Since we have been home...

Well, there is so much to share. Since we have been home, we have been busy! We took Isaiah to the Pediatrician and he ordered a stool culture and blood work. We took in the stool, and attempted the blood work, to no avail. Basically, our little guys blood vessels are too tiny and are not producing enough blood to draw it, due to malnutrition. So, they tried and tried, but only a little bit could they get. What now? We wait. We bulk him up on probiotics, antibiotics, vitamins, nutrients, and we wait. We did find out that he has a parasite (Giardia) through his stool culture. He is being treated for it with Flagyl. So much for the testing done in Congo... Isaiah is gaining weight, we can already see a big difference. He is feeling much better too. He is very happy and running around all over the place. He loves to entertain too. He has had us all laughing up a storm at his silliness. What a blessing this little guy is to us!!!

We are beginning the process of re-adoption here in the states. This has to be done since he came to the US on an IR4 Visa, which basically means that we did not meet him prior to picking him up; therefore, he did not automatically become a US Citizen. We will readopt, which will allow us to change his name and to give him a Florida birth certificate and to apply for Citizenship. This will take a couple of months or so and more money. :(  However, once we finish, he is an American with an American Birth Certificate and a new name. This does not mean that he will forget where he was born. It means that he will know that he belongs with us and to our Country. We will never keep secrets from him about his heritage. He will know everything. But, just as we have been adopted into the Kingdom of Heaven and we will receive a new name, we have been led to do the same for our son.

What else? Well, we regret that we are having to find a new home for our dog Cookie. However, we cannot give him the attention that he deserves with our household size. We are trying to minimize the things that we need to maintain and unfortunately dogs take a lot of work. We have 2 cats as well, but they do not require as much maintenance. We will miss Cookie, but we are excited for him to embark on a new journey with a loving family.

We have been super blessed with friends bringing us meals. Mom, Marie, Kim, and Kimberly have each blessed us with a meal. You cannot even imagine what a blessing it is not to have to cook every single meal when you are getting adjusted to a new routine and a new child... WOW! This is such an important and appreciated gift to us!!!! I am so glad that we have been able to bless others in the past with taking meals to them. I feel the blessing fully and will make sure I continue in the future!

Thank you all for joining us on this beautiful journey...we wouldn't have it any other way! God is so good!!!!

Monday and Tuesday...

On Monday morning, we began preparing to leave. We packed our bags and cleaned our room. We were sooo ready to begin our journey home! Our son, Isaiah was feeling better; I was feeling better; and we were anxious to get going. Since our flights were at 8:30pm, we needed to pre-check our bags at the Brussels branch close by. They had to be turned in around 10am. For the 10pm flights, pre-check is by 12pm. We had our bags at the front office 1 hour early. Greg kept checking to see if they had taken them yet, but at around 11am they had not been taken. He asked and the driver said he was about to go. Greg asked if he wanted him to go along with him and he said come on. It was a blessing that he did go, because it just so happened that they couldn't find our son in the computer for the flights. Greg had to check with another person in the building because the computers were different. They were able to print up Isaiah's flight and give it to the Brussels agent. Not to mention that the luggage needed to be adjusted to fit the weight limits. Finally, it all worked out and not too soon as the place got extremely busy very soon with a very long line.

So then as we waited at the Parish for time to go, our driver, Matthew, came to our room and said we will be leaving at 2:30pm to go to the airport. He said that he wanted to stop to get something to eat on the way. Okay. We are all for going early. We will be ready! We are ready at 2:30pm, we say our goodbye's to the staff and to the Stead's (a family that has recently arrived), and to William, our helper from One World Orphanage, we change a diaper blowout real quick, and we hit the road! We take a deep breath and reflect on our trip as we drive down the road. Of course, I pull out the camera once more, sit it on my backpack which is on my lap, and click photos out the window. No one knows that I am taking photos. I am not looking through the viewfinder or at the screen. I am just shooting. Hit or miss. Hehe...I know it sounds sneaky, but it is the only true safe way to get a glimpse of the city for others who will follow. It is priceless to give a picture of what to expect. God gave me some nice photos that really give details and reality. Of course, you cannot smell the stench or feel the dirt, heat, and humidity, but it is as close as it gets.

