We are Home!!!

We are so glad to be on American Soil once again! Our trip was very eventful, adventurous, and not without danger, but our God is so faithful and true to His promises to provide and protect! We are in awe of His goodness to us!
We arrived at the airport and went through and met our driver, Matthew. He took us through security without a hitch and on to St. Anne's. The hour drive was very enlightening, even at 9-10pm at night. The city of Kinshasa does not sleep! The business goes on all through the night.
As soon as we landed, there was a distinctive odor that we were not used to. The heat and humidity, mixed with the smell, were a very strong combination.
As we drove along, our driver dropped off other passengers, who appeared to be workers from the airport. He was doing a favor for them as they may have done for him. We arrived at St. Anne's Parish and the security of a gated establishment. The friendly smile of Frank at the reception desk was welcoming. He is a devout Christian who seeks to do the Will of God. He takes us to our room, where the air conditioner is not working. He says we can switch to another room if we'd like and we agree. The air works. This is not common, but a show of God's provision for us.
We settle in and go down for the night.
The next morning, We find out that a blow dryer is out of the question. It blows a fuse and cannot be used. We go to breakfast which consists of toast and jam, powdered milk, and some kind of Mango juice. Sometimes a slice of meat. We load up on bottled water from the snack/break room. We walk around and then get word that William, our agency helper, will be arriving soon. Our travel companions (another family who adopted through our agency) lets us know that the kids have been brought to us and are waiting in the break room! We anxiously go to see our son! He is waiting with Charlotte, a care worker from the orphanage. He is BEAUTIFUL!!! I take him into my arms and he does not cry! YAY! He checks us out again and again.

We are told by William that we are going immediately to DGM for our appointment to apply for the exit letter. We first have to go to the Embassy to pick up Isaiah's Visa. We change Isaiah's diaper and his clothes that smelled horrific. We rubbed him down quickly with some baby wipes and grabbed extra stuff for him and set out to the Embassy and DGM. We arrived at the Embassy and it doesnt take long to receive the Visa. We head out to DGM and were allowed in after about 10 minutes. We went to a room where a man signed a paper and said, done. The we went to another room and presented our paperwork to them. She asked for our Marriage Certificate and said our letter will be ready on Saturday.

We leave and go back to St. Anne's and we are told that we will be going to the Orphanages on Tuesday morning. We have our first night with Isaiah. He sleeps good. He is not feeling well though. He is running a fever and very weak and lethargic. We give him some Pediacare and he goes off to sleep. On Tuesday, we continue the same routine and await our trip to the orphanages. After lunch, we go to the orphanages. They are about an hour or so away through terrifying traffic where we encountered hundreds of "close calls".

I will write soon about our experience at the orphanages...