We Have An Exit Plan

Each day last week we were told our passports would be ready. So on Friday when we headed to town, my expectations were not high. I was just going to try to enjoy the change of pace of being in town. Joy, Rashid’s wife, drove us and the other family to the passport office. She went in, and us Muzungus waited outside. We were parked under a tree and there was a dirt/grassy area under the trees as well. We strolled and sat and ate.

One of the trickiest parts of this whole deal is that the US Embassy only does certain things on certain days for certain amounts of time. Monday, Wednesday, Friday from 8am to 11:30am, they accept visa paperwork. If you are not signed in by 11:30 then they ask you to come back. The passport guy told us 9:30am, which gave us some fudge room. Rashid had told us that if Joy walked out anytime after 11:00am that we should jump on a boda boda and get to the Embassy. Anytime before 11:00am and Joy would have time to drive us there.

Now a boda boda is a guy on a motorcycle that you pay to get you somewhere quickly. There are thousands of boda bodas sitting around Kampala waiting for someone to hop on. And there are thousands of them weaving in and out of traffic on the road. I LOVED this idea. Jonathan, not so much.

Around 11:00am I was getting antsy and so I decided to do a little prayer-walk. Ki was sleeping on my back so I could here myself think and cry out to God. I wasn’t mad that we didn’t have our passports yet because the peace He had given me at the beginning of the week was lingering. But I was just ready. So I was asking for passports AND peace if we didn’t get them. (I’m learning that peace is way more important than our way in this process.)

As I was nearing the entrance of the passport building I saw Joy round the corner. It was almost ten after eleven. There was a crowd between us so I had time to brace myself for whatever answer she was going to dish out. When we made eye contact, she shook her head no. Sigh. Okay. God is bigger. I can handle this. But I was wondering what the passport guy’s excuse was this time. Last Wednesday and Thursday it was a funeral. Tuesday it was Parliament. Wednesday and Thursday he was in jail. (Yes, you read that correctly.) I was wondering what it would be today. When she caught up to me, I turned around and asked, “Why not?” She was slow to answer but she asked me why I asked. This threw me off a little. I answered with “I don’t know.” But then she asked if Jonathan would get on a boda boda. (She knew his aversion.) I was confused and asked why. “To get to the Embassy!” she said. “Oh, YOU GOT THEM!!!! WHAT? ARE YOU KIDDING? DO YOU HAVE THEM OR NOT???” was my reply.

Come to find out she was shaking her head because she thought it was too late because Jonathan wouldn’t get on a boda boda and with the traffic at a stand still, she knew we wouldn’t make it on time. And she also told us later that one of the passports had been printed wrong and so it had to be re-printed and signed again. And Joy was in the office praying, “Your will be done, Your will be done...” over and over. We were all praying that morning.

Okay, so I start jogging to the car to tell the other family to get ready and to tell Jonathan to get the backpack with the paperwork in it. In a moment of clarity, I asked Joy if she could take the kids in the car so we didn’t have to ride with them and she agreed. (Don’t judge that I would have ridden on a boda boda with my babies. You have not seen what I have seen here. I have seen two and three children sandwiched between the driver and another adult. I have seen a kid by himself holding on for dear life to the driver with his head buried in the driver’s back.) So, Joy waved down 4 boda bodas. We practically tossed our kids in the car and jumped on. I told my driver that this was my first time and not to kill me! It was the ride of my life. I LOVED it. There is something about wind in my hair that makes me happy. I now understand why so many people don’t want to hear helmets.

So, we left the passport office at 11:09 and reached the Embassy which was half way across the capital city of Uganda, paid our drivers, checked our bag (you can’t take food, water, electronics, CHAPSTICK, anything but papers into the Embassy), went through security, jogged to the office, and were signing by 11:23am. ROCKIN AWESOME.

We could breathe. We made it. And we had our kids’ passports. Happy Day. We were in there for about 2 hours because there were other adopting families there to drop off paperwork and several families picking up their visas. When we were called in, we went through our paperwork with the lady and schedule our interview. The Embassy only conducts interviews on Monday and Wednesday afternoons. And next week was all booked up. So 2pm Monday, November 26 it is. That gives us time next week to go on Safari and do a little shopping before we have to get back down to business. I was hoping to fly home on Thanksgiving Day, but I’m just going to trust that God has got this still.

So, interview on Monday the 26^th, which means we should be able to pick up our visas on Wednesday at the latest. They need 24 to 48 hours to print them. We are scheduled to hop on a plane that Wednesday night at 11:30pm. That puts us back in Albuquerque around 7:45 Thursday night.

The Wednesday flight makes me a little nervous just because it leaves us very little time for error but there is not flight with KLM on Thursday and the flights on Friday and Saturday are $3000 more A PIECE. Yowzers. And we don’t want to wait longer than that!!! And Jonathan has to get back to work. He gets two weeks of vacation pay a year so we will be 3 weeks in the hole when we get back. (So thankful that his boss was gracious enough to give him the time off to come.) Oh, and did I mention that I CAN’T WAIT to see my sweet New Mexico four!!!

So, pray with us that everything goes well on Monday the 26^th and that our visas are printed quickly.

Once we check that off, you can start begging the Lord with us that our two babies that have constant sinus issues and have never seen a plane full of people (or empty for that matter) and have never used a seat belt will be first-time plane Rock Stars.