We pull up to a place that is full of hundreds of people. Our driver gets out and disappears. We sit in the vehicle. People everywhere. Running, walking, staring, talking... We sit. We wait. 10 minutes. Okay. Matthew? Here he comes! Ahhh, we breathe a bit easier. He picked up his food. He gets in the car and we drive to the airport. The airport is about an hour from the Parish. We park at the airport close to 4pm. We sit while Matthew eats his dinner. Chicken I think :) We sit and rest. Isaiah is getting a little fussy, so we pull out the faithful graham crackers. He loves them! Any time! Any place! He ran out of the toddler animal crackers which he had to have 2 of at all times. One for each hand. As soon as one was gone, he had to have another. He fell asleep with one in each hand. He is so precious! What a gift!

Finally, at 5pm, Matthew says he will go wait and sign up for us. Not sure what he is signing up for, but we wait and watch. He stands at the front entrance and waits. He talks a bit to others, but he still waits. At 5:20pm he comes to get us. He says it's time. We follow behind him. He speaks to a security guard and follows him. He motions for us to follow behind him. We enter without being searched. He takes us to the immigration and DGM windows to the left of the entrance. They are not open yet. We are first in line. We wait. We wait about 30 minutes. We proceed to the window. We show our passports and our flight paperwork. We are passed to the second window. We are asked for our DGM paperwork. They check it all over and we are stamped to go on. We go to the next station to tag our carryons. We then proceed to the next station to turn in our customs forms and to another DGM officer. He quickly goes through our paperwork and says that he likes to drink Coca Cola. Okay. No, not okay. Our driver says, buy him some Coca Cola. We say, what? He lets us know that Mr. Coke wants a bribe in order to let us go. $10. Ugh! We move on to the next station and on through security. Now, if Mr. Coke wasn't enough, Mrs. Elephant security lady wants a cut too. We have a wooden elephant for Isaiah in our carry-on and she is going to keep it unless we "pay". $10. We are so ready to get on that plane! Corruption to the very end. Sad. Very sad.

We get through security and arrive in the waiting area at 6:30pm. We wait 1 hour 30 min. until they begin loading. We get on the first bus to the aircraft. We again go through a security check as we board the plane. We get on the plane and find our seats. We take a deep breath and look at our son. He will not have to grow up here. He will have a chance. He will learn about Jesus Christ. He will be loved. He will have medical care. He will learn right from wrong. We are so blessed. May we never take our America for granted. We look at each other and say, Wow, just Wow. What an experience. Many things remain in our hearts that we have not shared, but we will not forget. These things we will reflect on for quite some time. Our flight to Brussels was around 8.5 hours, not as bad as the 10 hours on the way over with a stop in Angola. Isaiah did very well. Our flight attendant moved us to a four seat row, so we would have more room to spread out. Nice.

At Brussels, we had a 6 hour layover, so Greg and Isaiah took a nap in the waiting area beside the seating at our gate. I checked on the check in process and after going through a line, found out that Greg and Isaiah had to be with me. I go wake Greg up and we go back and get in an even longer line. We wait again. By now, about 4 hours have passed. We are hungry, but there are only places with sweets and cardboard looking sandwiches... :) Greg goes to another gate, which means going through security again, only to find more sandwiches. Oh well, sandwiches it is. I talk to some people who are traveling on our flight while Greg changes Isaiah's diaper. Finally, our time is getting closer. We are getting ready to board. I go get refreshed. Greg talks to some people while I am gone. A man overhears our conversation and approaches us. He asks us if we adopted Isaiah and if we would tell him our story. He is deeply moved and tears up. We find out that he is a pastor from Pennsylvania. He prays for us right there in the middle of everyone. Very touching. A God thing. He plans to go back and share with his wife and seek God's Will for them. He is clearly moved in his heart and seems to be very interested in reaching out to the orphan. He gives us his card and says that if we are ever in his area, we have a place to stay. God is good. God has a plan. His plan is perfect.

