I have not blogged since returning from Zambia. I’ll be honest, coming home was amazing, but the past few months have not been easy as we have adjusted to life with 2 toddlers and a huge gamut of issues that accompany adoption.
But, my heart tonight is reflecting not on all the hardships, but on the joys. Jeremiah turned 3 yesterday! Yes, 3 years old…I can’t believe it! We had a wonderful day at the aquarium and then we had some friends over for dinner and enjoyed a Cars cake that everyone (especially Jack & Jackson!) couldn’t wait to dig in to?
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My sweet baby boy (I know, you would yell and say, I’m not a baby, but you will always be my baby),
It is such a joy to be your Mommy. I love that I have the privilege of watching you grow and that I get to know more of your little intricacies than anyone else in the world (one day I’ll have to hand that role off to your wife, but I can’t think about that right now!). You are so smart (many times I worry about the day when you will completely outwit me) and inquisitive. Sometimes your questions get tiring (like when you want to know the names of everyone in the pictures of the book, including their last names), but please keep asking! You are so loving (maybe sometimes overly so when you smother your sister in hugs), but I love that you cherish cuddle time as much as I do.
Buddy, I love you and I can’t believe you are growing up so fast…you’re in preschool already! Anyway, things are kind of crazy right now as we get used to having Charis in our family, but I wanted you to know that I love you even more now than the day that I brought you home from the hospital 3 years ago.
Love,
Mommy

I can’t believe I’m actually on the plane, with our beautiful little daughter sleeping beside me headed HOME! We’re going home! After 10 incredibly long weeks, 4 of them by ourselves, we are finally able to be together as a family of 4! I am sobbing tears of joy because we knew at this adoption was not only God’s will but that he orchestrated every single step and He alone can get all the glory from it. We knew that, and yet there were so may doubts along the way. Every time someone happened, it was hard not to say…really God? Is this you? Are you sure? And yet, in the end, after a crazy week of trying to finalize the adoption and hitting unbelievable delays around every turn, the Lord made it happen and literally it is only by His grace at I am sitting on this plane right now.

Let me explain…

First, Monday was a holiday for the funeral of the former president of Zambia, so nothing could happen. On Tuesday, I went to pick up the birth certificate. When I got there, the lady told me at she had just received my file that morning (even though it was filed for on Thursday) and at I could pick it up tomorrow. I kindly asked if there was anything she could do to help me and explained my situation and she eventually said that maybe I could have it by the end of the day. So, I very sweetly said thank you and that since I had nothing else to do until it was ready, that I could just wait there all day for it. Since having a lady and her very active baby in her office all day didn’t sound so great, I was able to get the birth certificate at 12:15 and I raced (literally) to the passport office to file for Charis’ Zambian passport. I hit traffic and was sure I wouldn’t be able to do it that day because you have to pay by 12:30, but miraculously when I got there, I was able to still pay and file for an expedited passport.

Having been told that it would be ready the next day, we got up very early on Wednesday morning to head to the hospital where our friend said she would meet us with the passport at 8am. At 11am, she came with a passport for my friend’s child, but not mine. Amazingly though, the head nurse was more than kind to me and let me do the urinalysis for Charis without the passport even though they are not supposed to see you at all without it. But, not to worry, the passport would be ready by 3pm. So, I waited, then I was told 5pm and I waited…no passport. But…not to worry…it will be ready tomorrow at 8am…no more delays! (it was going to be a long shot, but I thought if I really could get it at 8am, I could hurry to the doctor, beg them to get me in and still maybe make my embassy appointment at 2pm, which she had told me was the latest I could interview for a visa and still have any chance of getting it on Friday morning before they closed for the 4 day holiday.)

