Prayers for Melanie

I have mentioned before how much we love our guest house and the people we have met there. The man who runs the guest house, Patrick, is in great need of prayer for his youngest daughter, Melanie, and I asked him if I could post on the blog and ask you to pray.

Shortly after we arrived she developed pneumonia. While she was in the hospital, they noticed some complications, and did an echocardiogram and found a heart problem that needs surgery. The surgery cannot be done in Uganda, because while the upside of medical care here is that it is cheap and they can treat common things easily and efficiently, the downside of that is that there aren't any cardiac surgeons, or high tech equipment, etc.

Some doctors in New York said they would do the operation for free, so the doctors here worked on stabilizing Melanie and Patrick got her paperwork in order to travel. When we left for our Safari this weekend we thought we would come back to hear news of when she was traveling.

We found out this morning that for some reason the doctors have backed out of doing the surgery. The doctors here (who may be wrong- here's to hoping) have given her less than two years to live without surgery. She has since developed Malaria, and will be at great risk every time she gets sick until her heart defect is fixed.

Pray that a doctor would come forward who would be willing to do the surgery and that the expense of the surgery and travel could be worked out. Patrick has informed us that he is planning on selling everything he has to pay for the plane tickets to get his wife and the nurse to the US if a doctor can be found. He will stay here and care for his two older children.

If you know a surgeon who might be able to help please let Jeff know. We can easily get them in contact with Patrick.

I think it goes without saying that our hearts are heavy for Patrick and his family. We know what it is like to get terrible news about your child and to feel completely powerless to help them. The worst part is that Melanie's condition is fixable. She doesn't need to die, she just needs an expensive operation that she can't get here. Please keep her and her family in her prayers.

We have no updates. We continue to wait on the passport. UGH. We are tired and done. Pray that it would materialize so that we could get the visa process started.

Quick Update + More Photos

First of all, thank you all so much for your comments. We cannot express how much we value the love and support we have received throughout this journey.

I spoke with Amy this morning and here is what I learned:

Amy, Tommy, and Mary went to Jinja today so that Grandma could see the source of the Nile and Bujagali Falls, and enjoy deep fried bananas at Gately. Mmmmm, deep fried bananas... They will be going on a two day safari this weekend and should be back in Ggaba by Monday night.

They met with the officials at the Ministry of Gender and received approval to proceed to process Tommy's passport. We should find out soon when that is expected to be ready. Once we have the passport we can finalize the Visa through the US embassy. Then, everyone comes home.

Please pray that Tommy's passport will be ready as soon as possible. The passport process doesn't have to take very long, but it often does. While Amy loves Uganda, we are all eager for our family to be together.

Now, here are some pictures from our trip to Jinja:

Our family overlooking the River Nile

We were totally safe

Tommy isn't so sure

Lunch at Gately: Baby loves potatoes

Baby wants daddy's Stoney

At Bujagali Falls

Kisses for mommy

A Little Video

Good Luck

A little passed nine Isaac waved us towards the door of the Judge's chambers. His Lordship sat at his desk perusing a circular from Game (sort of like Costco). He glanced up at us as we walked in.

"Good Morning Your Lordship."

He gestured for us to sit. I perched on the edge of the couch, bouncing Tommy on my knee. He wanted down. I set him down and he lunged towards my mom, babbling loudly. His giggles drowned out the sounds of the proceedings. Isaac began the introductions, something about the case of Anthony Oklomugisha, he said Jeff's name, then mine. He spoke into a microphone/recorder, but so softly I could hardly hear.

The Judge turned the page. He was looking at power tools. He glanced up at Isaac.

"I accept your request. Good Luck."

Isaac turned to me and smiled.

We thanked him and began to walk out. I turned back, my eyes filling with tears as I held onto my son.

"Thank you," I mouthed. He looked at me, really looked at me, and nodded.

We are officially Tommy's legal guardians, and can get his passport and visa. Pray that these next steps will go quickly. We miss Jeff and want our family to be together.

ps- We found out that Tommy's African name was spelled wrong on the documents we received. It is actually Owomugisha.

He's Ours

Field Trip to the Speke

Yesterday it was hot. Africa hot. We hadn't planned to go out, but given the weather we decided it was time to go swimming. Since we are staying in a guest house we don;t have a swimming pool where we are, so we took a little excursion down the road to the Speke Resort.

