Congo Trip Notes #4 - More Waiting and VISAS!!!!!!

While Caleb and I were in the hospital, Vickie continued to have contact with the U.S. Embassy regarding our visas.  She was an unbelievable liason – checking with the consular, texting me regularly with any developments, researching the forms the Embassy uses, etc.  Waiting is NEVER fun and this type of waiting felt useless.  We were frustrated and emotionally spent.  We’d been in the D.R. Congo since November 1 and, other than court, the Embassy, the hospital and the market across the street, we hadn’t left St. Anne’s.  It was getting OLD!

Just when I thought I couldn’t take another day, some American families arrived.  They were a breath of fresh air!  There’s safety in numbers, so we were able to go out for dinner.  Our first adventure was to Hunga Busta’s, a pizza place, where we had Thanksgiving dinner with our new friends!

The next several days would involve more and more (and more and more…) waiting.  While we waited, not without discouragement at times, our husbands and some good friends back in the USA worked diligently making phone calls to do ANYTHING to get these visas issued.  My brother-in-law spoke with Hillary Clinton’s executive secretary.  They both called congressmen and people in the State Dept.  A good friend of ours made phone calls to congressmen while he was on vacation in Disney World (thanks, Pres!).

While they made phone calls and worked from the United States, Vickie and I continued to bond with Andee and Caleb.  We had times where we were both discouraged, but, for the most part, if I was down, Vickie was up and vice versa.  We were great friends before the trip, but spending this amount of time together, sharing a room for THAT long, bonded us for sure!

One day during our journey, we were both feeling kind of “blue” (well, blue might be an understatement!  We were both REALLY, REALLY discouraged!).  I pulled out a piece of notebook paper and pen and told Vickie we weren’t going to do anything else until we made a list of things we were thankful for.  And, ya know what?  It only took about FIVE minutes and the page was ALMOST full!  By the end of our trip, we could have OVERFILLED the page (with new friends, more children with their forever families, etc.).  Despite the circumstances, we both had SO much for which to be thankful.  God is sooo good!  We hung the list with a paper clip (we made due with what we had) to our mirror where we would see it every time we brushed our teeth, washed our hands, etc.

We also continued to spend time with other adoptive families.  It was refreshing at the end of the days to be able to share a meal with other Americans and their BEAUTIFUL new children.  TOTALLY a BLESSING!

Finally, On Dec. 1^st, the Embassy called us through Father Theo.  Poor Father Theo, the Embassy had called him before and each time, he’d have to run up several flights of stairs to our room to give us the phone.  He was always excited to tell us we had a call from the Consular.  Being an optimist, he thought for sure they were calling to tell us our visas were issued.  After several disappointments, we were no longer getting our hopes up.  This time, however, they told Fr. Theo to have us come over to pick up our American passports.  Vickie and I both kind of held our breath as we checked for OUR (adult)passports, knowing we hadn’t left our passports with the official who took them every time we entered the embassy.  Sure enough, Vickie and I both had our passports in hand.  Could it be that they meant the children had American passports there?  Hmmm….we rushed around and packed the kids up in their pouches to walk to the embassy.  By the time we got there, we were sure Father Theo had misunderstood the call and that it was just REGARDING the passports, not to pick them up.  What little faith! 

Yeah!!!  We got GREAT news!  The kids’ visas were being prepared!!!  We hugged and cried, knowing that the end was now FINALLY in sight!  Two of our new friends just happened to be at the Embassy when we got the news as well.  They’d seen our frustration in waiting and then got to share in our relief and joy as we got the good news.  The security guards at the Embassy doors, joined in our excitement.  These men had gotten to know us well.  When they’d see us walking down the street, they would begin to yell, “Come in, Mrs. Laubachs!”  They had checked at least one of us (Vickie while we were hospitalized) in at the embassy nearly EVERY day for three weeks.  They hugged us and posed for a picture.  J

When we arrived back at St. Anne’s, Father Theo gave us greeted us with hugs!  We did the “visa dance” and took our Congolese coordinator out for pizza (her choice – she doesn’t get pizza often!). 

My Facebook post from my phone that afternoon read, “Thank you, Lord, for our Christmas gift – visas!”  The end was in sight!