So, Thursday morning we were at the passport office before it even opened, expecting that as soon as they unlocked the gate, we would be able to get it and be on our way for the day. Well, given the rest of this saga…you can already predict that it definitely wasn’t ready at 8am! I was told it was across town at the printers and was being driven there and would be there by 10am. Well, I thought, I still have a chance. So, I waited. 10:30…the man bringing it is at the flyover bridge…just rundown the corner. 11:30…the man shows up…oh, I delivered it yesterday…it is here. Everyone scrambled to look for it…at least by this time they realized how long it had been waiting and wanted to help! No passport…can someone please tell me where my child’s passport really is?! As it turns out, the driver had been lying for 2 days, so finally someone drove my passport from the printer to the passport office and I finally got it at 12:55 pm…5 minutes before the window closed and I wouldn’t be able to get it until the next day! So, in the midst of the waiting I had been on the phone begging and pleading with the head nurse at Lusaka Trust Hospital (the embassy approved doctor) to still try and squeeze me in to see the doctor before my embassy appointment. He had told me that the doctor doesn’t even see patients at all on Thursday afternoons, but when I told him I finally had the passport, he pleaded with the doctor to stay well into his lunch hour to see me…amazing! Knowing I could no longer make it to the embassy by 2, I called and explained what was happening and again, amazingly the consular said we could move my appointment to 3pm…still possible!

Dr. Mulenge was a very nice older gentleman and finished the exam in 5 minutes (even though Charis was terrified) and even let me wait until I get to our doctor in the states to have her vaccinated! (If I had had to get her vaccinated, I wouldn’t have made it to the embassy). So, with my envelope of medical papers in hand, we headed to the embassy at 2:30…finally a few minutes to breathe…we even arrived 10 minutes early! The gigantic American embassy (basically a castle on a hill) was completely deserted. I was literally the only non-worker there! So, the consular reviewed my papers for almost an hour and I was starting to get worried, but kept praying and saying Philippians 4:4-9 in my head…yes, girls from last fall’s Bible study…that memorization paid off…the word stuck with me when I needed it most!

Finally, I was called to the window for the visa interview. With Charis sleeping on my back in the chitange the whole time (yes, I can’t believe she slept for the whole interview…amazing!) I patiently answered the consular’s very in-depth questions. Every time I thought she looked like she was going to say…I’m sorry, I can’t issue this visa, you have to go back to court and start over…instead she just looked at her watch and kept going down the list of immigration law statutes and checking each document on the list. Only when she finally said, “Mrs. Jeantet, I’m happy to say that I am approving this visa” did I finally understand God’s timing in our whole entire adoption. All the waiting, all the frustrations, were all because if I had gotten to the embassy a few days ago or even at 2 pm instead of 3 pm, I wouldn’t be on this plane right now. Because it was the end of the day, the day before a very long holiday, the consular decided against a more in-depth orphan investigation and decided to just approve the visa with the documentation that we already had.

Awesome, God! And, even more amazing was that the visa, which normally takes 3-4 days, was ready at 11am the next morning…less than 24 hours from my interview! Unbelievable!

And…the icing on the cake? I’m almost hesitant to write this because you might kick me…but this morning when I got on the flight (we had booked the last seat on the plane) there were no more seats by the baby cot (a place where you can lay lap children down) even though we had paid a lot to be able to do that. I didn’t mind too much though because I am just glad to be going home! Anyway, I ended up getting moved around a few times so other families could be seated together. After I was moved the third time, the angel of a flight attendant came up to me, got my luggage and quietly whispered…come with me…I’m taking you to first class…I’m so sorry we’ve had to move you around! So, yes, I’m sitting in British Airways Club World with my daughter peacefully sleeping in the empty berth next to mine! My first time in first class…ever!

Thank you, Jesus for seeing to every minute detail of this adoption and not missing a single beat! To You be all the praise, glory and honor!

We made it!  We have our beautiful daughter here at home with us!  She fits right into our family…just goes with the flow and is sleeping peacefully in her pack ‘n play next to our bed as I finally take a deep breath and write this post.

So, you’re probably wanting to hear some details:)

At 3:45 this afternoon, after a crazy and exciting day for the Larkin family, we finally were told…go get your daughter right now…you have to be there before 4:30 or you won’t be able to get her until Monday…I’m coming with the papers.  So, we ran down the road to get a taxi and raced to the House of Moses to get there just in time.  What a joy to be able to celebrate with the family that we have grown to love at HOM!

So, we officially began fostering Charis Gift Jeantet and have filed for her adoption.  Charis means “grace” in Greek and Gift was the name given by her birth mother.  So, she is our “gift of grace”!  She is 1.5 years old and an absolutely beautiful little girl. We have a long ways yet to go, but she is with us, and for that we are grateful. Continue to pray that God would watch over us throughout our rescue mission and enjoy a few pictures!

