Day 1

I guess I should start by telling you that the second leg of my journey was not nearly as awkward as the first.....but I was a little nervous to learn that the guy I sat next to was also from the same European country! But he allowed me to read my book in peace.

Oh yeah, for those of you not on Facebook...you may not have heard the 2 things that I forgot to add to my post below is that my entertainment screen didn't work on that first flight and my European friend ate off my plate at each meal we were served. YUP...he ate off my plate. There were other weird things too.....but I will not beat a dead horse....you got the gist...it was a really awkward EIGHT HOURS!

OK now for today...

Nothing starts the day off better in Rwanda than an ABC bagel! =)

After my bagel I met a new friend for coffee. So nice to meet in person and share our hearts.

Also got to meet another friend face to face. We have been sharing our hearts for orphans over the past year via phone and email. It was so nice to see his smile in person, and how fitting for us to meet in Africa!

Then I surprised an old friend at work. We talked for a bit and then I went to the market to buy some rice, beans and bananas for Home of Hope (the orphanage where we adopted our JP).

Before heading to the orphanage I went to the office of the New Commission for Children which is in charge of all adoption files. I was able to hand deliver some post placement reports and share some recent photos of some of the children that are now home with families loving on them. I also brought video of my JP to show them. They really appreciate getting updates from families. All too often people adopt, go home and never send updates on the children. I can’t stress enough how important it is to honor the country you adopt from and send updates on how the child(ren) are doing.

After leaving this meeting I went to Home of Hope and showed off my video once again. There is only 1 nun left at the orphanage that was there in 2007 when we adopted JP and so she sat with me and watched my short little video and thanked me for coming back to show her. We got to chatting and at some point she brought out the log that they keep of all the children that have been adopted out. I was able to go back and find where our names were in that log and then I was able to point out all the other families that I had helped since then. She seemed so happy to hear how the children were doing. They got excited to learn that Prince and Obama now have a baby brother, and that little Pierre is happy and still chubby! They cooed seeing the picture I had with me of little Shakila and said....”ohhhh she was always so tiny....she looks so happy...look at her clapping her hands.” They were thrilled to see that Evariste with his cousin who was also adopted from HOH. And when they saw pictures of Honorine and Benjamin, they remarked, “oh my they grow up so fast.”

I was grateful for the nun who was there in 2007 to take a picture with me so that my JP can see one of the ladies who took care of him before mommy came to get him. He has been asking questions every once in a while and our adoption was such a crazy time and there was a sickness in the baby room so we never even went inside to get photos of his crib or anything like that, so I really wanted to get some pictures for my boy to have. The rooms are all different now and rearranged from when I was there.

By this time it was close to 5pm so I headed back to Rich and Robins for the night. It was nice to visit with them for the evening and just relax. My flight arrived about an hour later than expected last night and I wasn’t tired right away so I didn’t get a ton of sleep last night so I’m pretty pooped now. Gonna try to call the family and get to bed.