 5:45.  Well, we almost had everything ready....in the car Etienne had to call the US Embassy to talk them into bringing Della's immigration packet to the airport. 

The reckless taxi cab driver caused me to become very ill about 1 hour into our very hot and diesel fumed journey.  I rolled the window down (which I was always told NOT to do for the past two weeks because it's not safe), and was so afraid I would vomit on the people walking by.  Fortunately, I hadn't ate much so I only dry heaved for the next 10 minutes as we continued to drive.  We continued to the airport as the sun set.  We finally made it 2 minutes before they closed the baggage check!  Our attorney was now relieved and was not worried about us missing our flight.  It wasn't easy after that,  three more times I thought, "we aren't going to get out of here".  Finally, we made it through immigration (they said we were missing a paper, Doug had to go get Ety to straighten that out) and we ignored the man at security asking for "money" and walked to the airplane shuttle.   

For the next 28 hours Della was wonderful, she didn't cry or scream once!  I vomited continuously due to motion sickness, didn't eat, barely drank and was pretty much useless.  And that left Doug, who hardly got a wink of sleep and had to care of the Della the entire time.  We didn't care though because we were going HOME!!  (Hence no photos of the trip home).  We arrived in the US Sunday evening at 7:30 and our immigration officer happened to be from our area and was very familiar with Nutter's ice cream.  It was sooo  nice to be in America, the air smelled so fresh, everything was so clean.  My brother drove us home and he was so afraid his driving would make me more sick.  I told him it was like heaven to have him drive! 

After roughly a 36 hour journey from start to finish.....we made it home!!

I, Sarah, was vomiting continuously from motion sickness for 30 of those hours, therefore Doug had to take care of Della.  And he's had almost no sleep.  Della was great the whole trip home, lots of smiles and talking and a little sleep, but no crying at all.  I will write more after we catch up from jet lag....

Getting close!

Internet is back up and running. It went out Monday night, and yesterday we learned that a couple from Canada had a very poor connection on a different network that gave access on only their laptop from only their room. They were kind enough to let everyone invade their room and send a few emails.

You haven't missed much here.  We were to go to immigration Monday, but Ety called and said it would be Tuesday at 10:30 instead. Tuesday he kept calling and said that the director was not in, we would wait....at 3:30 he finally picked us up. We went upstairs at the immigration and waited in the hallway while Ety talked to someone in an office. He told us that we will see the director.......and we did....he walked past us down the stairs and out of the building. Yesterday was more of the same, except it was us calling Ety, asking when we could go. He picked us up late in the afternoon and took us back to the immigration. We actually got to see the director this time. He looked at our passports, asked us our names, pretended to look at our file, and then said that we would have our exit papers on Friday after the "high director" looks at our file. Ety told us to trust God that we can leave on Saturday. I told him that I trust God, but I don't trust the immigration.

We ordered pizza again tonight, so delicious! More families have arrived this week to start their exit process. We are the first of our agency to go through this changed process since February. So all eyes are on our cases (our neighbor's file is moving at the same time as ours).

So, as of right now we are scheduled to fly out of here Saturday night.  That will be a 29 hour trip in real time.  Hopefully we get our papers early on Friday and avoid any drama, but that's not usually the way things work around here.  We will be sure we are headed home when the wheels are up on the plane.  

Doug

One family, worlds apart

This week we have missed our other four children.  We can't wait to reunite with them and finally be a family of seven!  We are so grateful that so much family has stepped in to take care of the four still in the US.  I miss Emma spouting off little facts and Eli showing me a beautiful drawing.  I miss Wyatt showing me his lego creations and Josey talking and talking and talking.

                              Eli, Emma, Wyatt and Josey scooping fish at Myrtle beach

                                            Sarah and Della at the pool (in Africa)