Day Off

Today was a day off, so to speak, because there was nothing we could do regarding the adoption process.











The hotel here is very nice. It is a Holiday Inn, but it is nothing like any Holiday Inn I have seen in the US. This one has 2 outdoor pools. We began the day with breakfast and then went to a local church. This particular one has 2 services in English. Later we decided to check out one of the pools. By we, I mean Gabriella and Brian. The water was a bit cool, so Laura decided to lounge in the sun (Laura said she was in charge of photos and the camera shouldn't be near water).









Later, we decided to take a walk in the local area. We did not get too far because we discovered a little playground right at the hotel. Well, it was actually part of a restrauant at the hotel. Sort of like a McDonalds play area, but at a restrauant. (Why don't they have those in the US.) Gabriella took some time just watching the other children before she decided to take part in the fun. It was very interesting just watching her, watch the others. You could almost see her mind at work. After a few minutes of watching, she bravely went down a slide, then over to a rock climbing wall, a see-saw and a moon bouce thingy. (See pictures and video).
























After playing there for awhile, we decided it was time to have dinner. To our surprise, Gabriella did not want to leave. She did not put up a fuss when we eventually had to go. So we went down the street about a block to another restratuant, and to our surprise they had another playground there as well. This one had a huge tree in the middle for great shade and a swing set, a slide, and the whole playground had sand so it was like a huge sand box as well. Gabriella went right to work checking out all the equipment while Laura and I sat and watched. This play area also proved difficult to get Gabriella away from when the food came and it was time to eat.


By the end of the day, though, Gabriella was pretty tired and she was ready to go to sleep. No problems, for the first time Gabriella went to sleep without fussing.

Phase 2 -- Kenya

We made it to Kenya. We arrived at Kigali International Airport about 3 hours early because we wanted to make sure that we could get Gabriella's ticket re-issued. However, we breezed through without any issues and they didn't even re-ticket. This was great even though we completed all the check in procedures almost 2 and a half hours ahead of the flight. We didn't mind and it was kind of fun passing the time by conversing with other travelers passing through this airport as they were moving around Africa. We spoke with one student from a university in Toronto and 2 Missionaries from Colorado doing work in various small villages. It was very interesting hearing some of their stories.

I know this is kind of out or order, but we almost had some "excitement" just trying to get to the airport. We were not aware that the last Saturday of each month is Community Day around Rwanda, and on this day no one does any work before noon. Guess what today is....the last Saturday in May. The hotel said they would not be able to get us a van to leave until noon (for a 1:45 flight). We were concerned. However, we explained our situation and they arranged a van for us at 10:15. We were happy.

Gabriella's first airplane flight went pretty well. There was a little time when she was not very happy because she had to wear a seat belt, but all in all, we thought it went pretty good. Brian's sister Barb, arranged for us to be picked up at the airport by a work colleague of hers. This was extremely helpful because, not only is she a delightful person to talk to, but she is a great tour guide. As we were driving, Gabriella fell asleep so we decided to take a few extra turns and see some sights around Nairobi.

This is a very busy city, and the drivers are crazy. Taxi cabs in NYC have nothing on the drivers here. The thing that surprises Brian the most is that by experiencing all this type of driving (in Rwanda and now Kenya), he has yet to see a car accident. There have been about a million close calls, but not one accident. Amazing!!!

As we have mentioned, we think that things are going very well with Gabriella. We think that she is very smart and caring, but there are some expected developmental delays that are the natural result of being in an orphanage for an extended period (about 3 years in Gabriella's case). One is everything is new and she does not know when it is appropriate to say things. For example, when a white person goes by us, she screams and says "visitor" in Kinyarwanda. In addition, she sometimes has tantrums when she doesn't get her way, and we can add that Gabriella has a great set of lungs. Brian says that she has a scream that will put a 2 year old to shame. However, she learns quickly and once she has a tantrum about and issues and is resigned that she is not going to get her way, it rarely happens again. We are thankful that we have 6 more days to work with her before the 17 hour flight to get home.

