I know. I know. Over two weeks have passed since my very generic "It's a boy" post. Many of you have asked for more details. These past few weeks have been a crazy blur and I haven't had the opportunity to sit down until now, when overcome with a sore throat I can finally find the time to write.
Our court hearing took place on the morning of Monday, November 17th. It was Sunday night for me. I had just spent the weekend at my brother's wedding in California and was driving back home to Portland, escorted by my mother because I had thrown out my back and couldn't drive myself. Sunday evening, we went through Chico and met up with some very good friends for dinner and playtime with their young children. We then made the trek to Redding, where we were to spend the night at my grandparents' house. One in the morning approached and we still hadn't heard from Dustin. My calling card refused to work, so I was unable to get any news from him. The past six months have taught me that it's better to just try to sleep because there's no knowing how long the wait will be. So I did. Until 5:30 am when my father-in-law woke me with a text message saying he had just talked with Dustin. Apparently the judge reviewed our case in the morning and asked to adjourn until the afternoon. The ruling was expected to happen at 3:30 pm Malawi time, 5:30 am our time. I waited a little bit and tried to call Dustin again. The calling card worked this time, but he rushed me off the phone so I wouldn't tie up the line while he waited for the call from our lawyer. You see, Dustin wasn't at the court. But was home in our bed in Malawi playing solitaire. All day.
It was time to get up, get ready, and start our drive to Oregon. I lingered for a bit. I didn't want to be in the shower when I got the call. But more time passed. So I showered and got dressed. I was packing all of my things and realized that if Dustin didn't call soon we'd be driving through the mountains and wouldn't have cell coverage. I told God that it would be really great to find out before we left my grandparents' house, so we could share the news together. A few seconds later at 6:45 am I received a text message from Dustin. It read,
"Guess who's a mommy?"
I ran out to the living room with the news. We all hugged. I thought I'd be crying my eyes out. But I wasn't. I was in complete shock. I called Dustin. He said everything was final. We only had to wait for the judge to sign the paperwork, which he would do in the coming days.
I had a very strong urge to be away from everyone, in a forest, surrounded by trees at the edge of a cliff, screaming.
But my mom and I packed up and started down the road, in our brand new car (thanks to my brother Matt), with our brand new car seat in the back (thanks to Mom and friend Susie) which held a little lamb (known as Lammykins) to represent how Moses would soon be sitting there.
By Wed of that week, the papers were signed and we applied for Moses’ birth certificate. On Thursday morning Dustin went to the orphanage to bring him home! Nothing is ever without drama in Malawi. Dustin had called the orphanage the night before to say he had the official paperwork. When he arrived there that morning, the nun refused to let him take Moses. The problem is that no one speaks English. Only Italian and Chichewa. And even with Margaret, our fluent Chichewa speaker, people were very confused. Apparently the person Dustin had talked to the night before spoke some English but botched everything up and thought that we didn't really have the paperwork... It was a big mess. And Sister Mary (who founded the orphanage and lives several miles away) was called and demanded Dustin come and see her. He did. She speaks English. Everything was sorted out. And after a long, frustrating detour, Dustin finally picked up Moses and brought him home.
The day after our adoption was finalized, I learned Moses had malaria again. He was being treated, but he was still very sick - throwing up, having diarrhea, feeling feverish. For the first week with Dustin, Moses had constant watery diarrhea, likely caused from the stress of all the changes. The diapers there are no match for anything, let alone watery diarrhea. Dustin reports that he was covered in poop all day. When Dustin woke up in the morning, it would be in a pool of baby diarrhea.
Dustin is a good man.
He said that when it was time for Moses to leave the orphanage, Moses seemed to inherently know what was happening. When Dustin encouraged him to hug the workers goodbye, he clung to Dustin. This is my new father, he seemed to say. Shortly after arriving home, Moses’ personality started to burst at the seams. He finally felt free to be himself. He talks constantly. He's started composing songs (like father like son) and has three specific tunes that he's created and performs regularly. Dustin sings to him all the time, so this isn't a huge surprise. He now cries regularly (Moses, not Dustin) and even whines and pouts. Remind me later that this is a good thing. It means Moses feels comfortable to express himself. But remind me gently, and not with a smirk :)
Moses’ little voice breaks my heart. I finally get to hear it. The orphanage was in such a remote area that there was little to no cell phone signal. I can now hear him growl and fuss and talk to his daddy. But the thing that really gets me is when he says "uh-oh." It's in a high pitch, teensy, tiny voice. I could listen to that uh-oh all day long. When I hear it I just want to eat him up. And I will in a few weeks. Speaking of eating, I'm starving... It sucks to be sick when you're all alone.
Okay, back to the story. We applied for Moses’ birth certificate and got it last week. On Thursday, we applied for his Malawian passport. We expected to receive this in just a few days. On Monday, we learned that our application needed the signature of Balaka's District Commissioner. Dustin had to drive (he has the rental car again - cha-ching) for two hours to pick up the application and two hours back to the DC for his signature. Then he drove two hours back to town to deliver the application and then two hours back home. Last night I learned that Immigration had more questions about Dustin's visa (before they would issue Moses’ passport) and we got nervous about all of the other things that could still go wrong. Dustin had to fax over copies of his passport pages. I haven't heard any more news, though I believe Dustin has some. He texted me and asked me to call but the phones aren't working. As far as I understand, we're expecting to have the passport on Friday. We're hoping that on Friday afternoon, Moses can have his required medical examination. And we hope to apply for his visa on Monday morning at the US Embassy. We've been told it takes several days (up to five, I think) for the Embassy to process a visa before a child can come home. They are set to fly out on Friday morning, only giving the Embassy four days to complete their paperwork. We're starting to get nervous about their December 12th flight, and their December 13th return date.
That's the news from Lake Malawi.
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