DRC Day 6

News for Today:

Raya had her first taste of rice cereal.  She's a big fan.  (But I didn't take a picture.  Maybe I'll get one tomorrow.)

Eli sings and dances about papaya.  I guess he likes papaya.


We did the usual hanging out and general nothingness for the morning, and swimming in the afternoon.
This evening we had a pizza party with the other adoptive families here at Sunny Day.  It was good fellowship and decent pizza.  I for ham, mushroom, basil and oregano pizza.  John had ham.  (I know, living dangerously, right?!)  They had one with apple, mushroom, and chicken.  I was up for that, but John thought not.  Ashley ordered something with banana on it, but said she couldn't even taste the banana.  Too bad.  It might have been... weird.

I have had a few questions about what's going on, so let me answer a bit of FAQ while I'm here.

1)  How long are we going to be here?
Approximately 3 weeks.  That is the estimated time in-country when you file the immigration papers here.

2)  So what has to happen so that you can go home?
First, we need our kids' visas from the US Embassy.  This basically means they have done the obligatory investigation, determining that the children were in fact orphans, and were legally adopted making them eligible to come as immigrants to the US.

Secondly, we need DGM clearance.  This is an exit permit from the Congolese government, giving the children permission to leave the country as emigrants.  It requires previous approval of the visa at the US Embassy.

As it stands currently, we need only our medical papers to be turned in (which I'm told should arrive on Monday), and the USE can do whatever they need to do to be comfortable issuing our kids' visas, and once that's done, within 1-2 business days I can get my DGM exit permits, and get on the first plane home.  My current tickets are for June 16, but those are changeable for a small fee. 

Raya version of the scrunch-face smile

Local brew

I think he's annoyed that I'm taking pictures and not pushing the swing.