Life on the job.

Well sort of. It’s definitely going to be quite the learning curve taking on the Adoption Coordinator, but I’m really excited, as these past two days have been great, but have definitely already taught me some things that I know are going to be difficult for me as time wears on. (I want to be able to tell as much of these stories as possible to be able to really give a sense of what’s going on, but for privacy and confidentiality purposes, they might be a little vague – I apologize in advance

I think I mentioned that I met Diana and Joseph, our new social workers, on Tuesday, but I have spent way more time in the office with them, and they are going to be incredible to work with! Pretty pumped:) Joseph was out yesterday taking one of our boys to his father’s house to spend some time for the possibility, and hope, for reunification! This really excites me! But while he was out, Diana showed me the ropes with all of our kiddos’ files and taking me through kind of the next steps with a lot of them. We have about 10-11 kids that we are finalizing abandonment cases for – I’m still learning what this means/entails, but after this is finished they will be able to be adopted, which is also really exciting.

One of these girls has a neighbor from the area that she is from who is interested in fostering/adopting her, so Diana and I went out to a town outside of Jinja to meet with her and talk to her more. This was a fun thing to be a part of and understanding a little bit more about the process of gathering, sorting, and working through all of the needed and desired information we get about our kids. To get out there we had to take a bota into town (one of the benefits of being with a Ugandan, we paid wayyy cheaper for our ride haha) then get on a taxi –large bus full of people – headed out of town. It was only about a 10 minute ride, so really not far at all. Then we had to walk a little bit through this village where I stuck out like a really sore thumb. I keep thinking I need to get tanner, but I just really don’t think there’s much I can do haha! Once we got to her house we went inside and just talked to her about her life, her desires to adopt our little girl, and then walked her through the next step of the process in doing an assessment on her/her family so that way we’d be able to present it to the adoption panel in Kampala. I didn’t do much but listen, but it was all very interesting, and luckily she could speak English so I was at least able to follow along!

Now here is where I am going to struggle. We left and I thought about A) how many more questions were on our paper that we could have gone on and asked, and B) how that seemed to go really well! Concerning (A), I need to get used to this lifestyle where it is much more relational and they are not going to push things just to get them checked off our list. Diana was explaining that this would be about a month’s process and we would be back several times, so we don’t need to get it done on the first visit. This definitely makes sense to me, as it should be a process, but I just felt that more could have been done; this is my type-A personality shining through, so I will definitely need prayers that I am able to adapt to this culture in this sense while still feeling that my time here is being used well. Now to (B), things do go well occasionally, but there is also so much that lies under each conversation that needs to be taken with a grain of salt, and followed-up with, as well as cross-checking in some situations. Basically in short, I cannot be so naïve, not just in this case, but in general, that everything is completely as it seems. Prayers that I am not so trusting that I make mistakes in decisions for our kids, but also not to become skeptical towards conversations that I will have.

So that was a little bit of yesterday, with some added market shopping and cooking dinner last night with some of the other people here, and here’s a quick run through of today. It kind of makes me laugh thinking about it. So Africa. Going back to our abandonment cases, our next step is running advertisements in the newspapers and radio stations in Kampala for some of our kids, in case our failed attempts at tracing families have failed and a family member sees the child in the paper – in a sense. However, on Tuesday as they went to Kampala to do this, they found out that first they needed to write a formal letter to the probation officer to grant permission. Since we didn’t get a chance to do this yesterday, Diana and I planned on doing it today. I was working on Care Orders that need to be made for each of our kids and Diana was working on the letter, but as we went to print it our power went off. (Also note that our water had been cut off by the city for whatever reason, throughout the whole town, and we had already had loads of people going to draw jerry-cans of water from the lake – like I said this is Africa!) Sense we couldn’t print at Ekisa, Joseph rode his bike to town with a flash drive to print it, but got back maybe 45 minutes later to inform us that nobody in town had power. Diana had just called the official to let him know we would be there soon, so we decided to at least try going down there to show him it on the flash. We drove into town (my first time driving since being back!) and he basically said “we have to do this formally so I need a print-out”. We then stopped at three print shops to see if anyone had a generator and the third place did, so we were able to print it out, but it needed Em’s signature. We drove all the way back to Ekisa, probably 10 minutes, and it was raining, to get Em to sign it, then we headed back into town. We walked back into his office and he was gone haha. Nobody knew when he would be back, so we went home and called it a day, because there was pretty much nothing else we could get done without power. What a run around day.

This is where I need prayers for this. I like getting things done and sometimes it’s completely out of my control. The water, the power, the lifestyle of people in Uganda. So out of my control. It definitely makes me laugh, but I’m nervous as time goes on, I’m going to struggle with feeling unproductive. As with everything I need to place this in God’s hands and know that His timing is perfect, even when it comes down to some of these silly little things. Not only is His timing perfect, but His good and sovereign plan. Me being this Adoption Coordinator is not going to change anything that God doesn’t already know is going to happen. I am so thankful that when I get stressed when things don’t go the way I think they should or could, that I can rest in God’s will and know that it’s not my plan to begin with! I know I still have lots to learn about what this next year is really going to look like, but this is definitely a start!

“’Martha, Martha,’ the Lord answered, ‘you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed – or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.’”

Luke 10:41-42

Pray that I may have a heart like Mary.