Filling in the Blanks

Hi Everyone! We are so happy to be home and feeling about back to normal now after a week and a half at home. While we were in Rwanda and Ethiopia we had a much more difficult time using the internet and getting onto Blogger was impossible in Ethiopia. Now that I have complete use of my brain again I wanted to fill in the areas we didn't get to share during our trip and especially pictures since they were so hard to upload from Africa. If you do not want all the wordy parts, I know I will probably lose most everyone with my details, please feel free to jump down to the pictures :)

First a summary of our trip:
Apr 30-May 2 Flights to Denver, DC, Ethiopia, Uganda and finally Kigali Rwanda

May 2 Straight to the Ministry to speak with our case worker

May 3 Back to the Ministry for our appointment with our case worker

May 4 To the US Embassy for the notary on the document our case worker requested (something no one has ever needed, but us and one other family had to have it in order to receive our referrals, the fun really starts)

May 5 Document submitted to our case worker, our referral sent to the Minister for signature, she slips in and out while we are in her secretary's office :)

May 6 Back to the Ministry to await the Minister's signature, we meet her and she says it is signed and waiting, we await the secretary processing our receiving it, then we finally get the packet we have long anticipated and see Isaac's face!!
Next we head to The Sector to sign our Act of Adoption, we meet a couple of the nuns from the orphange and go to Home of Hope with them. First time to meet Isaac, so exciting that many of the families in our group are there visiting their children, we felt a little like zoo animals during the meeting, but love the 100+ pictures our friend Anna took for us! and video by Dillon!
After visiting hours ended we went to the court house to put in our request for a court date, the Judge went home early not feeling well so we will have to wait

May 7 & 8 The Weekend, again a long waiting time even in Africa :) We did get to visit Isaac at the orphanage, we went shopping and to a wonderful church service. The music was awesome! We arrived at the service and hour and a half after it started and enjoyed the next 2 hours of service. We were able to enjoy Mother's Day with our newest son and speak with the big kids by Skype.

May 9 First thing was our court appointment, we spoke with the Judge in his chambers, requesting adoption of Isaac, he loved seeing Isaac's picture, then we visited Isaac in the morning visitation hours. We returned at 3pm for our court ruling, we were able to sit in the court reading of all his rulings, for 5 cases, all in French, but still interesting. We stood in front while he read ours then when he paused he looked at us and said quietly (even more quiet than the usual Rwandan whisper) "it is done" and smiled at us, we signed and waited for the rest of the reading to be finished. Then we celebrated! Isaac is legally ours.

May 10 We are able to take Isaac for the day, and we submitted our application for Isaac's passport

May 11 & 12 We didn't accomplish anything on the adoption, the Minister had been let go and we were awaiting the swearing in of the new Minister since our court ruling was after the precious Minister's last day (by 1 day).

May 13 We arrived at the Ministry at 6:45am and watched everyone arrive for the day. We spoke with the Minister's secretary and our case worker. We then met the new Minister and spoke with her in her new office. She signed our To Whom letter, the official document to travel with Isaac. We then had to wait for a new document she requested we sign be drafted. After 4 hours we were done and left the Ministry for the last time.
Jeff went to the Emigration office to show our To Whom so we could obtain Isaac's passport, they finished it in an hour and a half!
Sheri is at the US Embassy, most of our group has been in for appointments all morning, and submitted our documents begin the visa process. When Jeff brought the passport we were able to sign everything. The consular, awesome women Jean, was there for her last day. She usually processes 2, at most 5, adoption visas in a day, and with our group, 1 family with another agency and 2 independent families she had 14 visas requests. She was absolutely great! We finished up at 3pm, she had our group in since 9am and usually closes at 1pm. She worked so hard and by 6pm all the dads had received all the packets. Praise God! All 9 of our families got to travel on time.
10:30pm we head to the airport.

May 14 We have been at the airport since yesterday! But after two and a half hours we have made it through security and check in. Then we submitted our exit visas, second security and boarded the plane. Many thanks to our travel buddies who kept the plane from leaving without us!!
Flight to Uganda then Addis Ababa Ethiopia, wonderful guide Y met us at the airport and we were taken to our hotel to drop our luggage. The awesome, buff housekeeping women hauled our 50 pound bags up to our room on the 5th floor (yep, no elevator :) ) Then we went for the kid's medical appointments, Isaac got a clean bill of health, but we are missing his vaccination records. The wonderful Y and T get right on it. We skipped lunch today for a much needed nap.