We get on our flight and it is around 7.5 hours to Washington, D.C. Isaiah does very well on the flight. He loves watching the cartoons on the little movie screen. He is fascinated by it. He has a few blowouts and we have changed his clothes about 4 times since leaving Kinshasa. We go through Immigration and Customs rather quickly. Our layover in D.C. is 4 hours, so we get a bite to eat and we change Isaiah's clothes once again. He has severe diarrhea, so almost every time, it leaks. Everywhere. We call home to let everyone know we are in the USA!!! YAY!!! One more flight to go. We get freshened up and we get ready for our flight. We board our puddle jumper aircraft and it is a miracle. Surely this little one is not going to sleep through another flight, but yes, he sleeps through almost the entire 2.5 hours. He looks at the clouds first and he plays a bit, but then, about an hour into the flight, he's out. He stays asleep through the rest of the flight and all the way home. Paul and Karen pick us up from the Pensacola airport and drive us home. 30 hours of traveling has taken its toll on us. We are exhausted, but excited...

We arrive at home expecting to go to bed and see everyone in the morning. Nope. Haha. We arrive and find that our living room carpeting has been replaced with pergo wood flooring and our walls have been painted. There are changes in the kitchen as well. Our friends and family had been working very hard almost the entire time we were gone to surprise us! Wow! What a surprise it was, too! I think my jaw was on the floor for 20 minutes. We were so thrilled! Nothing could have blessed us more! We are so thankful to everyone who worked so hard and blessed us so much! You are all very precious to us! Dad, Mom, Elizabeth, Guy, Hannah, Lizzy, Joshua, Painter, Maid, etc... and anyone else who helped out... YOU ALL ROCK!!!! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!!!

Wednesday through Sunday...

On Wednesday, we decided to take Isaiah to the Doctor. We got word that there was a very good Indian doctor that other families had used. We got a driver from St. Anne's to take us to Doctor Sharrief. He had blood work done and a stool culture. No parasites, no worms, no malaria... Isaiah was treated for an Intestinal Bacterial Infection and digestive issues. He began Amooxicillin right away. He also needed to take anti-diarreal meds and digestive meds. We had quite a battle getting all of this in him and we probably lost half a dose to his clothes as he spewed it out everywhere. This was going to be a challenge! He was full of grit as we administered his meds at the appropriate times. We were soon feeling like this battle was going to go on forever. However, we finally had a breakthrough. When we place just a tiny bit in his mouth at a time, we don't lose near as much of it. So, a little bit of patience goes a long way...  Our first visit to the Doctor was not fun. The blood work was nearly impossible to get. They had to try both hands a few times. They were able to get just barely enough to do the testing. He was full of stamina! He may be small, but he is very strong, or should I say strong willed... Hehe. But this is a good thing. He will need to be strong willed to get better. We returned to the Doctor for the results later that afternoon. We went back to St. Anne's and rested....

On Thursday, we rested. We stayed around St. Anne's and did a little bit of shopping with a vendor across the street. We relaxed, played with Isaiah, called home, and just hung out. It was nice not to be running around everywhere.

On Friday, we did a little more shopping, even venturing out to the market. However, the rough terrain and the very high heat and humidity quickly took a toll on us and we headed back to the Parish. The market was not what we expected as it was basically filled with imported items. We did not buy anything. We were looking for authentic handmade items from DRC that our son could have as souvenirs.  We had to stick with the vendor across the street. There are a couple of other markets that do have these items, but it would require a driver to take us and we were not really up for it. We needed to focus on Isaiah's health. William, our helper from our agency, was there for us whenever we needed him. He even gave us a gift on our last day in country. William is a Christian. He works to serve the Lord. He is very humble. We were very grateful for his help in country. We know that God ordained it that way.

On Saturday, I woke up to a high fever and severe cramping. My fever ran around 102.9 and the cramping felt like I was being stabbed over and over and over. I could barely open my eyes all day long. This was the day that we were supposed to leave. All day I fought this illness. I told Greg I didn't think I would be able to travel. I could barely move. It was debilitating. The good news is that God knew where I was and what we needed. We had been promised our exit letter by noon on Sat. so that we could travel on Sat. night to come back home. However, corrupt country as it is, and for reasons I will not discuss, our letter was not ready. The good thing is that we were not desperate to get home. I was very sick. We were not going to be traveling even if the letter had been ready. God intervened with his angel (another Congolese person) and at 4:10pm, our exit letter was signed. We were not in a hurry at this point, but if we had been, it would have been too late to fly out. What man meant for evil, God used for good. We rescheduled our flights for Monday. All day, I was bedridden. I could eat nothing. I could do nothing. Greg went to the market and got some flu meds and I had Cipro for stomach stuff. We pumped in the vitamin C every few hours.

