Quick Update

Guess who has a King-sized bed? That's right, we've upgraded. Or, we've sort of upgraded. We are still in the same room, but some of the families moving out freed up a very large mosquito net, and it was the kind that can be hung in the rooms (round) as opposed to the kind that I brought (square), so I was able to push the two twin beds in my room together to create one very large bed. It isn't exactly the same as a real King, since the mattresses are slightly different heights and one is far more comfortable than the other, but Mtoto and I at least have a little room to breathe…and sweat. It has been very very hot today. In fact, it was so hot that we spent most of the afternoon in someone else's room. In fact, most of the families were in that room, because it was the only one with air conditioning.

Other room news: my fan is working. It turns out it was always working, I just thought it was broken because it is wired backwards so that if you turn it up it doesn't work. However, if you turn it to low it will work. It is not exactly the best of fans, and it is attached rather precariously to the ceiling, but I am hopeful that despite the excessive shaking it will remain attached to the ceiling. If it does fall I am confident that it will fall away from the bed, based on the way the cable that powers it is attached to the ceiling. Also, the biggest spider in Africa used to live on my door frame. It is now dead. This afternoon I came up to the room to grab something, and as I went to put my key in the door something black and wiry skittered up the door frame. I didn't think it was a spider at first because it was so large. But further inspection confirmed that it was a huge spider. I would compare it in size and body type to a tarantula, but without a hair and with a triangle shaped body. Also, it was very fast, and it ran all the way up the wall. I thought that was the end of it, but tonight it was once again lurking on my doorframe. I tried to scare it away by throwing a trash can at it, but it would not budge. Thus I called on the services of a valiant spider slayer, and he put on quite a show trying to kill that big ole thing. At one point it almost ran into my room, but the slayer aggressively pursued his prey, and vanquished the spider after three solid attempts (told you it was quick).

Some of the families got good news today- visas. We were not one of them. In fact, families who interviewed both before AND after us will have their visas ready early next week, and we didn't even get an update. This is not entirely surprising, because Mtoto's orphanage is newer and has never done adoptions before, so we were expecting that the investigations might take more time. Neither of the other families whose kids are from that orphanage got updates either; still it was discouraging for us. It would have been nice to at least hear a progress report. Please pray that we will get some good news soon. It is less about the waiting and more about the knowing, at this point.

Tomorrow we are going on an excursion to the orphanage that we planned to visit last Tuesday (before we got rained out). We are all really looking forward to it.

Jeff will be coming to relieve me in a few weeks. Please pray that he would be able to find an affordable flight with a good schedule. I am really excited that he will have the opportunity to experience Mtoto's country (spiders, lizards, cockroaches and all). It hasn't felt right being here without him, and I can't wait for him to meet his next boy. Mtoto is doing well, aside from teething and diaper rash. He is such a fun boy. I am having a great time with him. And now, I'm tired- time to test out that big huge bed!