May 15 We went to a great church service at the International Evangelical Church, the pastor is from North Carolina and members are from all over the world. The worship music was handpicked by God for sure! We had a wonderful lunch after. Then we received awesome news, God was taking care of us again. Our awesome POA P in Rwanda had gotten our vaccination records and met up with the family adopting through another agency who we had befriended at HOH and they hand delivered Isaac's records to Ethiopia for us! We were stuck trying to find out how to get these or getting Isaac re-vaccinated or we wouldn't be able to bring him to the US.

May 16 Took Isaac's vaccination records to the clinic and completed our request for the Embassy for the visa, yes again.

May 17 Our guides submitted all our families' documents to the embassy to request visa interviews. We found out we needed 3 documents from Rwanda translated to English for the Embassy. Y took me and one of the fathers to a translation office to try to get these done. Amazing, between the 2 of us we needed 4 documents translated from French to English in 2 hours, it cost us about $43 to get this done, crazy! We had the needed documents in had in time.

May 18 We all went to the US Embassy for our interview appointments at 9am. It went so well, we just waited our turn and each spoke with the man for a few minutes and he told us to have our representative return at 3pm. We then had a good lunch and visited the Lion Zoo. The zoo was definitely not my favorite time, very depressing, but good to be out and about instead of worrying about what could go wrong. We also went to Ethiopian Air office to change plane tickets. Y brought our Travel Packets a little after 3 and we had our kids' passports back with the IR-3 visas (the good ones!) We celebrated and began packing.

May 19 A small group of us went to a coffee factory and had a tour. It was very interesting and so funny how we could walk through a factory with all these machines with babies in our arms, so not happening in the US :) It was fun and we enjoyed the tour. Then we had a great lunch, finished packing and visited with our fellow travelers a bit.
At 5pm we left for the airport. Our best friends were leaving too and we got to travel home together! We got through security and check in much more quickly this time. Then we had some dinner and hung out until it was closer to our boarding time. In Ethiopia you have to go through a second security to get to the gate. We felt a bit like we were in a cell, there are plenty of chairs but we are surrounded by glass walls and there are no restrooms and anything like water to purchase at this point. We had 1 remaining hour to board, then our long flight began. We had a fuel stop in Rome and then touched down in DC 16 hours later.

May 20 Which brought us to Friday. We got through customs very quickly and rechecked our bags, got boarding passes and through security again. We enjoyed the restrooms right away! Then we had some wonderful Chipotle and visited with our friends at the gate. We had seperate flights to Denver but got to say goodbye at DIA. Our final flight to Boise got us in at 9pm, 48 hours after we had last slept.

You can see why we were out of it for the first week home :) Now, for anyone still hanging in with my endless post, here are the pictures:

View of Kigali from the plane when we first spotted it

Our wonderful home in Rwanda, Chez Lando

Our first sighting of Isaac, with sister T bringing him up to the courtyard

First time we saw Isaac play with toys

First time in the bus and out of the orphanage

Naptime in the hotel

Monkeys at the Ministry, an unexpected, fun blessing because of the many, many days we spent there

Ok, I have overwhelmed you all enough by now, I hope you enjoy the photos. We will post on the days home and more pictures very soon!

Sheri

What to say

Those of you who know me well know that I am never short on spoken or written words. So much so that during my senior year I was provided the Ernest Hemingway award by my AP English teacher for the lengthy essays I provided. That being said (or written), there are times over the last 3 weeks when I have been short of appropriate words to say to express my feelings about the blessing we have been provided.

Over the last 25 months, we have worked to bring home Isaac to our family. The nightly prayers, things for his room, toys and the constant questions were all reminders that he was going to be home soon. When we finally saw him,that all seemed worthwhile, and we could not wait to get him back to our family. On Friday night that finally happened after 36 hours of airports and airplanes from Ethiopia to Boise, Idaho.

The kids and our family were waiting at security for us, and the were very excited when we got there. I have never had so many hugs and kisses from the big kids in my life. Since that time, the kiddos have spent the majority of their time surrounding Isaac and playing some sort of peek a boo.

I cannot express how much we have wanted to complete this and how thankful we are that God cleared the hurdles. I know that God knows our hearts, and that He faithfully provides answers to those who will listen. Now I just need to be comfortable not having all the answers with Isaac, and trusting that we will know what to do appropriately as he grows up. We look forward to the firsts that we get to experience, and we will make sure to share what we can as it happens.

