On August 1st, we met our girl for the first time face to face. Our internet connection Kinshasa wasn't the best, so I didn't even try to update the blog from there. We've been home for a couple weeks now, so I'll just try to hit the high points in our adventure.
When we arrived, we expected to have Beya's visa from the US embassy in hand, however there had been a mistake and one of the documents we needed had not been completed. We were in country nearly 2 weeks before her visa was issued. At that point we applied for an exit letter from the Congolese government -- without this letter we would not be able to leave the country. Most families took nearly 3 weeks to get their exit letters, so we were concerned that we'd have to be in Kinshasa for about 5 weeks total.
Our days were pretty similar -- I have likened our time there to the movie Groundhog Day, where Bill Murray's character re-lives the same day over and over again. We spent most of our time at St. Anne's, a Catholic guesthouse. There were several other adoptive families there, so we all spent our days just hanging out around the place.
The whole time I was there, I was anxious to get home. Nothing about our time there was "normal" or like our lives in the USA would be. I didn't want Beya to get used to that environment and be disappointed when we finally went home. About 2 weeks into our stay, though, she told one of the staff that she was ready to go to America, but we stay and stay and stay... I think she realized that we weren't in a "normal" situation.
By week 3, we were all a little on edge. We'd changed our flights once and at that point we were ready to send Keith home. I was bracing myself for 2 more weeks in Kinshasa by myself with Beya. I was exhausted and not feeling well (probably due to side effects from the anti-malaria medication I was taking) and our money was running low. Beya was so attached to Keith, too, and it would have been really hard on her for him to leave her at this point.
But miracle of miracles, our exit letter was issued in time for all 3 of us to be on the flight home. I know we had many people praying for us, and we are so thankful for the answers!
