Congo, here we are

Well not too much to post about from today.  Spent over 20 hours of travel from Washington DC to Ethiopia where we connected with a plane to Brazzeville in the Republic of Congo.  We then crossed over the Congo river to our final destination Kinshasa.

We had been previously warned that the airport in Kinshasa was absolutely chaotic, and we really had to watch ourselves.  Truthfully I found this to be a little of an exaggeration.  The employees were as cold shouldered as we were told, but we made it through very smoothly and got all of our bags.  Now things were a little on the slow side, but we expected this and it really did not cause any harm to us.  This all being said, we are very curious to see our experience trying to leave the Congo.

Then we had our drive through Kinshasa.  To describe the city in one word the only one that comes to mind is "broken".  Buildings in ruins leave little shelter to its inhabitants that stand outside picking through the trash.  Armed soldiers stood by on street corners not being bothered by anyone passing by. We weren't sure if these were soldiers from the official Congolese army, or just men with machine guns.  The streets were filled with cars with obvious battle from the road wars.  We had over an hour drive through the city, and I don't think their was a single stop light or stop sign.  Either that, or the drivers didn't abide by them.

After that we arrived at our guest house that provided a surprising tranquility to the bustling chaos we just experienced.  To our surprise the room we are staying in actually has a separate bed for Agape to sleep in.  This was very exciting for us.  At the guest house we met some pretty important people.  The first one to greet us was Dido, the social worker handling our cases.  He is much to be bragged about.  Very calm, friendly, English speaking, knowledgeable, and compassionate to name a few.  Dido has worked very hard through our adoption process to process lots of paperwork, and to make sure all the kids are being well cared for.  The next person we met was Christian.  He is a lawyer who works for J.B. working on the legal aspects of our cases.  He was very personable with me, and we have all heard great things about the work he is doing to the kids.  The last person we met was Elizabeth.  She runs the orphanage that many of our kids were moved to after they recovered from having their jiggers treated.  We are very grateful for all she has done for our little girl.

We sat down with Dido and Christian and discussed our time here in the Congo and what would be happening in order to make sure that we are able to leave quickly, yet legally.  More importantly, we discussed the plan for going to meet our children tomorrow.  Are you ready?

At about 9:00 AM our time (4:00 AM EST) we will finally get to meet Agape!

Don't really know how to think or feel about all this.  What do we do?  What do we say?  (as if it matters, she only knows Lingala)  It is going to be a very overwhelming experience.

For now we enjoy the last little bit of time with each other as a couple, and getting to know our fellow travelers with us.  We are a very diverse group of people, but couldn't be happier to have them here to share this experience with.  After walking to the market together we all enjoyed time sitting around the lobby, talking, sharing adoption experiences and ideas, and trying to all stay connected to a very weak internet connection.

That's all for now.

We are as ready as we know how to be for tomorrow, and hope it comes soon.  Did I begin this post by saying I didn't have too much to share?  Oh well, it's all relative.

Blessings to you all.