Progress

Yesterday, we met with our South African social worker for the first time. We met her at Impilo, the children’s home that she founded (our little guy isn’t at this home – he’s in another city – we travel to Durban on Friday). We offloaded our mammoth cargo of diapers (to the great relief of our children), toured the facility, and flirted unabashedly with all the babies. There were 12 or so babies and toddlers lined up in a row of cribs, some crying, some sleeping, and some flirting with us back. I watched Alex and Caleb take in their surroundings and realized that this was the first time they had ever been in an orphanage. Wide-eyed, they took in the scene, trying to process the concept of so many babies without parents all in one place.

When we left Impilo with our social worker to go to our first appointment at the US Embassy, Caleb said, “Mom, can we adopt one of these babies, too? I’m really good with them. They love me….” I told him we would have to see.

Our first visa appointment at the US Embassy went incredibly well. Since South Africa doesn’t normally adopt out to the United States, the US Embassy here is unaccustomed to processing adoption paperwork. And, apparently they have a reputation in South Africa of being “difficult.” We didn’t know what to expect. Turns out, they were ready for us. They had our file, knew us by name, and were smiling. They even simplified the process a little bit. We’re hoping that there will be many more adoptions for them to process in the future!

We fly to Durban on Friday and will meet our son on Friday afternoon.

Thanks, everybody, for your prayers. We can feel them in a very tangible way.