Jeff

Back to America

Sorry we have been so out of touch, internet in Ethiopia was sporadic at best. We did finish up our visa interview on Wed and got Isaac's visa that same day. With our last document finished and ahead of schedule we changed our flights to come home early. We left our hotel in Ethiopia at 8:30am Mountain time on Thurs and arrived in DC today at 5:30am. We still have 2 flights to get home, through Denver. We are so happy to be back in America and went straight to Chipotle after customs :) We still have a long day but are so happy to have our transatlantic flight behind us. Isaac did great but did not sleep. We can't wait to get home to the big kids and see everyone soon! Thanks for all your prayers, Isaac is almost home and now a US citizen :)

Sheri

You know you are in Ehtiopia when

When Sheri and I were planning for our travel to Rwanda to pick up our son, we were very excited to drink in the country. We had anticipated loving the landscape, people and culture. We were not let down. We wanted to make sure that we have an appreciation for everything that is Rwanda, so that our son would be able to appreciate where he was born until we could return. We, however, did not have the same inclination toward Ethiopia.

Most of our information related to what to expect from travel come from previous travel groups. What we received in detail was very few pictures and the expectation that we may not have much assistance while in Ethiopia. We have been received warmly by the AWAA staff here, and they have been very helpful. We have our US Embassy appointment on Wednesday to find out how soon we might expect a visa for our son to come home. The people we have worked with have been gracious, merciful, kind, loving and forgiving for a group that is very tired. Other than the naked man walking leisurely down the street, Addis Ababa has many of the same things we have seen in Rwanda, Uganda and Mexico.
That being said, we are eager to return home to our family and friends. I feel bad saying that since we are grateful for those we have traveled with over this last three weeks. I know they are likely also feeling the same. We are so thankful for those with whom we have worked and those we have met along the way.
We ask that you continue to pray for continued health for our travel group as we finish up our time together. Please also pray for continued protection for our families at home. We are very thankful for the provision of God all along the way multiple times, and we know now more than ever that we have to rely on Him fully. We are eager to see everybody and introduce our son.
Have a wonderful Wednesday and goodnight from Addis Ababa!
Jeff

My deliverer

Ice. How can something so simple make me long for home? There are so many other things and people that make me want to be home with our kids and our new son, but ice was what made me start thinking through being away from home for about two weeks.

Being able to see our children and family through Skype has been a blessing while we were in Rwanda and now that we are in Ethiopia. Our family has taken wonderful care of them, and they seem so excited to get Isaac back home to play with their cousin Peyton. The food has, for the most part, been very similar to somewhat adventurous experiences in the states. The rooms we have stayed in have been great. The people we have met have been great. All things that make me appreciate the countries we are visiting.

However, my desire for an ice-cold soda with unlimited, free refills caused an emotional reaction. This then led to me thinking through all the other things that are very different than where we are: fresh vegetables, reliable cable internet, very little humidity, my own bed, microwave popcorn, etc. I then started to remember that God did not guarantee me that I would never have to suffer, and that missing those things are not really any part of suffering.
God has blessed us with so many things over this past couple weeks. The consular in Kigali worked an extra 5 hours last Friday to process 14 total travel documents when her max normally is 5 per day. Not to mention that she was moving to Washington, DC the next week, and it was not her problem. Five passports were pushed through Rwandan immigration after the normal end time. Our entire travel group was able to get on the plane together when it looked like last Thursday it could not happen.
The most recent deliverance happened today. Those of you who know my wife know that she is the most organized person I know. She has kept meticulous files over the last 25 months, and she has been patient with me. We have an expandable folder with documents that we need that are organized by topic. Throughout this last two weeks I have shuffled documents in and out of this folder, to my detriment. Today, I was hurriedly looking for the documents that we would need for our Visa application to the embassy. I pulled out each document to look for a document that I know we needed. It was not there, and I was very concerned. I put the file down after putting everything back in it, and we went to dinner. Sheri then retrieved the file and miraculously found the document that was not there before. Blame it on my hurried approach or maybe a document sticking together. I would rather thank God for providing what we need each day and not just what we want.
I would rather have the documents, our son and our family in one place than ice and refills. I am thankful daily for what He is providing each day. I will be very thankful when we get home, and I can express my love for what we have missed. The experience is one that I will not forget, and I would not want to. I will remember the mysterious appearance of a document that made me feel much better this evening.

