Kelly as a Diplomat

I finally was able to talk to Kelly this evening.  She has had a busy couple of days and had run out of cell phone minutes.

Yesterday was her day to wade through all of the red tape that goes along with international adoption.  Needless to say she had several opportunities to practice her diplomatic skills.....

I won't go into the mind-numbing details, but there was a lot of waiting, a locked embassy door, phone calls to Midland, TX to our adoption agency to make some calls on our behalf to get the consular to open up, lots of paperwork, first the copies Kelly took over with her and then the originals (after the orphanage's teacher rented a motor scooter to get the file over to the embassy), more waiting and finally a submitted Form I-600 and Form I-864.  We still have more paperwork to file (most notably the case history from the Ministry of Health), but nothing more we can file until adoptions in Liberia start moving again.  There's also some form called a DS230 that we need to download and fill out.

Kelly has definitely learned about the "unstructured" way things work in Africa.

Kalee's fever subsided and he has had a good couple of days.  Amos' had a similar bug overnight.  Kelly's quite certain she's next.  So pray for health for all of them.

Brant has had a blast being a big brother to Amos and Kalee.  Lots of basketball, soccer, super balls, frisbee, watercolor paints, drawing, movies, etc.  (Brant was at the Spirit Liberia house with them from 8am to 4pm while Kelly was out being a diplomat.)

During the 2 hour lunch break that the embassy personnel took yesterday, Kelly was able to get out and explore Monrovia.  She shopped and bought Liberian clothing for all 7 of us.  We will have a fashion show with pictures when she gets home.  She also continues to be amazed at the throngs of people everywhere in Monrovia.  She even said that if the buildings were taller, it would remind her of NYC with all of the hustle and bustle.  Instead, all of the buildings are only a couple of stories tall and are all falling down.  She said the destruction from the war is everywhere and that there are young children everywhere on the streets.

Everybody was at the orphanage today.  Highlight was the spaghetti and sausage and fresh fruit feast co-sponsored by the Bolithos and us.  The kids all loved the food and Kelly said she took a bunch more pictures of everybody.

The big news is that it looks like the kids will be moved into the new orphanage building Saturday evening.  Praise God!  Pray for the move and that everything would go smoothly.  Brant was at the new orphanage site painting this afternoon/evening.

Well.....I think those are the highlights.  Thank you all for your prayers, thoughts and notes.