An intersection filled with African taxis

First, we had to ride in an African taxi. Yes, I broke down and did it. We hired our driver to guide us, as we were not prepared to attempt to find it by ourselves, and it made more sense to hire him and take the taxi then pay for the driver and the car combined. He led us through the neighborhood, to the road that leads to the Speke, then hailed a taxi. The taxis here are more like buses, in that they run certain routes. You do not direct them where to go, although you can get on and off almost at will along the road. They are Toyota vans, about the size of an old VW van, and they have seats for fourteen: four rows of three across, and two upfront. On the way to the resort, we were the only ones in the taxi, but on the way home there were twenty of us in the van built for fourteen. I have heard that actually it is not unusual to fit up to twenty-five people in, if you are in an area that is not heavily policed. It was pretty uncomfortable, but it was also very cheap. Transportation to and from the resort cost sixty cents. That was worth the discomfort.

The Speke Resort is really nice, but you pay for it. It was ten dollars for each adult swimming, and seven fifty for Tommy. We didn't realize it would be quite so expensive because our Lonely Planet had a much lower number, but that is what we get for using a 2006 guidebook. We assumed (wrongly) that they would have towels, so we had to rent one of those too (two fifty plus a ten dollar deposit). If we go again we will be bringing towels from the guest house.

The main pool was huge- probably olympic sized. It has a swim-up bar area, with little in-pool stools, so you can sit at the edge and have a drink in the shade of a thatch roof. The main pool was deep, so we spent our afternoon at the baby pool. Tommy loved swimming. He hated it when I would get tired and get out of the water to dry off/warm up or rest. I had trouble keeping him from drinking the water, and he tried repeatedly to lunge out of my arms. He had a wonderful time.

After we finished swimming (we spent about four hours in the pool),we walked down to Lake Victoria. Beautiful.

Just a few days until our ruling- July 22- (and hopefully) until we start having more adoption things to work on. Keep praying for a positive ruling, and for a quick passport and visa process. I want to bring Tommy home.

Slowing Down

Early last Friday morning our car was hit by a drunk driver as our driver was on his way to meet us at the guest house. We were not involved and Eddie was not injured, just a little shaken up, but the car was not so fortunate. So, since our car has been out of commission this week as it undergoes repairs, we have been staying home and resting a bit more. That has worked out well because my mom has been pretty jet lagged. This has worked out really well for me, because she is up very early and can't sleep so she has been feeding Tommy breakfast and letting me sleep in. I haven't slept this well since we got the little guy, and I am feeling much better.

We went to the Museum of Uganda on Tuesday. It was much bigger than I expected, and definitely worth the trip to learn more about the various people groups in Uganda and their histories. Tommy's is Banyankole, which is a smaller tribe here (the major one is the Baganda), so we only saw a few artifacts from his people. The museum is no Smithsonian, but they have some interesting collections (including relics of a Buganda warrior that include his umbilical cord and one of his testicles- very exciting). Tommy's favorite was the interactive display of musical instruments. He loved pounding on the big wooden xylophone.

Wednesday we hung out at the house, except for a short walk in the evening to get some phone minutes. It was quite an adventure because we went out at the time when everyone in the area is moving around. Everyone always stares at us, but it was especially bad that night. Of the people who talk to us, I would say that 90% are very positive about us adopting Tommy. I have been stopped and thanked numerous times. On Wednesday I received my first obviously negative comment- this man at the grocery store grabbed Tommy's leg and said "Black man, this white woman is trying to carry you away" over and over again. The man in front of me stepped in and said, "He is really brown, not black," and then started talking to me about how nice it was that we were adopting him, and he ended with saying "God bless you."


Thursday we went back to the Surgery because Tommy's giardia may be back- very frustrating but not unexpected. We had an appointment and test, and will have to go back again because they didn't find anything yet (it can take more than one test). Going to the surgery isn't too bad because they have both a water cooler and a nice bathroom. If I have to be stuck somewhere in Kampala waiting for hours I would rather it had both of those things.

We are having extreme internet frustrations- it is basically impossible for me to log into email, and entirely impossible to get into facebook. I also miss my microwave a lot. And of course, Jeff (even more than internet or microwave).

bffhctcgrtrcrtrfv yg k (That was a message from Tommy)