The rest of the story

Many of you have been asking about what is left during my stay here in Uganda, so I thought I would just lay out the rest of the process. It would be so helpful to have you praying over the many details. Every step of the way from here on out rests largely on the previous step happening in a timely manner.

Now that we have our written ruling, we are waiting on Dorcas's birth certificate. This is a crucial item needed for the Visa and Embassy work to be done. Pray it comes today or tomorrow! We need the birth certificate for a series of medical visits that are required (which we have scheduled to start tomorrow morning at 10 a.m.). We need the medical visit findings to be sent to the Embassy. The Embassy will begin what is called an "Orphan Investigation" (basically, making sure that children are truly orphaned and that everything was done ethically) upon getting the birth certificate (so once again - praying for that certificate!), and it takes an unknown amount of time. We hear they take on average, 1-2 weeks. While all of this is happening, the Passport is also being ordered. As paperwork comes in, we are able to submit it to the US Embassy. Once all paperwork has been submitted, then we have our Visa appointment to turn in the remainder of the legal documents to secure a US Visa (not Mastercard - ha!) for Dorcas. That should come about 2-3 days after we file for it. At that point ... we get to come home! So while it may not sound like much, as I said, each piece of paper and the timeliness that it comes to us will determine when we can make the next step. So we're praying for papers to fly!

In other news, my sweet Provi-Anne girl got really sick on the flight home. I'm praying she didn't leave here with some sort of bacteria, and that she will be all better upon arrival home. Aaron said that she took the midnight meal on the plane that was offered while he was asleep (otherwise he would have stopped her). He's fairly certain that it was a mix of that meal and motion sickness (and pure exhaustion) that did it. I hope he's right. Poor guy said his next 10 hour flight was booked solid and he and Provi were in the middle two seats of a row of four. Hmmmm.... I'm thinking whoever is next to Provi will have been asking for a seat switch. ;) They should be coming to the end of that flight and making their way through Customs right about now.

Well that was an exciting update, huh? Sorry - I had sent it out in about 4 emails already, and instead of answering the other emails, I just put it here!

And now you have the rest of the story!

Thanks for praying for the details!