Life in Uganda (Day 3)

(Written last night by Tara, approved this morning by Tony) It is getting late here in Uganda. It is dark in my room, and I can hear both of my boys deeply breathing as they sleep next to me. Both, as in Tony and my son. God is good! The past few days have held so much that I don't even know where to begin, so I will just try and detail it from the start: The flights were quite frankly exhausting, especially since we were trying to get our body's in sync with the Ugandan time clock, which is 8 or 9 (I cant remember which) hours ahead of US time, so we were a bit out of sorts when we finally arrived in Uganda about 24 hours after we left home. The airport was confusing, and in the mugginess of the night, I was extremely stressed and anxious between getting our 'medical check', visa, checked bags, and exchanging money done. Thank goodness for dear Immy, our case worker here, and our now beloved friend - she was right there waiting to pick us up and bring us to a safe, lovely residence to stay for the night. By the time we got everything done at the airport and after the drive to the capital city of Kampala, it was already about 12:15am Uganda time, so we went right to sleep. The next morning we went out to get some shopping done, since we needed to buy a mosquito net and a few other necessaries in Kampala before heading out to our son's city. We got to meet some other adoptive parent friends who we'd been hoping to meet here, (since they are from Alaska, and we likely wont be seeing them for a while once they get back there)! We then drove off to go meet our son for the very first time... kind of. We needed to make a pit stop at the probation officer's office on the way, to discuss our son's case with her and explain who we are to her so that she could honestly tell the judge that she met us and thought we were ok parents for our son. Finally, after meeting with her, we were given the ok to go see our little boy. When we pulled up to the orphanage, it was just about dinner time and there were not too many kids around, but as soon as we got in to the common space where they eat and bathe (yes, both in the same space) we saw him. I knew immediately he was mine, and I video taped as Tony went to go meet him. At first he seemed to not care about us either way, which is a little disheartening, but what I will always remember is leaving him at the orphanage that first night, he cried when I put him down to leave. He wasn't ready to show us he liked us yet, but he wasn't ready to have us leave him either. From the orphanage, we went to our new accommodations in our son's home town. It is not posh. The guest room where we are staying is uncommonly nice for any Ugandan to have in their home. We are grateful. Without them opening up their home, we would not be able to have Sam stay with us. We also have the most delightful hosts, (and their two youngest sons are our son's new buddies)! The next morning, (Saturday), we set out to go pick him up so that we could bring him to our 'house'. He did seem a bit surprised to see us again, and was very quiet until we got him to the 'house'... then he started chit chatting with our hosts' sons, (one is only a year older than him, we believe), so that was a huge blessing too! Now, he's been giggling, eating a ton, and becoming a total daddy's boy. And we think he's just the cutest, most intelligent little boy. As I've been typing this, he's rolled around a few times, sometimes grabbing my arm or snuggling his head into me. He's so sweet. We feel so blessed. I hope to share more later, but I wanted to at least let you know how these first few days have gone, and really I also wanted to remember all the moments and feelings for myself! It's now late and we have an early morning tomorrow, so I am heading to bed! Please continue to pray for us! We love you and are thankful for you all!