The Recent Past

The past few weeks have just been a whirlwind of paperwork, phone calls, and yes, stress. Today we made the biggest payment of our lives to the adoption agency. We also had another unexpectedly large payment. Apparently Dustin had run a red light accidentally back in October and a camera picked it up. The first we heard about it was today when we received a notice that we owed the state a lot of money. They had sent the ticket and payment notices to the wrong address. Thankfully, this error won't affect our credit report, but it does affect Dustin's ability to drive. Because we "failed to pay," the state suspended Dustin's license - unbeknownst to us. If he had been pulled over in the past eight months (for anything), we would have owed thousands as he would have been driving illegally. We have to PAY to un-suspend Dustin's license. It's a very unfortunate situation, and one that we don't have time or energy to fight. So, we paid and will pay.

In other news, Dustin's getting ready for his big trip. He leaves three weeks from yesterday. He's excited and anxious as you can imagine. Moses and Margaret can't wait for him to arrive. (Moses told us so.) In the meantime, we're working on our home study. We are waiting for our social worker to contact us about setting up an interview at our home. Consequently, we are cleaning our home. We're trying to get Dustin a proper visa for Malawi and will be shipping his passport off to Washington tomorrow. Pray that there are no delays and that it arrives back in Portland on time. We're also gathering information about immigration requirements and necessary documents to bring little Moses back, should all work out. It's quite a headache. The immigration office I need to talk to does not have a posted phone number anywhere and their e-mail address isn't working. And this is in America! Think about the fun that awaits in Malawi! :)

We made two important connections in the last week or so. I talked to the baby's birth mother on the phone. She speaks English quite well. I asked her what she wanted for Moses Khumbo's future. "You take the baby," she said. Dustin made the other connection, with our potential Malawian lawyer. He can't state his fees on the phone, nor can he help the process along until Dustin arrives. One thing he said was that it would be "very important" for me to also come to Malawi. Our current plan is to wait until Dustin is there, on the ground. Then we will assess if I can/should/must go too.

To friends, I apologize if I've been bad at responding to emails. There are currently over 100 unread e-mails in my box. I don't have a lot of time at the computer these days, so if you need to contact me, phone is certainly quicker. I'll try to wade through the ol' inbox this weekend.

I'm sure there's much more to write, but I have to run to a meeting. Thank you all for your prayers AND your gifts. We would not have had enough money to pay for our home study without the generosity of several of you. This means the world to us. And someday, I hope it will mean something to you-know-who.

Take care,
Cara