June 23

Hi Friends, I composed this post several days ago via our laptop and
am now finally in a position to post it. I wrote this the day after
Operation Exodus. I've added a few small updates at the bottom:

Thank you all for your prayers and support. I can certainly feel your
love and care from 10,000 miles away. In the midst of this crazy
story, I feel peace. That peace coexists with sadness, confusion,
bewilderment, anger [insert other adjectives here], but there is peace
(very deep down) nonetheless. My mind runs wild with various endings
(or should I say, beginnings) to this story, yet I know that whatever
the outcome, it is the right story.

I will attempt to fill you in on the last 24 hours. Yesterday Johanna
came to the house around 12:30 pm. She filled in the details of what
happened when she tried to bring Moses back. She entered the
grandfather's house to find Moses sitting alone on a chair in the
living room, playing with CDs (and playing near potentially dangerous
cords and wires). She picked him up, when her step-cousin (a
high-school aged girl) entered the room. What are you doing, she
asked. I'm taking my baby, Johanna exclaimed. Johanna ran out of the
house with Moses in her arms. Her cousin called the police. Johanna
ran to meet Dalitso on the road. The first minibus stopped a long ways
up the road, and it would have been a long run to reach it. She saw
another one coming. Let's get that one, she said. Johanna, Moses, and
Dalitso entered the bus and were waiting for it to go when some
plain-clothes policemen with handcuffs ordered Johanna off the bus.
Somewhere in this scenario, the women came and helped drag her and
Moses off to the police station (not the house, like we had thought).
Now, in any other situation, police would never respond that quickly.
It just so happens that the grandfather's house is located on a
compound of sorts where many other police officers live. It was very
simple for the cousin to call a neighbor to help out – which is likely
why they weren't wearing uniforms.

Johanna's father and step-mother met them at the station. The
step-mother (who Johanna says hates her) actually advocated for the
grandfather to return the baby. This girl will bring witchcraft on the
house if you don't, she said. She also complained that her niece
couldn't go to school because she was so busy taking care of Moses.
The grandfather wouldn't listen and, once again, snatched Moses from
his mother's arms and left. The police stood idly by.

Johanna was released and eventually caught a bus on its way to
Lilongwe. She convinced the driver that a friend (a policeman) at a
road block could pay for her ticket. He did, and she made it home late
that night.

Margaret has gone to the chief again as well as to the local
magistrate. They both believe she and Johanna have a case against the
grandfather. She has to make a few more phone calls, but plans to file
a case on Monday with the help of a government-issued lawyer. The
Social Welfare Officer has said that he's willing to go to bat for us.
Meanwhile, the birth mother Johanna seems to want to get her life back
in order, and says that she would be willing to go back to school. We
are encouraging her to do so, but know that it will be very difficult
to change her ways.

We are holding out hope that Moses will be returned to our home in the
coming weeks. Johanna still desires us to adopt Moses but, given the
circumstances, this may take a very long time. We are willing to fight
long and hard – but we can't be involved in this first court case
between Margaret, Johanna, and the grandfather. For an adoption to
take place, the court will have to rule that the grandfather has no
say whatsoever over the child's life.

So per my last post, we're keeping our hearts and minds open to the
divine. As our priest friend said, "God's ways are not our ways."

*********

The latest is that Margaret will not likely be taking the grandfather
to court. I personally phoned the grandfather and had a surprisingly
civil conversation with him (surprising on both of our sides). Well
maybe "civil" isn't exactly the best word. We didn't yell. He did
however threaten to take us to court for "child trafficking." Of
course, he wouldn't have a case and would only try to pursue such an
absurd idea if we continued to press him. And so we won't.

He told me this chapter is closed. And he hung up on me. There are
plenty of other colorful details I could post for you, but I'm tired.

We are currently in Blantyre for the afternoon. We came to meet with
the Social Welfare Officer as well as our future lawyer. Why the
lawyer, you ask, considering this "chapter is closed"? Well... though
it was a very difficult thing to consider, Dustin and I decided to go
to a local orphanage and see if there was another child awaiting
adoption. From the start, we've told each other than if something
didn't work out with Moses Khumbo, we would try to find another child.
This particular orphanage is just a 45 minute drive from our home.
It's run by Italian Catholics. We didn't like the idea of "baby
shopping" so we decided that we wouldn't try to find a child, we would
just let him or her find us. As Margaret said in the car, "Our Moses
will find us."

When we arrived, the sister saw us whites and said to Margaret, "Afuna
mwana?" They want a child? Eh, we all said. Yes. Out of the 30 young
children, she said only was was eligible. He's a young boy, 6 months
old. She took us to see him. He just looked at us out of large, wide
eyes. The sister put him in my arms as I asked what his name was. His
name is Moses, she said.

It's a good thing I had a strong grasp on that child or he might have
fallen to the floor. Moses? Yes, you know, from the Bible. This Moses
has spent his entire young life in the orphanage. I spent the rest of
the day saying, "This is very strange. This is a very strange day."

We have visited the new Moses, or Moses Alinafe (as we're calling
him), every day since. The women who work at the orphanage are calling
us "mayi" and "bambo" (mother and father). It's very hard to enter
into another potentially devastating process... but hey, this is life.
Sometimes life is devastating. It's a little easier to say that now
that I've gone a few hours without tears in my eyes. As hard as it is,
we both have love to share with a child. And this little Moses needs a
family so much. He never even cries (likely because of his
circumstances at birth), and because of that the women at the
orphanage rarely hold him. The loud ones get the attention. We've seen
him come alive in the hours we've spent with him. This solemn,
wide-eyed little boy talked to us (as much as babies can) and laughed
with us. He's starting to come out of his shell. We hate having to
leave him at the orphanage each night, but we can't take him home
until the Mother Superior returns from Italy (in early July). We're
hoping they will give us special permission to take him sooner.

As expected, the adoption process is very confusing. The SWO tells us
one thing. The lawyer another. The lawyer seems to think the entire
adoption process could take between 3-5 months. (The SWO says 2
years.) We vote for the lawyer! Even if it does take 2 years, he would
still be able to come home to America with us. The difficult thing is
that relatives could come out of the woodwork at any time and demand
we give them back the child. Even at the end of a two year period,
that could happen. So, we're hoping for a quick process.

We appreciate your continued prayers for Moses Khumbo, for his
well-being. And thank you for holding us up as we've endured the (so
far) most difficult week of our lives. We will continue to keep you
posted on both children, and hope to have happy news on both sides.

I've been rushing this post, so hopefully I'm making sense. I have to
run. Talk to you all soon. I want you to know that I'm reading each of
your emails and feel bad that I can't reply to them individually.

Much love,
Cara