One of our tasks here in Nairobi is to get a doctor to give Gabriella a short version of a physical. This is necessary for us to get her a visa to enter the US. We are going to try and get an appointment for Monday, however, Monday is a holiday in Kenya, so we are not sure if it will be possible. If it is not, that just gives us 2 days to do some swimming in the pools here at the hotel and some site-seeing around town.

Expedited Passport in hand today, tomorrow we go to Kenya, hopefully

Last night was the first night Gabriella was able to stay with us. It went fairly smooth, however, she did have alittle trouble falling asleep. But that is to be expected since it was her first night out of the orphanage. Eventually, she did fall asleep and she slept pretty much throughout the night, except for a short spell when she woke up around 4:00 AM for about 5 -10 minutes.

We all woke up early so we could make it to the passport office by 7:00. When we submitted the application we also submitted a written request for expedited service. Passports typically take 3-5 days, but we were requesting less than 1 day...not too unreasonable. As they were reviewing our request, they noticed that our attorney did not bring a key document. So we quickly went back to her office, got an un-notarized version of that document, went to have it notarized, and got back to the passport office by 10:00 AM. We had to get back quickly if we wanted to stand a chance of getting the expedited treatment. (And, oh yea, we also had to make it to the US Embassy to fill out another form and get it approved before they closed at noon.) To our surprise the passport office told us to come back at 4:00 PM to pick it up. So we did and were extremely happy about it. We also made it to and finished at the US Embassy before noon.

Some additional excitement happened around lunchtime when Laura thought...hey don't you think Gabriella's passport and the plane ticket ought to have the same name on them. You see, when we submitted the passport application we had to use her given name, Gabriella Igihozo, because by mistake her name was not changed as part of the adoption process. When Brian bought the tickets, he used her adopted name, Gabriella Igihozo Lauer....hhhhmmmmm, that could cause some questions at the airport.

After checking with out travel agent back in Maryland, she called the airlines and they said they could re-issue the plane tickets from Kigali to Nairobi at the airport. We are going to wait to process the tickets from Nairobi to Washington DC until we get a better idea on if we will leave Nairobi on schedule. At this time, we firmly believe we will, but, again...stay tuned.

Anyway, after picking up the passports we headed back to the orphanage to say goodbye to the Sisters. Laura was holding Gabriella and tried to put her down. Gabriella would have none of that. We are sure she will miss the Sisters, because afterall that was her home for over 3 years, however, we also think she was scared we were going to leave her. No chance.

After taking some pictures, we said our good byes and exited out the Blue Doors for the last time. We did tell the Sisters we would be back, but next time as visitors.

Tomorrow, the airport and then off to Kenya...

WE GOT IT !!!

Well, it happened.....today we received the letter from the Minister officially approving this entire process. As far as the adoption is concerned, the process is OVER!!!! Yes, Casey and Corey, that means she is your little sister.

It did not come without some "moments" though. To summarize, our attorney dropped off the last documents at the Ministers office early this morning, and Laura, Gabriella, and I went there to wait for the final letter. The letter can take over 3 days to be written, however, we were told to just go to the office and sit there and wait for it to be completed. They were not pleased we were doing this, but our file did get worked on almost right away. The 'moment' came when we were told the Minister did not like one of the dates on a hand written court document. An incorrect date was initially put down and then crossed out and the correct date entered. It was not completely legible and they asked that we go back to the Sector Court and have the appropriate authority make is more legible and then 'stamp' it. Well, that took about 2 and a half hours, but it did get done, we went back to the Ministry. The Minister did sign the letter on the condition that we resolve the date issue. Once we got back to the Ministry, we had our letter within about 15 minutes. YEA!!!

Around 4:30 we took the letter and Gabriella back to the orphanage but we were allowed to bring her back to the hotel. The 3 of us will be together for the remainder of the trip and then the 5 of us will be together forever after that.

Tomorrow, we have 2 tasks to be able to take Gabriella out of Africa. We will go to the Office of Immigration and Migration at 7:00 AM to apply for Gabriella's Rwandan passport so she can leave the country. We are going to request expedited processing because new passports can take up to 5 days. If we are lucky we are hoping to get it in the afternoon. The 2nd task is to go to the US embassy to submit paperwork that allows us to get her visa once we go to Kenya....If that doesn't make sense, we are with you. Right now, when someone tells us to fill out a form, we fill out a form.