Jeff

Marathon Day

Wow, what a day! We had a lot to do today and we started early. We were at the Ministry at 6:45 this morning and began the crazy day. We were waiting for our “To Whom Letter”. The new Minister was beginning work today and we were able to meet with her briefly after she had signed our letter. Then we waited for some other pieces of paperwork and at about 10:45am we were on our way. After this Jeff went to the Emigration office to finish processing Isaac’s passport. We had already submitted our application but needed to bring our “To Whom” in order to finish the process. This was completed and we had his passport in hand by 1pm. Then to the US Embassy. We are forever grateful to the wonderful Consulate, who on her last day in this office worked so hard, above and beyond, for all the families. By 3pm we had submitted all the documents to her and she was going to work to get as many of the families’ travel packets prepared as she could, we were all told to return at 5pm to see what she had. We knew this was our last needed document to leave the country and our flight was scheduled for 1:30am Saturday. All the moms and children waited, not so patiently, at the hotel while the dads returned for the verdict. At about 6pm they returned with all 11 children’s travel packets! Praise the Lord! We are so excited and relieved to be able to make our flight tonight and our medical appointments tomorrow in Ethiopia.

So, we are all packed and ready, in about 20 min we will gather the remainder of our documents here and head to the airport. It will be interesting to see how all the kids do on the flight and tomorrow after a less restful night. We are going to miss Rwanda for sure but so glad to be headed to Ethiopia, which is one step closer to home. We don’t think we have that much to do while we are there, but will be eager to finish up and take our kiddos home. Off we go, just wanted to share our exciting news.

Praising God-Sheri

First Day Out

Today was an awesome day! Because we passed court yesterday we were able to pick our new son, Isaac, up at the orphanage and keep him with us all day! It was great. We were finally able to see him really smile, hear him laugh and babble. He is so sweet and loving. He really enjoys cuddling and exploring, today he saw tv for the first time, rode in a car, felt the wind rush through the window, touched so many things. We just fell more and more in love with him. He did awesome with us too, he ate well and napped, played and interacted so much. We couldn't have asked for a better first day all together with him.

We also enjoyed 2 super special moments with some friends here, we were able to share their joy in receiving their referral and meeting their new child today, what a privelage. We are rejoicing with them tonight and praying for a busy day of progress tomorrow for their Act of Adoption and Court, that we just finished.

We also applied for Isaac's passport today, we will be able to receive that after 1 more document. We hope to get our last document, our To Whom Letter, tomorrow. This the the paper we need so we can have Isaac with us all the time and travel out of Rwanda.

Please pray for our To Whom Letter to be signed tomorrow, for our friends' next needs, for the other 7 families with us as they bond more and more with their children, and for all our families at home. We are half way through our trip tomorrow and we sure miss the kiddos at home. Thank you so much for all your support and prayers. We are praying for good news to share tomorrow!

Here is our cute guy today, enjoying time playing in the hotel room and his 1st Broncos outfit!

Meet the newest Lichty

Throughout this last two weeks, Sheri and I have been continually reminded about God’s grace and abounding mercy. Long travel, strange hours and uncertainty have all crept into our lives, but God continually delivers without fail. Last week when we were concerned, he provided relief. Today when we are eager and certain of his providence, he delivers again.

We are eager and proud to announce that our son is officially our son today according to the Primary Court in Rwanda. We have spent some hours with him visiting over this weekend and today, but starting on Tuesday morning we will get to take him away from the orphanage during the day. We have some more hurdles to overcome this week, but with God’s help all things are possible. We are excited to give him a bath, dress him in clothes we packed and even to change his diapers, all things that we were able to do with our other children as well.

Sheri and I are very thankful for you prayers, and we ask for them to continue. We need God’s intervention to help all the processes for the group to move forward appropriately. I also need God to intervene so that I will not continue to eat samosa’s (a wonderful eggroll type snack that you can find in bakeries and snack bars). Please continue to pray that the children will be healthy, our families will be well at home and that we will have God’s protection as we travel.

And now, without further ado, here is a fresh picture of our son Isaac Aaron. We look forward to talking with folks more about him once we get home. We also will post more photos as we have more time and ability.

God Bless,

Jeff

Referral!

Finally, the words we have waited to share for so long! Today, after taking care of the things our case worker at the ministry needed us to come and do, the Minister signed the referral our case worker wrote up. We were able to pick it up at the Ministry with a couple great friends who were also needing to be there and see our boy's face for the first time. Yippee!

We cannot yet share any details, we will need to wait until he is legally ours to do so. We can say that today after picking up our referral we went to sign our Act of Adoption, not even sure what that is :) Then we went to meet him for the first time at the orphanage, what a wonderful moment, so great after this long wait! We were surrounded by friends, which is just such a great blessing. He is a great little boy, in the age range we requested and was so very cuddly. We also requested our court date today but will have to wait until Mon morning for an answer. It was such a wonderful day, topped off with a second visit with our youngest son and a celebratory dinner with the group. All 9 families had a great day with new progress, Praise the Lord, He is good to us.

