The waiting game …

Hi everybody.

This is the part where I’m supposed to write that the adoption was approved and he’s ours forever and and and and…

Well, we did, in fact, have our hearing this morning at the Supreme Court (High Court) in Blantyre.

At 8:30 a.m. promptly, we arrived and were greeted on the steps of the courthouse by the one and only KIM DAY!!

I burst into tears seeing her smiling, familiar face — that lovely, Laguna lady who was Vasco’s first babysitter and the caregiver for so many of our favorite kids – Mizz Cora, Sam, Max, Schuyler, Willem …. The closest thing to home and a Mom I could ask for today.

Maury and Vasco and I could not have been more grateful to see Kimmy. (Africa agrees with her. She looks beautiful, happy, at peace, fulfilled, and full of creative ideas – so watch out!)

Along with her was Moira from the Gogo Grandmothers group in Zomba, our South African friend Skallas (who is an adoptive parent himself of a Malawian toddler – he and his wife live in Blantyre and have for a decade) who has walked us through the adoption process, and six of Vascos’ relatives – his Aunt Esme, Uncle Mavuto, Esme’s husband, his young Uncle Dusta (or Dustin), and Vasco’s brother, Juma.

After waiting for about five minutes, Maury, Vasco and I went into the judge’s chambers with our attorney, Charles, and the child welfare caseworker, Dominic.

The judge, whose name neither Maury nor I ever caught, had been assigned to our case only yesterday afternoon after his judicial colleague, to whom the case belonged, was detained in Lilongwe and couldn’t return in time. This was a positive turn of events, Charles (our lawyer) told us yesterday. This new judge was a very good judge.

He was also a very stern judge. Extremely officious and very very serious.
He asked Maury and I nothing. He called on Vasco once to stand – as evidence of how much he’s grown and how healthy he was and asked him how he was feeling (in English) and Vasco answered his usual, “Good!” in English, as we had been instructed the day before that he should ONLY speak English in the judge’s presence. This was not a difficult command to obey as Vasco is struggling, really, to remember much of his native Chichewa at all.

Charles presented our case in a very provincial way (this is a very English kind of court proceeding – “My Lord,” was the end of each of his statements and answers to the judge. The judge asked him to amend a filing because he didn’t like one word. Really. ONE WORD. And then he asked Charles to relate to him the changes in Malawi law pertaining to international adoption in the wake of the adoption of Chifundo (Mercy) James  (aka Madonna’s youngest daughter.) The only other question the judge asked Charles pertained to our occupations as journalists. Apparently the judge was of the impression that all journalists are Christiane Amanpour and jet off to the other side of the world at a moment’s notice to chase a news story.

This is where I had to bite my tongue and sit on my hands. “WE WORK AT HOME!” I wanted to shout. “BOTH OF US WORK AT HOME!” And then I wanted to point out that I am now a columnist, notsomuch a traditional news journalist and I most traverse my mind, heart and soul (and occasionally the internet) in pursuit of a story. But I said nothing. Cuz that’s how they roll here in Malawi.

After about 20 minutes, the judge said that he would like to postpone his ruling in our case until this coming Tuesday, June 1, at 2 p.m. Malawi time. The reason for this was that he had just been handed the case late yesterday, had not had sufficient time to be thorough in its assessment and was also due to preside over an actual trial that had started … oh, about ten minute earlier.

So that’s where we are now.
We wait until Tuesday for his ruling.

Now, lest anyone panic, our lawyer and the caseworker for child welfare both said they were certain our petition for adoption would be approved on Tuesday and that the judge was just being thorough, as that is his reputation. I asked about amending our file to reflect the fact that both Maury and I work at home and Vasco is almost never without one or the other of us within a few hundred yards, unless he’s at school, the dojo, soccer practice, Petie’s house playing, church, Bible club or Uncle Veen/Uncle Dave’s house.

Charles, our lawyer, assured us taht that was not necessary as it was all covered in the lengthy and extremely thorough report from East-West Adoptions – the California adoption agency that conducted our home study for the US and Malawi side of the adoption process.

Charles and Dominic seemed genuinely confident. So we are going with that.

After the hearing as over, we joined Kimmy and Moira and Rob and Francisco and Vasco’s family in the courtyard and hung out for a bit, visiting, taking pictures, etc. And then Kimmy, Maury, V, Rob and Francisco and I headed to the Rials hotel for lunch. Lovely lovely time. On our way out, we were greeted by two more familiar and long-loved faces – the King and Queen of the Day Clan, Dick and Charlotte, who were in Blantyre from Zomba to do a little shopping and for a checkup for Dick. They are two of the most wonderfully vibrant people. We just adore them and it was such a boost to see them today. We’ve promised to stop and have lunch with Dick and Charlotte and Kimmy on our way back from a weekend get away to see some of the natural beauty of Malawi – Lake Malawi and a safari (see below.)

I’ve posted some below, along with a video of Vasco this morning about 5 a.m. talking to Auntie Jen – who was, at the time, about to go to bed in Wheaton and had been praying with The Railroad (as we call them) – Theo, Ian Maisy aka Isabel and Mimi aka Mia Grant-Funck.

We all – that being me, Maury, Rob and Francisco who are still totally knackered from their marathon trip (think Planes, Trains and Automobiles but in Africa) from LA to Blantyre, arriving last night – need a few days to cool our heels.  And I’m on DAY THREE without my luggage. (Last word – a few minutes ago – is that it’s set to arrive on the 12:30 p.m. flight from Lilongwe tomorrow. Please God. I can only where these two outfits  – one of them a chiffon dashiki – so many times.

Happily, with Kimmy’s help, we have made plans to drive a few hours north of here tomorrow (we’ve hired an SUV and driver for the five of us for the next week or so) to Lake Malawi to a beautiful lakeside lodge called Club Mak  and then on to a fantastic safari lodge/retreat called Mvuu on Sunday  where there hippos and elephants are literally hanging out about six feet from our high-class tents. The food is great, the company will be fantastic, and Vasco will get to see some of the natural wonders of his native country.

And as everyone here knows, I LOVE ELEPHANTS.  So even the chance that I might get close enough to a few of them to see their eyelashes makes me giddy.

That’s what we’ve got for now.
Thanks for your love and prayers.
Zikomo kwambiri and chisomo,
Cath