The Rest of the Days in the DRC

After an exciting and crazy gotcha day, we moved on to Sunday.  Sunday we went swimming with our new friends, the Brown's.  We traveled to the guest house where the other adoptive families were staying.  It was a great time to bond with the boys.  They loved the pool!!  When we got back to our hotel it was supper time so we went downstairs to eat in the hotel restaurant.  And then.....commence the puking!!!!  Yah.....where is the manual that says I know you love your kids and want to bond with them through food but they have tiny stomachs and haven't eaten much each day so don't shove so much food down their throat you stupid idiot!!!!  That was us, the stupid idiots!!  HA!!  After peanuts and fruit snacks and cheese and crackers and M&M's all day long that was all their sweet little stomachs could take.  And then commence the angry housekeeper who has to clean up puke all night long and wants to know why we are making these kids puke.  Just dumb, dumb Americans ma'am!!  So if you are an adoptive parent and you are reading this, DO NOT give your kids a ton of processed food to bond because they have tiny tummies and it needs to be a gradual thing!  Who knew?!!  On to the next day, they boys were feeling great, we were taking it easy on the food and all was well!!  Because Matt and I did not know French we had little confidence to go anywhere in  the DRC unless we were with others, so we spent much of the week in the hotel room just bonding with the boys.  Monday and Tuesday we spent in the room.  Wednesday we got to go to the market with a local missionary.  This was a great experience!!  So thankful for the sweet missionary who really is Jesus in disguise to adoptive parents who SO need an outing!!  The market was awesome!  We picked up some art, jewelry, toys and dolls.  The bargaining was right up Matt's alley and I dare say he had a blast bargaining with the merchants.  There were so many bright and beautiful crafts to choose from.  It was a bit overwhelming as you had every merchant yelling Mama, Mama come buy this, come buy that.  But who can blame them.....this is how they make their living.  Some days I wish for a do over and I would just buy a little bit from each vendor.  We have SO much and they have SO little in the DRC.  It was an amazing experience to get out and see the city.  We ate schwarma's (spelling?) at a Lebanese restaurant and then had to head back to the hotel because Matt was sick.  He was then sick for the rest of the trip.  :(     
Thursday we did not do much either, just stayed in the hotel room praying for our exit letter so we could leave.  Spending many days in the hotel with three boys is difficult.  But man the boys were truly angels and adapted SO well!!  They truly are super well behaved (for the most part) :) 
We watched all of our friends leave on Thursday as they had received their exit letters.  This was tough because we were really ready to go home.  But God wasn't done yet!  We were told for sure we would have our exit letter on Friday and hopefully by noon.  But this is the DRC people, a very different, much slower paced culture, where timelines do not matter much.  Somedays it would be nice to have that here in the U.S.  My boys are teaching me much about slowing down and enjoying the moments!!  So no surprise that at noon we still did not have an exit letter.  But we had booked our plane tickets to leave that night so we had to get it! God is amazing people and he showed up in SO many ways on our trip.  Especially at the end here.  It was the eleventh hour but God showed up and our exit letter was ready at 4:30!  There was much rejoicing from Matt and I and much praising God!!  We got ready and we were in the lobby of the hotel waiting to leave when Matt tells me he doesn't think we can leave because he doesn't feel good.  I said YOU ARE GETTING ON THAT PLANE!!!  Thankfully, the hotel owner gave him some good advice as to how to perk up and it worked.  We were picked up and taken to the airport.  Our airport experience was crazy!  Our in country staff walked us through every crazy step and we go to our lounge and we were waiting for the plane.  After an hour and a half of waiting it seemed that the plane was delayed.  Yup, delayed because of weather.  For 5 hours!!!!!!!!!!!!  And we were SO close to it being cancelled and SO scared because we couldn't speak French and couldn't call anyone for help because it was 2am.  But our God is amazing and he shows up!!!!  Pretty sure we met the owner of the Lebanese restaurant we went to in Kinshasa 2 days prior.  He spoke English and helped us understand what was happening with the plane and why we were waiting for Sooooooooo long.  And then of course our great God answered our prayers and our plane showed up.  What a great feeling it was to be on that plane and going home!!  Our time in the DRC was incredible, we got to pick up our kids and experience a culture unlike anything we had EVER experienced!!  God is continually pressing on my heart to never forget.  I am super excited to watch our lives unfold as we hold our arms wide open and say God whatever you want from us, we will do, wherever you want us to go, however you want us to serve, we are ALL IN!!!