August 1: After a LONG time in the air, we waited in the line for passport services, collected our rental car and drove on the wrong side of the road to our hotel room for the night. The next morning, we met with two social workers and drove to TLC Children's Home, where our little boy has been living his entire life. We began to walk towards the entrance and a little figure appeared in the doorway. And even though I had never seen him in person, I knew it was our son. I waved to him, chuckling nervously, and he began to run towards us. I knelt down and he crashed into me for a big bear hug. I cried and said something like, "We are so excited to finally see you! You look so handsome!" He didn't let go for about 30 seconds. Then he grabbed my hand and led me to the main building, where I tearfully hugged the woman that has been loving him while we could not. He had put together a few snacks for us (which he had been nervously nibbling on while he waited for our arrival).
For the rest of the day, we played together. We jumped on the trampoline, played hide and seek, climbed on the jungle gym, met the other kids, ate lunch and took a tour of the property. We left around 3 pm with plans to return the next day at eight for breakfast.
For the next three days, we arrived at TLC in the morning and spent the whole day with Noel, sometimes taking him on brief outings to the mall or to a restaurant. On Tuesday, August 6, we took him from TLC for the last time.
We were staying at a guest house near the children's home, and although there wasn't much to do, Noel never complained of being bored. He is happy as long as he is playing, so we just spent our days playing and reading and napping.
On Saturday, August 10, we checked out of the guest house and began our stay with a mutual friend. They have a four year old son as well and while it is nice to be in a home, being with another family complicates things a bit. We are working on bonding with Noel, which is easier when there aren't other mommies and daddies in the same house.
Our court appointment with the magistrate was on August 14. We were in and out within 15 minutes and the adoption was finalized. It wasn't as exciting or emotional as I would have thought it would be. The magistrate was very matter-of-fact. I got a little choked up as he talked about the circumstances that led to Noel's adoption, simply because it was presented without any feeling.
On Wednesday of this week, the court paperwork was couriered to us and we went to the local home affairs office to fill out a few applications. These forms were mainly to change his name and re-register his birth. We need a new birth certificate before we can proceed with the passport and visa application process. It would normally take months to get the new birth certificate, but our agency partner here in South Africa has a contact within home affairs that pushes things through for inter-country adoptions. We will not be able to proceed for about a week, so we just continue to busy ourselves and pass the time as best we can.
We will be moving to another guesthouse on Monday and we hope that we can be comfortable there until we can go home. We are missing our family, our dogs and our house, but try not to think about it too much since we still have a few weeks to go.
We appreciate your prayers. Everything has gone pretty smoothly so far and we are hopeful that it will continue this way.
All our love,
Sarah, Dave and Noel
