The Dude Abides
Hello family and friends!
This is a private blog that we have set up to keep you all updated, as our Internet access in Malawi allows, on our sojourn in Vasco’s birth country.
We depart for Malawi – via Dubai and Johannesburg – on Sunday. We arrive in Blantyre, Malawi on Wednesday afternoon (Malawi time, which is nine hours ahead of California, eight hours ahead of Boise/Denver, seven hours ahead of Chicago/St. Louis and six hours ahead of Connecticut/NY/DC, etc.)
Please keep us in your prayers. We are particularly asking God for favor with any and all government officials in Malawi and the U.S., as well as in the United Arab Emirates (Dubai) and South Africa (Johannesburg) as we cross their borders on our way.
Our adoption hearing in Malawi court is set for 8:30 a.m. local time on Friday, May 28. After that, we will travel on the following Tuesday up to Lilongwe (about a four-hour drive) to make our application for adoption of Vasco to be approved by the U.S. government and for Vasco’s passport/visa etc. to be able to re-enter the States with us. We learned earlier this week that that process could take as long as four weeks. (Surprise!) So our visit to Malawi may be much longer than we had anticipated. After our application is vetted by the U.S. Consul in Lilongwe, they will summon us back to Lilongwe for the adjudication of our case by the U.S. Consul to Malawi, Peter Ganser. We got to know Peter last year when we were trying to get Vasco and his medical escort into the States for Vasco’s heart surgery. Peter is a lovely man and we trust him deeply. We have had little contact with him since last summer because he has to remain totally impartial in order to properly adjudicate our adoption case. (He handled Madonna’s adoptions as well.) But we believe we are in good hands.
It’s a whirlwind of preparations here in Laguna – making sure we have every document we need with us in hard copy and on my laptop and on disks just in case; buying what we need for mosquito abatement while we’re there, taking our meds, giving Vasco his, buying a few new items of clothing for us and some clothing etc. for Vasco’s half-brother, Juma and his extended family, packing, getting all our ducks in a row, etc.
We are alternately excited and terrified about this trip (and by we, I mean Maury and I – we’ve done a good job, I think, of keeping our stress off of Vasco’s radar and he’s super excited for the trip, marking off the days on his wall calendar, talking about which Nintendo games he’ll bring with him on the plane, what movies he’ll watch [we’re flying Emirates and they have 50 Disney films and 600 movie/tv channels to watch and about 100 video games all built into the seats.])
So yeah … lots to do, lots to pray about.
Thank you for your kindness and love and for your prayers and support.
We love you.
C&M&V
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