July 1

I guess it's been over a week since I last wrote. The days truly are flying by. I'm only here for 11 more.

 

There is, unfortunately, not much to report on Moses Khumbo. The Social Welfare Officer (SWO) in Blantyre said he would be willing to sit down with Johanna (the birth mother), Margaret, and the grandfather to sort out some of the family issues and hopefully return the child to Balaka. We offered to support Johanna with school fees and she agreed to start classes a week ago. The idea was that Margaret could act as a mother to Johanna and a grandmother to Khumbo – and they could all live here together for the time being. The SWO agreed that the baby is not safe with his grandfather and that the child should be returned to Balaka. Even so, he said it would be easier to do that if Johanna showed she was getting her life back in order.

 

Over a week has passed without seeing Johanna. She never reported for school. Never came to our place. We've been going to her house to try to find her, to no avail. We just heard yesterday that some of Johanna's "friends" are upset that she wasn't arrested for abandoning the baby way back when. Another mutual "friend" was given three years in prison for doing exactly what Johanna did. I'm not sure why they are trying to make this sad girl's life even more miserable, but these young women have been influencing the police to arrest Johanna. She is apparently in hiding. We're not even sure if she's in Balaka. She may have left town. She has no phone number. No address. We have no way to contact her.

 

We have made several trips to Blantyre in the past week or so. Each time, we pass the very house in which Moses Khumbo is staying with his grandfather. The child I never got to meet is right inside.

 

I'm having trouble remembering exactly what I wrote in my last post, so I'm sorry if I repeat information. I know I introduced Moses Alinafe and our hope to adopt him. (By the way, Alinafe means "God is with us." It's pronounced All-lee-nah-fay.) We have visited him at the orphanage every day for the past 12 days. Each time we spend about two hours with him. We look forward to the day when we don't have to drive for 45 minutes to see him. Moses Alinafe cracks me up. Every time I think about his serious little face and pouty lips, I laugh out loud. He is very stoic, very observant, quite curious. It takes him some time, each time, to warm up to us. He's not used to being held and played with – though he now seems content to soak up our attention. After about 30 minutes together, we can get plenty of smiles out of him. When we leave him, he now cries a little – a great breakthrough for a child who never cries.

 

Our lawyer has filed an adoption petition with the high court. The court also granted the SWO in Blantyre to be the child's "guardian ad litem." Since Moses A. has no known parents, the SWO will act as his guardian. We are now waiting for a SWO here in Balaka to create a report for the court. We were supposed to meet him last Tuesday, but he decided to go out of town (and not tell us). We finally met yesterday (Monday) for the first time. (So yes, on Tues, Wed, Thurs, and Fri we had nothing to do but wait.) The SWO accompanied us to the orphanage and took notes on Moses A.'s situation. He tried to contact the police officers who originally dealt with the case back in January, when Moses was born. They said they were "not yet prepared to give any information." This probably means that they can't find the file. Supposedly they will call with the information today. We hope and pray they find the report. If they can't, they will likely have to conduct a new search for the baby's relatives – which could take a long time and possibly yield another grandfather who claims he had no knowledge of the child before now.

 

Our lawyer says it's imperative for the SWO to finish the report today, if we are to go to court in the next week or so. Apparently we can't schedule a court date without that report in hand. So the next hope is to get a court date for early next week. IF we get a court date for Tuesday or Wednesday… AND the court grants a final adoption order (meaning no foster period)… THEN it's POSSIBLE that we could all leave on July 12^th as planned. It's a long shot… but we've seen plenty of miracles in the past.

 

The SWO in Blantyre (Moses A.'s guardian) plans to recommend that the court grant us a final adoption order. This is excellent news. Of course, it's all up to the judge, but it's likely that we won't have to go through a lengthy foster process prior to an adoption. That's our hope anyway.

 

Once we get a final adoption order, there's still much to do before we leave the country. We have to get the child a birth certificate and passport. He has to have a medical evaluation at the embassy. And we have to file: an affidavit of support, a vaccine waiver, a petition for the child to come to the States, and a visa application, etc. This will all take several days, if not a week.

 

There's much to do, but right now all we can do is wait. I'm not very good at waiting.

 

I'll write again when we have more to report.