Stay tuned for more excitement tomorrow....

Another new experience

Well today we took another small step forward. Our attorney picked up the police report, but when she went to get it notarized, the notary was not around. Consequently, she could not go to the Ministry to drop it off....that should come tomorrow morning. Our plan now is to go to the Ministry around 9:00 AM and wait for the Minister's letter, the ultimate proclamation of this process. When I say wait, I mean...pack some snacks and toys, set up camp, and hope to get it by nightfall. The Sisters at the Orphanage also told us to do the same thing.

We did not activley participate in any of today's tasks, so today turned into a sort of "down day". To fill the time, we arranged to meet some friends of friends at a local swimming pool. This was completely new to Gabriella, and it was really fun just seeing her reactions to all the activity.

We met Kelly and Laura Sager and 3 of their children at the pool. Gabriella was not sure what to do at this strange place, so one of the kids (Grace, who was adopted by the Sagers from the Home of Hope Ophanage) came over, took Gabriella's hand, and the 2 just walked over to the pool and stepped right in. Grace was so amazing because she did all this unprompted and Gabriella went along with it completely trusting.

All the kids played very well together, and Gabriella, true to form, began immitating some of their actions in the pool. In a few minutes, she looked like a natural. It was really neat to watch it all play out. At one point, Gabriella watched Grace go down the slide and so she decided to try it as well. Well, it really took her by surprize when her head went underwater. A little while later, she climbed the slide again, but decided to not go down that time.

Gabriella had a harder time tonight watching us go, but we did get a treat. Another volunteer had a copy of some pictures taken of Gabriella just a few days within her arrival at the orphanage, and she let us keep them.

Laura and I managed to get up enough energy to go to a local restrauant and have an adult dinner.

Things are moving, It is slow, but moving

From the process view, things are not moving as quickly as we would like. The main document we are trying to get at this point is a letter from the Minister of Gender and Family Promotion, but we need a police report in order to get it. After visiting 3 different police stations and the Ministry 2 times, we have been told that our attorney should be able to pick up the police report at 11:00 tomorrow and the letter from the Minister hopefully on Thursday.

Gabriella is great! She seems very smart and repeats a lot of words. She knows how to count to 10, gets concerned when Laura or I are not around (and asks "Where's Mama" or "Where's Papa"), and pretty much figured out how to work our camera, the lights, the toilet, the TV, etc.

She is getting more comfortable with us, so is starting to test what she can do. She likes to be carried, but we are trying to limit it, but everything is new to her and overwhelming at times. At one point, we put her down and she didn't want to walk and just sat on the ground. We stood there and waited, but then a lot of people came by and we got the feeling like they thought that something was wrong, but it also scared her and she got up and took our hand. We may have to go a little bit easier on that until we get her back to the US.

One time Laura opened up her wallet to pay someone and a picture of Casey and Corey right on top. Gabriella got so excited because she recognized them and started smiling and speaking Kinyarwanda (her native language). We think she was screaming "My brothers". Later she took the wallet and we played "Where's Corey" and "Where's Casey".

We do not think she has been exposed to many animals because one time a dog came up on TV and she was frightened of it. Also, in a mall, there was a metal statue of and elephant, and she was scrared to get close to it, until she realized it was pretend. All this should go away in time.

She still likes to play with her bathroom kit which contains alot of hair supplies and uses them to experiment on Laura. She now says "ouch" when she pulls Laura's hair too hard. The funny thing is that she says it before Laura has a chance to say it herself.

Kigali is a beautiful city, very clean, and seems very safe. On the paved roads, we have seen many city workers sweeping up, not only the trash in the streets, but the dirt as well (all by hand). Many roads are paved, but the dirt roads get pretty washed out during the rainy season.

Kigali is just coming out of the rainy season, and we have been walking on some of these dirt roads. The good news is that the orphanage is just a 10-15 minute, down hill walk from the hotel.

