The beginning of the end

As many of you may already know from our Facebook posts we received our Exit Letter this evening.  That means that we are able to leave the country with Agape!  This is obviously very exciting news for us, but at the same time a little sad.  We've loved spending time with our new friends, and their children as well.  We've had to work together so strongly to make this trip doable at times.  I can say very honestly that without their help this trip would have been a whole lot rougher.

Now we await to hear back from our travel agent to see if our flight can be advanced so we can get our of here earlier.  The flight schedule being what it is our only two options would be flying out later in the day on Sunday, or any time on Tuesday.  All the other days before Thursday (our current flight date) are not available.

So now this marks the beginning of the end of our time in the Congo.  The trip as been very rewarding in many ways aside from finally getting our daughter.  The Congo has taught us a lot about ourselves as an American culture, and as an American Christian.  I've already spilled my thoughts on these in other blog posts this week, so I won't repeat those.  We've also been blessed to see how many charitable organizations (most faith based) are working in the Congo to help better the people here.  However, we couldn't be more ready to go home.  We miss the life we've left behind.  We haven't been gone quite a week yet, but our experience here has been a little on the sheltered side (for safety reasons).  It is a very defeating feeling to know that it is not safe outside a small radius of places to go.

Another beginning of an end came later after dinner with Agape.  She became angry and through her sunglasses on the floor.  Jen and I instructed her to come back, and pick them up.  She looked back for a minute, and weighed her options to "listen" or "disobey".  Remembering the incident that happened before dinner where we had another melt down.  Without making a seen Agape ran over, picked up the sunglasses, place them in my hand, and then went back to playing.

We pray this is the beginning of the end of that behavior.

Also pray for one of the daughters here.  We had noticed a wound on the back of her arm that we wanted to have checked out by a local nurse.  This morning the wound was not looking right to me, and sure enough it was what we all hated to hear.  She had a jigger in her arm.  We hoped they were all gone now that the rainy season had started, but one remained.  Hopefully it is only one.  The jigger was removed, but it was very painful.  I checked the wound tonight before bed, and was amazed at how much it had healed.  The look of fear that this poor girl gave me as I looked at the area really bothered me.  These children have gone through too much here in this country, and it's time we started a new life with them.

Blessings to all.