We are so very excited about meeting our son and looking forward to more visits this weekend, definitely praying for great progress on Mon. We just can't wait to take him home, but we are sure enjoying the wonderful friends we get to experience this all with and the time in this beautiful country.

Sheri

Sobering

In preparing for our trip to Rwanda two years ago, I read the book A Thousand Hills about Rwanda’s rebirth after the genocide of 1994. Wonderful read, even if you do not like historical accounts. I have been reminded of that often this last week after having conversations with people. Got a greater appreciation today as we visited the Genocide Memorial in Kigali.

If you don’t know, in 1994 from April 6- July there was a systematic genocide to attempt to wipe out the Tutsi and moderate Hutu population in Rwanda. A million people, or more, were killed during this three month timeframe. The country has since been in a state of recovery, reconciliation, forgiveness and rebirth under their president Paul Kagame. At the 10 year anniversary of the genocide in 2004, the Genocide Memorial opened.

It was tastefully done, and it was hard not to be touched intellectually and emotionally by the thought-provoking exhibits. I will include one picture which is the torch outside of the memorial along with elephant clay pots. The elephant is a symbol that we should never forget that this happened, and that we should never let it happen in the future anywhere. The flame in the photo is lit in April for the 100 days of mourning each year through July. I am also reminded that many children lost most or all of their family. There is a quote that stuck with me today from the Talmud in the Genocide Memorial which says, “Whoever rescues a single life earns as much merit as though he had rescued the entire world.” It is amazing to hear the stories of the survivors from the video clips we saw today. The stories of possible forgiveness are amazing.

We will make sure to update you on further progress with our adoption as we are able. We continue to ask for prayers of protection for our group of 23 travelling around this crazy city. We ask for prayers for health of the children in the orphanage who will soon be going home with their families. We ask for prayers for comfort for our families at home. I know that I ask for prayers for a country that still has deep wounds that need to heal to continue recovery. We are thankful for the chance to be here, humbled by what we witness and excited for the future.

God Bless,

Jeff

Good day

Good day today here today in Rwanda. Had some movement in our process, and it was nice after only about 48 hours in-country. This is a beautiful country, and it seems to be changing daily. Amazing to see that road projects spring up and get completed in a hurry. Good thing since the traffic is a living object. Not many rules, aggressiveness wins and few accidents considering those variables. According to our friends there has been almost unprecedented growth in the country for infrastructure and buildings. Where once there was not much electrical power or running water, it is cascading out to the outlying areas around Kigali. Got to spend some nice time today in the city center taking in the scenery today and seeing the flow of the populace. Very excited that we have some things on tap tomorrow, and we appreciate your prayers that things will go smoothly for the signatures and forward progress for everybody.

Kigali, finally.

We had a pretty insignificant trip into Kigali today. That is, unless you count the over 16 hours worth of travel. We are very tired after not sleeping yesterday much, and we are ready for bed. No jet lag, but certainly ready to get going to sleep.

Other than significant delays in the air on Sunday and Monday, we all got here in one piece with all of our luggage. We got the chance to ride on a Boeing 777 which is a plane that Sheri's Father helped produce. We also got a chance to meet the other 4 families that travelled with us out of Washington, Dulles. The Boeing 737-800 was not as roomy. I was at ease when the voice from the cockpit was an American, but certainly was not sure later. We landed in Entebbe, Uganda smack dab in the middle of Lake Victoria. Spectacular view on the way down, but very cloudy. As we touched down, we expected to slow down, but instead we bounced off the runway a bit. Hard landing, but everyone was fine. We had an almost empty flight from there into Kigali. Met the rest of our wonderful travel mates, and powers of attorney N & P soon after.

We visited the ministry this afternoon, and we talked with our social worker. We have an appointment with her tomorow, and as always would welcome prayer. We were excited to discuss in person the steps remaining for all the families to complete our adoptions. We will share all the news of tomorrow as well.

Not sure I did it justice, but here is the view from the Italian restaurante we ate at tonight. Outdoor seeting, stone steps and patios, flat bread pizza and my new favorite soda Fanta Fiesta.

Going Off the Grid Soon

we were very excited this morning so we were up early and going. we got to the airport, checked bags and through security and waiting at our gate, to board an hour before take off. our laptop will not connect and my phone will not let me hit shift or function so wierd typos, sorry. we just wanted to say one last goodbye efore our very long flight, now we will be offline until sometime on mon. hopefully then with good news of meeting our son, we will know something to share. so excited, have a great weekend, we will talk to you then.

sheri