After an especially long two months we have finally met the end. Though there were many obstacles and bumps along the road, we are elated to say that we are finally coming home with our new addition to the family! As you know we had a very difficult time attaining Mary’s passport. The official processing her passport became very difficult and was trying to make the process much longer for us. Once we got our lawyer involved, however, we had the passport last Monday. The lady in the U.S. Embassy bent over backwards for us to keep our new Visa appointment for Wednesday 14th and we met Moses and Mary’s biological mother for the interviews. That Friday we finally received Mary’s Visa. It was such an amazing feeling to walk out of that office knowing we could finally go home!
We were not able to get a flight until this Thursday night so we fled to Jinja for a few days to keep us occupied and give us a change of pace. We stayed at an amazing hotel with a pool about ten years from our hotel door. I also had the opportunity to travel to Iganga for a few hours and see the teachers and kids from the school I taught at last summer which was great. We got back to Kampala yesterday afternoon and have been anxiously awaiting getting home. Today we have been able to get some packing done which only makes going home all the more real. Mary keeps dancing around us excitedly saying that we are going home tomorrow night. She is just as excited as we are! She is especially looking forward to Christmas in America as, even in Uganda, they start to put Christmas decorations out in mid-November. We just came from the Nakumatt and there was an electronic Santa Claus and Christmas tree outside that she was absolutely fascinated with.
I wanted to thank everyone who has been so supportive of our family through this entire process. We are very grateful to all of you and we are so excited to introduce to you our special girl! It is such a gift to experience this little girl’s presence, especially after seeing how withdrawn and cut off from the world she was only a year ago. I have been in awe of my parents since the moment I told them about Mary and her situation and they have only continued to amaze me with their capacity to accept and love the child I fell in love with last year. They are truly amazing and beautiful people.
Hope all is well with everyone back home and we will see in a few days!!!!!!!
