Exciting news!

July 23, 2009

I am sorry that we have not posted this information earlier but we wanted to wait until we were a bit further in the process to make this announcement.

We have another addition to our family………a 6 or 7 year old named Mphatso. (Pronounced mpotso - emphasis on PO, which sounds like a PA.) In our October 25, 2008 blog, I mentioned a small girl who was at the orphanage because she lost both of her parents and was begging in the market. (I said in that post that she was 7 at that time but later found out she was younger than that.) We have not verified her age completely so we questions whether she really is 7. We think she’s 6 but are still working on verifying her age. However, we do know her date of birth – January 30. That’s the same day as Jamie’s birthday. So now we’ll have two daughters with the same birth day. How exciting and fun for them.

Anyway, over the period of time that we have been here, we fell in love with this child and want to adopt her. We have done a lot of praying about this and whether this is something that the Lord wants us to do. He has confirmed to us that we are to adopt her. So, when we got back to Malawi, we spoke to Esther and Bishop Stephano about it and Esther said she had been praying for this. Mphatso moved into our house two days later and has been a huge joy (and challenge sometimes) to us. She understands English much better than we understand Chichewa but we are getting better at understanding her and she is getting better with English. We no longer call in one of our staff to help interpret for us.

We went to the village where her relatives, (her granny and two aunties) live to discuss us adopting her with them. The relatives got together to discuss it. Their 5 minute discussion seemed longer and I was a bit worried but I prayed the whole time they were discussing the matter. Granny finally said that it was ok, there was no problem with us adopting her. Later, the gal who was interpreting for us told us that they were excited that Mphatso would be able to go to school and she would be taken care of. They asked that we allow her to remain in contact with them. We said absolutely – we do not want her to forget her family and where she came from. We will make sure that she keeps in contact with them. Granny gave us some sweet potatoes, which was a huge gift as these are people in the village who have literally nothing. We gave granny some money for food and I gave her a wrap I had with me. (A wrap is a piece of fabric used to wrap over your skirt to keep it out of the fire, to hold babies on your back, to haul items, to use as a blanket, etc. There are numerous other uses for a wrap but those are the basic ones. The only reason I explained what a wrap is is because I could see someone wondering why I had a wrap (food) with me in Africa and wasn’t it nice that I shared my lunch with granny. ) lol ;-}

We have met with our attorney several times and he had the aunties and the group village headman sign papers allowing us to adopt her. When you visit the village headman, you bring a gift to him. They felt a live chicken was appropriate.
Since then, we have filed paperwork with the Social Welfare Department and today, we signed the paperwork along with Bishop Stephano and were granted permission to be her foster parents. Malawi still has the law on the books that you have to live in the country for 18 months to adopt. However, Madonna’s cases have changed that and they are now looking at what is best for the child. So, it won’t be 18 months before we can adopt her. We have met with the social welfare department several times and they have verified again with the relatives that they understand what this process entails and that she will be our daughter after the process is completed.
So, now we need to have a home assessment done in Malawi and according to the Social Welfare Director, we can start the adoption process now. Still much more to do there with the process but this was a huge step today!

She is bonding very well with us and calls us “Abambo” (dad) and Amayi (mom) instead of Lay and Alicey. She is very independent and loves to wash her own clothes (by hand), wash the dishes, cook and help with anything you are doing. It didn’t take her long to discover how to sit in the bathtub and now had graduated to laying in the bathtub and “swimming”. (The kids at the orphanage stand and splash water on themselves from water in a bucket as their bath.)

Sometimes I wonder what we are doing. We are 50+ years old and adopting a child. What ARE we thinking? But after we look at her and watch her for a while, we realize why we fell in love with her. She is precious to us, even when she pouts (we’re working on that and she’s getting better). She told us the other day that she wants chemicals for her hair so she can dye her hair either green, pink or purple so she can be like Jamie. (This is really scary because no one ever told her that Jamie had all those different hair colors at different times.) We purchased a hoodie for her and when she put it on, she said she was now like Jamie. We bought her a doll, which of course, she named Jamie.

Our lives have changed here: our focus at the orphanage has changed and we are now designing the new orphanage, we have a child and a cat to go along with our dog. By the end of the week, we will probably have another cat.

We are very blessed to be here and thank the Lord daily for the changes he has made in us, for the changes he has made in our lives and in the lives of those close to us. We thank Him and praise the name of Jesus for allowing us, nobodies that we are, to be servants in His kingdom. Thank you Jesus!
Please pray for enough food for the orphanage, warm clothes and enough blankets for all the kids.

Ray, Alice, Mphatso, Lukia (dog) and Princess Fiona (cat)

PS – these are pictures of Mphatso. One she has the doily from the couch on her head, one she is carrying Jamie her baby and one she is carrying Hope (the baby at the orphanage).