July 8

Oh Friends,
I don't even know how to begin to describe the events of the past few days. In fact, I think it would take several days to relay all that has happened. I'm writing you from an internet cafe (as opposed to a laptop) so this will be brief.

Basically:
-Our local Social Welfare Officer did not finish his report on the necessary day. He said it would be done by Friday. It wasn't.
-Our local SWO told us we could bring little Moses home with us, to start taking care of him. We went to pick him only to find out the SWO was misinformed. A tragic day.
-The SWO has told us many lies.
-The SWO started blocking our phone calls, refusing to answer. The SWO is never at the office. No way to get a hold of him.
-Dustin and I got annoyed with the SWO and told him he didn't seem to have the welfare of the child in mind. (Wrong move.)
-The SWO refused to finish our report stating that he didn't know if we were "fit to care for a child" due to our impatience toward him. He basically wants to make us desparate so we'll give him a bribe.
-The police finished their investigation and report but refused to hand it over to us. The presence of the SWO (who refused to come) was necessary.
-A long holiday weekend meant there was nothing to do until Monday. Nothing to do but worry.

Today, we left our home at 5 am to pick up Moses at the orphanage and head to Blantyre to meet the Regional SWO, the boss of the one described above. We drove for three hours to meet him. We waited in his office for two hours until he saw us. We explained the situation and were hoping that he would do away with the local report and create his own. The head office called our local SWO and asked him when his report would be finished. He said Friday. Friday = Cara can't go to court. This is frowned upon but there's nothing else we can do. We don't even expect the report to be finished by Friday. The guy is a liar. In fact, he lied to the head boss that the police report wasn't yet ready, when in fact, it is.

What this all means:
I leave Malawi on Saturday. Dustin will have to stay - likely for another 3-4 weeks. The SWO probably won't finish his report by Friday. We'll then have to come back and forth to Blantyre to try to strongarm him to finish. Then we'll go to court and fight for a final adoption. Then Dustin will arrange all of the immigration stuff... Four weeks is optimistic... (Though it could all be done in just a week if people actually did their jobs!)

We are trying to maintain our sanity through it all. Thanks for your prayers.