However, the bad news is that it is a 15-20 minute, up hill walk to get back. By uphill we mean uphill. These pictures show the last block to the ophanage, but they really do not accurately depict how steep it really is. Think of a really bumpy, bumpy, bumpy road and then add a steep incline. Notice the ruts in the road. The drainage ditches are pretty deep to be able to handle all the water during the rainy season. Laura's calves and Brian's back are starting to feel the effects of the hill.

One last thing I wanted to mention was how they mow the lawn here at the hotel. The use hand trimmers and machetes with a curved blade. They have been working on it for 2 days now....I guess we all have it easy by being able to use lawn mowers.

First Full Day Together...

We were with Gabriella from 9:00 to 5:00 today. Gabriella showed us a playgound where several 2-year olds wer playing (about 30). When the children ran to greet us, Gabriella became very jealous. We reassured her that she was our Gabriella. There are about 130 children and we are not sure how many caregivers, but there are about 12 nuns and many other volunteers.

The first thing we did when we left the orphange was go to church just up the hill from the orphanage. Casey and Corey....boy are you lucky. This service was over an hour and a half, and we did not understand a word of it. Everything was in Kinyarwanda. There was drums, there was a guitar, there was dancing, there was clapping....it was actually a very nice service.

We then took her to lunch and then 3 hours later had dinner (there she had 3 pieces of chicken and some french fries).

We came back to the room and she wanted to play with her doll and some hair stuff. She was very interested in all the little hair stuff, however she thought the scrungies were bracelets and put them on her wrists. She also managed to get 10 barrets in her hair, in addition to all the bobbles she already had.

We can tell Gabriella is in a hard transition point because she was very tired but too excited about taking a nap. She asked to go back to the orphanage, but when we got there she wouldn't let us go and was very sad when we did have to leave at 5:00.

We Made It...

The plane ride was long, but we finally touched down in Kigali, Rwanda around 1:30 PM, which is about 7:30 AM Washington DC time. Our attorney (Fiona) met us at the airport and gave us a ride to our hotel for a quick "freshen up" before taking us to the Home of Hope Orphanage to meet Gabriella. Gabriella was very shy at first, but seemed to open up alittle bit after we opened a package of minature chocolate bars. She want to savor it so she licked it rather than chewed it, and it melted all over her hands and face. While there, we met all the Sisters of Calcutta (these are the nuns who take care of all the children), and boy are they special. The are very attached to Gabriella, but they are also very happy she is going to a family where she will get plenty of love.

We were able to take Gabriella with us for a couple of hours, but we had to have her back by 5:00 PM. Fiona took us to convert money and along the way, we met her husband and 2 sons. They are very nice, however, they were very disappointed Casey and Corey were not able to make the trip. They go to an International school and speak English very well. They were hoping to meet and play with a couple of American boys.

Anyway, we came back to the hotel and spent some time with Gabriella. Although she may only know a few English words, she seems very aware of what we are saying and will repeat words. She has the pictures we sent to her and can say "Casey" and "Corey". She told Fiona she loves them already and also likes dogs.

For dinner, Gabriella had a small bowl of soup and then asked for seconds. She ate a plate full of goat meat, fish, sweet potatoes, potatoes, and carrots. And even asked for more of that as well. After dinner, we took a taxi back to the Orphanage. None of us wanted to say good bye, but she did give us both big hugs and seemed like she did not want to let go. We will be going back tommorrow morning around 9:00 AM and will get to spend the entire day together. Once Laura and I get a good nights sleep, we will be ready for that.

First Pictures

Here are 2 pictures we received of Gabriella. One is at the orphanage and the other is at a hospital during one of her medical visits.

Upcoming Trip to meet Gabriella

Well, the day is getting closer...and this is our first entry for our upcoming trip to Kigali, Rwanda to meet and bring home Gabriella.

For now the general plan is to... Leave Washington, DC, this Friday, the 22nd and arrive in Kigali, Rwanda around noon on Saturday, the 23rd. If all goes well, we should be in Kigali for about a week to get Gabriella's passport, and then on to the US Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya to get her visa to bring her to the US. If all goes well there, we will leave Nairobi on or about June 5th and get back to Washington on June 6th.

We are very excited about the trip and will post pictures as soon as we can...