On Sunday morning, my fever had broken, cramping was subsiding to a tolerable level, and I was able to get up and move around. Praise God! Our Great Physician was healing me! The pharmacist thought I may have had Malaria, but we went with the flu meds instead. It worked. At least, God used it to heal me. Whether he changed the molecular structure of it to treat whatever I had or not, I do not know. But this I know, He healed me. Divine intervention. I am convinced. We relaxed on Sunday and took in the Lord's day. We called home to let everyone know that I was much better. They were so relieved as all they knew at this point was that I was very sick. We had a good long talk and everyone was happy. In Africa, you can purchase a $25 phone and put minutes on it for very cheap. So phone calls were not expensive. However, to get coverage, you pretty much have to go outside. Did I mention the flies and the mosquitoes? Oh yeah, flies everywhere and mosquitoes, of course. Enough to drive you crazy if you sit there too long. Greg played soccer with Isaiah while I let our family know that I was okay.

I want to share a little story of God's goodness. We were trying to bond with Isaiah and had few breakthrough's. One night, he had rooted underneath Greg and Greg moved him over. He sat up, yelled, "Mama!" and then looked at Greg and said "Dad!" He was telling on Greg for moving him! This was so precious to us, b/c he was acknowledging us as Mama and Dad. He was beginning to trust us. What a blessing!

He began bonding to me on the first day, but then as he got used to Greg, he began preferring him. I was really glad that he took to him. He had never had a father figure in his life and this is something that he really needed. He has been making up for lost time. He loves being with Greg! I am so thankful that God is giving him this gift. I am so thankful for the gift he has given to us. We wouldn't change anything if we could. God knew that our son was in Africa. He knew that we needed him and he needed us. Our need is to be totally obedient to God's Will for our lives and his need is to grow up in family that loves him enough to teach him about Christ. What a gift! What a privilege!

Continued...

I forgot to mention that before we went to DGM, we went to our Country coordinators home to get our paperwork straight. She sent one of her assistants to make copies. This took about an hour or two. On Tuesday Morning, we went to the two orphanages. It took around 1 hour to get to the first one. We arrived, pulling down an alley way and saw the sign on the wall OWAS! The birthmother of our son was waiting outside the gate for us...she opened the gate and looked at me in the front seat. She was almost in tears. She ran around the vehicle when we pulled in, she flung open my door and wrapped her arms around me and cried on my shoulder. She spoke in Lingala and said a few things and continued hugging me. She is 20 years old, but today, she looks 16. She is very welcoming to us and very happy that her son will not have to suffer in her country anymore. Before we came, he had Malaria and Chicken Pox and when we arrived, he had a fever. She is alone. Her family does not live there, besides her older sister. She is the 8th child of 10. 8 girls and 2 boys. Her parents are not together and neither of them live close by. She is stunningly beautiful. Isaiah looks a lot like her. We bring in the 3 big suitcases and 1 small suitcase full of donations. There will be medicines, vitamins, soaps, deodorants, lots of school supplies, flip flops, toys, a few clothes, and small gifts...they will have many things to help out with their needs...thanks to the generosity of many of you! We have been able to bless the orphans at these two orphanages. Thank you all for being so giving! We interacted with the kids and I took the photos that I could at the first orphanage. We took a tour through the orphanage and talked with the workers and thanked them for taking care of the children. We shared gospel tracts with them that were in French. Some can read, but most will need to be read to. Isaiah's mother cannot read or write. We were able to let her know about the home he was going to and she was very happy for him. We gave her photos of our family and a gift to remember us by. We were there for about an hour and then it was time to go to the 2nd orphanage. We walked. The "roads" were dirt, rough and covered with trash. William said that it would take 5 minutes. After about 25 minutes, we were asking how much further...haha... it was hot, smelly, and the turain was hard to walk. Along the way, there were people everywhere. They were cooking out in the open, working hard, and living a rough life. Along the way, William was able to translate to the birthmom and back to us. We were able to share our hearts with her and she was able to do the same. We feel so blessed to be able to have this experience. It is a blessing. We made several brief videos as well. We finally arrived at the 2nd orphanage and were greeted by a bunch of little ones! They were so precious! So innocent. They were very affectionate and loving. We spent several hours with them. Playing. Talking. Singing praise songs. Holding and hugging them. We will never forget our time with them. There are lots of photos and some video. I will post the link to shutterfly for anyone interested in seeing the photos. While we waited for our driver to come back, the power went out, which is very common. We sang in the dark with the children. They were wonderful. We couldn't get enough of them! At 9:30pm, our driver came and it was time to go. We noticed several of the kiddos asleep on the cold tile floors. They just go to sleep wherever they are. It was also time to say goodbye to Isaiah's birthmother. Goodbye is not easy. It begins to rain. We are rushed to leave by the driver and another of the Mama's from the orphanage who is assisting us. Maybe a goodbye is not needed. Maybe it is better to leave things pleasant without the goodbye. We leave, quiet. Traffic is even worse than it had been in the day time. The driver turns off the engine every so often. I notice that his tank looks like it is on empty. I ask the others. They agree. He does not speak English. We pray. It is dark, rainy, and his gas tank is on empty. There are people everywhere, moving in and out of the traffic. It is bumper to bumper. Stop. Go a little. Stop. We finally see a gas station and think he must be pulling in and he doesn't. He keeps going. We wonder what will happen if he runs out and we get stuck in the middle of nowhere. We are white americans. We pray some more. Somehow, God increases the loaves and fishes and gets us back to the Parish. Wow! We are all very exhausted. But we are blessed. We turn in for the night....to be continued...

