One of the coolest parts of being a pastor is being able to baptize your own children. This past Sunday, November 6th, I baptized Charis into the covenant family. Sunday was, not coincidentally, Orphan Sunday (celebrated the first Sunday of November each year. Here is the video from the baptism. As you will see, she was crying… a lot… right up until Kim gave her some goldfish to snack on!

We’ll post pictures and more soon, but we wanted to let everyone know that Kim and Charis did arrive home safely on Sunday evening. Thank you to all for your support. Again, more coming soon.

For all the ups and downs of this process, there is one thing we knew: God has a child for us. It’s hard to believe, but it’s now been two full months since we met Charis and were quickly convinced this beautiful little girl was God’s gift to our family. While the process has been long and twisty, we have had Charis with us and have had the wonderful opportunity to start to get to knew our daughter. A week ago, we really didn’t know how long this process was going to take. Even though it looked like there were steps forward, they were slow and it often felt like one step forward and two steps back.

God, in his graciousness and mercy, saw fit to move the process quickly this week. On Tuesday Kim picked up the new birth certificate listing her adopted name of Charis and showing us as the parents. She immediately turned around and applied for the passport. We thought she would receive the passport Wednesday morning… then Wednesday afternoon… then Thursday morning at 8:00. At 11:45 on Thursday, she finally received the passport and raced out to the medical clinic so Charis could get the physical required of all US immigrants. A doctor amazingly volunteered to work through his lunch break to get them in. From there, they raced over to the US embassy, which has offered to move their appointment from 2:00 to 3:00, but said that was absolutely the latest they could do. Kim made is to the embassy and was interviewed for almost two hours, with every piece of paperwork being meticulously reviewed. Finally, Kim heard that wonderful words: they would approve the visa!

When Kim finally told her, I fell to my knees in tears. They were coming home. Yesterday (Friday), Kim picked up the completed visa while I locked in their plane tickets. And now? Kim and Charis are in the air on their way to London. And tomorrow they arrive in Tampa at 4:45pm! I left a full month ago today. Tomorrow, our family will be together again! Praise God!

Thank you to all who have read this blog, prayed for us, supported us, blessed us with gifts, cared for Jeremiah so I could work, prepared (or bought) meals for us and so much more. We are so grateful. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. If you are able, we would love to have you join Jeremiah and I at the airport at 5:00pm tomorrow (Sunday) to welcome them home and celebrate.

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PS> For all our excitement, our hearts are heavy for our dear friends, the Larkins, who travelled with us to Zambia but are still separated. Just when it seemed they were finished, some paperwork sent them back to the drawing board and it may be another couple of weeks. Please be praying that God would move quickly to reunite their family and bring Isaiah home with his family. Thanks.

When we met Charis, she could really do nothing. Couldn’t sit up. Couldn’t crawl. Couldn’t walk. In our loving care (okay, mostly Kim’s loving care), she is growing stronger and eager to walk. Here is a video of her learning to walk…

This adoption has been the hardest thing we’ve ever done. We knew the process was going to be tough, but this is even more than we thought we were signing up for. I don’t even know how to put into words the ups and downs, the uncertainty and the angst of waiting.

Finally, a couple of days ago, we did get some movement: the judge signed the adoption decree! Praise God. We were slow to post anything if only because our good news was accompanied the same day by a major setback for our dear friends on this journey alongside of us. But, again, praise God that Charis is now, officially, a Jeantet!

Ok, so where do we go from here? Following are the steps before we will be able touring Charis home with us…
1) Birth certificate: We need a new birth certificate reflecting her adopted name and us as the parents.
2) Passport: Once we have the birth certificate, we can apply for a Zambian passport for her to travel on.
3) Medical exam: All US immigrants are required to have a medical exam from an authorized physician.
4) US immigrant visa: With all of the above complete, we can apply for the visa to bring her back to the US with us.
5) Fly home: Finally!

So, while we have the adoption decree, you can see there are several steps yet to completing this process.

Please pray for the Lord’s favor in a quick end to this process. The birth certificate has been applied for and we hoped to get it on Monday. But Monday has just been declared a national holiday in Zambia for the funeral of a former president. That, unfortunately, slows us even further, possibly up to a week because of the 4th of July the following week.

Finally, please pray that our paperwork will be deemed sufficient by the US embassy to issue the visa.

Thank you for joining us in this rescue mission. The end is slowly coming into sight. May the Lord bring us all home to Sarasota soon.

Please be praying. Our court appointment is at 8:30am on Friday (that’s 2:30 EST for those of you in the US). Our first court appointment on Monday did not go as expected. We really thought that Monday was going to be the day where Charis was officially declared to be our daughter. It was not. The judge did not like the way one of the court filings was worded. He recommended some revised wording and said he would see the case again on Friday. Be praying. This has been the hardest thing we’ve ever done in our lives. We love Charis and want her to be officially declared a Jeantet. She was our rescue mission. We are close, and yet feeling so far away. We want nothing more than to bring her home as our daughter. Again, please be praying!