It was the craziest day. We started at 6:45am at the ministries office. After 4 hours of waiting, of meeting with the new minister (with 3 other families), waiting some more, seeing some monkeys :)
we finally had our "to whom" letter in hand-now all families in our travel group had this important document after a week of begging for them.
With this in hand we rushed off to the other side of town. Jeff and Tim ran into submit the letters so we could receive the kids' passports. Alison and I ran to the Embassy to join the rest of our group to complete our appointments to receive our visa travel packets. By the time we went through security into the waiting area some of our group had left, they had completed their appointments and submitted all their documents. We sat with the remainder and filled out a document and watched the door for the dads. After 2 hours we saw them running across the street to enter. As they were coming through security I approached the window and started submitting the documents for our appointment, Jeff rushed in and handed me Isaac's passport and "to whom" letter as our final items and we began. We had to answer questions, but this was the wonderful consulate we had met last week and she was so helpful yet again. It was 2 hours later before we had finished everything at the Embassy for our group, the McLennans and us being the final 2. But by this time some of our group had already begun to come back as they had been told to return at 3, the consulate said she would do what she could and we should all come back at 5 to see what she had.
This was a long 2 hours. We knew that this was the consulate's last day in Rwanda and that she was moving over the weekend, we also knew she normally processed up to 5 maximum of these packets per Friday. We didn't see why she would really be motivated to help us, she could just say her time was over, she was off and she needed to pack and catch her plane. We know God's hand was on our process that afternoon. The dads all returned to the Embassy at 5, but she was still working, they waited-along with 2 other families who were also waiting for their packets-and an hour later she came out and had all 14 childrens' packets ready!! Praise the Lord! She worked so hard, she went so beyond what was necessary and we couldn't have been more excited.
The dads came to the hotel and for some of us, who didn't want to be too hopeful and be let down, knowing our packets were at the bottom of her pile to process, had to hurrrrrry and pack. We were so overjoyed! In our room/Stengels room, we had our last pizza from Sole Luna :) and just hit the suitcases. From the time they returned we had 4 hours to be ready to meet and depart with the group. It was enough time to not worry but we did have a lot to do. We were extremely thankful for the family who brought a luggage scale so we could stay below our 50 pound limit per suitcase. At the meeting we received a packet of documents and we loaded up the vans. We were just so glad to be making our flight we didn't remember to check our documents for everything, but that came up another day :)
We left the hotel at 10:30pm that Friday night and went to the airport for our 1:30am flight. Turned out we could have used a bit more time. We sat in line for security and slowly walked through to the other side. Then we waited, for hours, in line to check in for our flight. It was insane. Each family had a different issue but we all had one and it was hard to get through. Eventually a member of each family was sent up, individually, to another room then back down all while all the rest of us waited in line. It is so difficult to describe, but it took forever. Finally we ran up the stairs to the gate security, through there and to the gate. By the time we made it to the gate, outside and down to the boarding area, we along with the 2 families behind us were missing the flight. We are so grateful that we had a wonderful travel group who refused to let them close the doors and we all ran across the cement and up to the door of the plane. When our 3 families were aboard the door shut and we took off! Barely made it, for the late to leave 1:30am flight.
We so would have loved to stay in Rwanda longer, it is so beautiful, we love it, we would go back tomorrow if we could, but on this night we couldn't have been happier than to make that flight. We were with our group, we were all in the same place of the process, we were on schedule...and we were on our way home again, with just a week stop in Ethiopia. It was an exciting and crazy day and I am so thankful for how God showed up for all of us.
I am looking right now at the beautiful pictures of each of the children in our travel group, I won't post them here without their parents' permission, but let me assure you they are the most precious children and we were so glad to be going on that flight with all of them. A last look at our hotel, we would miss it:
One of the families with us had a photographer come that week to take some photos and they were so sweet to have her take photos of all the families. Here is a picture she took of us on one of our last days in Rwanda:
We had an amazing time in Rwanda, some very hard times, but also some of the best of our lives. We miss it so and pray we will one day be able to return.
Sheri
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