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...

Hello From AFRICA!!!!!

Bonjour! Today is Wednesday. We have had a very busy week and have taken lots of pictures! Can't wait to post them.
Until this very moment, we have not been able to get internet access. I am sorry, I know many of you want to know the scoop. The IA is very very touchy and we have to be so patient...
Isaiah is doing well. He is malnourished and wears a size 9 months bottom and 12 months top. He has parasites, so he has very watery diarrhea often. We are changing clothes at a rapid pace. He is very quiet with us, but he has not cried much at all.
We went to the orphanages yesterday and spent a lot of time with his birth mother. She ran to the car and flung open the door, grabbed me, hugged me tightly, and wept on my shoulder. It was a very moving moment and I will never forget it. She is young and she now works at the orphanage, so Isaiah has been with her until now. He loves her very much and smiled and played a lot with her. it was priceless. we have over 250 photos and 13 videos that we will post to shutterfly when we return home.
It looks like we will return as scheduled on Sunday night, flying into Pensacola.
The airport experience was not as bad as we had thought, it was without hickups.
I will give details about it later to anyone who will need the information for future travel...
St. Anne's is good, but very very basic. Cold showers, power outages, rarely internet service (maybe every few days), but we do have air conditioning.
The traffic here is CRAZY! Everything goes, and i mean everything!
The children at the orphanages stole our hearts! They were soooo precious and made us wish we could take them all home with us! Hugs and beautiful smiles were readily available.
We love you all and will post if we can and when we can!
Thank you (Merci) all so much for your sweet prayers! We feel them!
(oh, btw, please pray for Greg as he is getting a head cold)
I know by the flights to Africa that the flights home will be very exhausting, but we will be making doctor visits for Isaiah for several weeks. He has had chicken Pox and Malaria just very recently and is still getting over them. He will need several visits, I am sure... He is very thin and as light as a feather...but he is strong willed, so he has a fighting spirit that will help him recover!
We love you All,
Greg and Tina

Our Journey to Isaiah...

As we look back on the past 20 months, we are amazed at God's faithful hand. He burdened our hearts to adopt once more. He opened the door to Africa. He showed us little by little His plan, but only as much as we needed at the time. He gave us glimpses of His Glory and big helpings of His Love. He has led us faithfully and gracefully. He has given us a picture of who He is. He is not man that He would focus on possessions and self-indulgence, He is God and He has led us to focus on Him and on His orphans. They are His Heart. We desire the very Heart of God. We are made in His image and our prayer is that we would reflect His likeness and care for the needs of others, putting our desires aside and following in obedience. We have traveled a long journey, but in truth, we are just beginning another new journey with Christ and with His child, our son, Isaiah. We are so blessed to see Him at work in those around us. Every time we turn around, someone is being faithful to His call and following Him with full surrender. We thank our Lord Jesus for each of you who have touched our lives in such a precious way! You Are A Blessing! We Love You!!!