Later we were at the courthouse and one of our power of attorneys climbed on the van and announced the other 7 families in our group had passed court. It was crazy because it was kind of unreal to just hear it, but that didn't stop the excitement from circling the van. It was awesome that those 9 children were legally theirs!
The best part for us personally began that morning, we headed off early to the ministry hoping to catch the minister finally. And we did, she came by us in the hall and told us she had signed our referral and the other family's letter. We were hopeful but cautious, just in case we had misunderstood, but we couldn't wait to get down to her office to speak with her secretary. And we only had to wait a few minutes before she had some papers out and Jeff was signing for our referral. Then she handed us an envelope! The first thing we saw was a sheet with his birthday, at first we figured he was 15 months old but then remembered the different order they write dates then we do here and discovered that his birthday had been just a few days earlier on the day we landed in Rwanda, he was 1 year old! We were so excited by that news. Then we saw his picture and we enjoyed the joy of that moment with close friends and our 2 families huddled together and cried a bit. We couldn't believe we finally had our referral, knew details about our son and had his picture.
Once we all had all the things we needed done at the ministry we went to a place called sector. I have no idea what we were actually accomplishing here but it was a necessary step we knew needed to be completed. We waited in a hallway, trying to not block all the people for a while. Then a couple of the sisters from Home of Hope arrived, we signed a couple documents and a huge book, they signed as well and our act of adoption, whatever it is, was finished. The sisters came back to us and said let's go to see him now :)
We drove to Home of Hope where the other families were visiting with their kids for the last time at Home of Hope, they could begin taking them out for the day starting tomorrow. It was a joyous time when we watched the sister climb the ramp with our boy. He was so tiny, he looked bigger in the picture, he was shy but so adorable. We just held him and talked to him, he slept a lot of the time, and met all the other kids. It was amazing and just what we imagined. But quickly it was time to take him down to the nursery, the end of our visit, we followed our friends down the ramp to the baby room to find his little bed, but we found he had just this week been moved to the toddler room, he could stand in the crib and cruise so they had to put him in the room with deeper cribs so we moved to the next room. We got a glimpse of the beauitful children and the obvious love and care the nannies poured on the kids.
After that we put in a request for a court date, we will hear on Monday when that will be scheduled for and then we had another visit with Isaac at Home of Hope, praise the Lord.
We were so excited this night to have something to celebrate for each family. Knowing we would continue to have more and more forward steps for all the 2nd week of our trip. For now it was Friday night and we would spend the weekend resting from all the stress and emotions we had experienced these last 5 days.
Jacob, Camryn and Bailey were so excited to finally have a picture to look at that night when we called them on skype, they had grown weary of no news. We had been calling them each night when they would all be home from school which was 4pm in Idaho, unfortunatly this was at 12am in Rwanda. The nights had been so long trying to stay awake to call them, knowing we needed to see each other but after the tiring days we were hard pressed to wait up. Tonight was all excitement as we held up the photo for them to see. It was such a wonderful night.
Finally, the Blue Gates:
Our first glimpse of him:
We are so enjoying that wonderful, still as cuddly as he was that first day, boy that the Lord has blessed our family with. He is such a joy to all of us. And this week as we have been thinking back to the same week a year ago I saw a new side of him. He has always loved to be held, but has grown pretty independent as well. But when Bailey wants to cuddle he jumps right up to be held as well. This week, for the first time, Bailey climbed on my lap and Isaac just looked at her and kept playing, this repeated 3 more times over several days. We are so thankful that he is feeling comfortable in his position that this no longer threatens him.
He is a sweetheart:
Sheri
Ah, the memories this post brought back! That was such a wonderful moment, celebrating with you at the Ministry when you finally held his picture! The emotion is still so close to the surface, it makes me tear up remembering how the four of us were laughing and crying and hugging in that tiny office. I think even Peter shed a few happy tears. :)
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