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PS> We are going to keep pictures at a minimum during the fostering period, but we know everyone wanted to see our beautiful girl!

Only two more sleeps til we can bring you home! My precious daughter, this journey has been long and filled with so much waiting. We knew that when we began this adoption road in the fall of 2009, but we never thought it would be this hard once we arrived in Zambia. It was one thing to endure the wait at home before we knew you. But we loved you the moment we met you in the toddler room at HOM and it wasn’t long before we just knew you were our daughter.

Over the last two weeks, we have fallen in love with you more and more each day. Leaving you every afternoon has been the worst feeling ever. You are just devastated every time I have to put you back in your crib and just walk away…soon baby…very soon…then you’ll be ours forever!

You have the most beautiful big brown eyes I’ve ever seen and the cutest cheeks in the world…I can’t stop staring at the pictures I was finally able to take of you…it’s finally real!

Ephesians 2:8-10
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Sunday was filled with experiences I will not soon forget. (I began this post Sunday night, but it has taken 3 days to finish writing this post since things have been a little crazy. Forgive the time jumping in my language).

Ok, so picture the typical sub-Saharan movie scene and that was our morning. Our mini-bus taxi arrived at 9:15 for a 9 o’clock service that was 30 minutes away. And, as we expected might happen, Steve was giving the Bible study. We drove out of the “city” part of Lusaka towards the compounds where the poverty is even greater. Just the word “compounds” tells you that these are not nice places to live. We went to The Lord is Peace International Church, which meets in the elementary school at Chowama compound. Now, I have been to many church plants that meet in schools, but never one quite like this. When we pulled up to the gate, of course everyone stared at us because we were the only “muzungus” (white people) in sight. There are plenty of nationalities in Lusaka proper, but apparently, only there! There was trash blowing all over. The kids were all chewing on what looked like bamboo, but was raw sugarcane. I’m not sure I could have ever imagined what we observed next, but this was not the only church meeting at this elementary school. In fact, there were at least 10, probably more, churches meeting there at the same time. It was incredible! Almost every classroom building had a different church meeting in it, so as you walked through, you could hear hundreds of people praising God in tons of different ways…it was pretty cool. They took the kids outside right away to play with the dozens of other kids already running around. Amazingly though, when I looked out a few minutes later, they were all sitting quietly in a circle listening to a lesson on Noah’s Ark in 2 languages. Meanwhile, inside, Steve was teaching with a translator, we think for the first time ever. There is something incredibly powerful about hearing the Gospel preached in a language you don’t understand.
“Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?” James 2:5. I was so encouraged by our friends and the hospitality extended to us. They have nothing. But they spread bedsheets out on the first row of benches so we could have special seating. Most of them were uneducated and spoke only a few words of English, but they went out of their way to sing the English words of their traditional songs. I was touched.

After lunch, we walked to Manda Hill. Picture a typical American Mall, but with a Walmart-type store and a grocery store as the anchor stores. It’s only a 15 minute walk from our apartment, so we go there every couple of days…thanks, Lord, for this convenience! There isn’t really anything that we’ve wanted and haven’t been able to find there and we’ve been able to make some pretty good meals (even though they’ve been American meals with Zambian ingredients up to this point).
And, as a completely random thing…we happened to see Turkish Delight (like from the Chronicles of Narnia), so we had to buy some and try it…kind of like a chocolate covered gumdrop…just in case you ever wondered!

We are staying in an apartment at the Baptist Mission of Zambia, a compound here in Lusaka, mainly designed to house missionaries. On Sunday nights they have an International Bible Study where we met lots of very well-connected Christians. We got connections to several other adoptive families, the embassy, doctors, taxi drivers, and people with a wealth of knowledge from living here a long time. We serve a God who is not only in the big picture, but has every little intricate detail of our lives choreographed…it’s neat to watch how that plays out.

I’m laying here not able to sleep. My stomach is growling. I had a great dinner with new friends…there were even a few leftovers. All this while my baby lays in an orphanage a few miles away where her stomach is probably beyond growling since she hasn’t had a meal of nshima since about 2pm and won’t have another one until tomorrow morning. Please, Lord, help us find our baby soon!