Gotcha Day +2

"I wish I was a little bit talla', I wish I was a balla'..."

The sun has set on another day in beautiful Uganda and all of us have officially labeled today "the most productive unproductive day"! :)  We were kind of expecting to be on hold today after having our court appointment rescheduled. But Rashid is the man and made sure we were able to use our "free time" to keep things moving along. We were all up and out the door by 7am which was BRUTAL (after picking up the other two families at the airport and getting in bed after 1am the night before) but worth it.  We were able to get some processes rolling that will hopefully make up for much of the time that would have been lost with our delayed court date. So, after a 10-hour day in Kampala, we were able to make some important baby steps toward bringing our little man home. Success! (say with your best Target Lady impersonation)

A 10-hour day driving all around Uganda’s crazy-busy capital is the epitome of organized chaos. It not only induced many quiet squeals from the far back seat (ha, Elizabeth) but encouraged me to go into spaz mode and slam the “imaginary brake” in front of me quite often. Most of the drama was caused by the countless pedestrians who think crosswalks are overrated as well as the thousands of "bota botas" (scooters) that love to squeeze and zig zag through any spot on the road that seems big enough (or not big enough).

But all that time on the road also meant lots of cuddle time for me! We were pretty crammed in the van so the little cutie usually ended up on my (Jo) lap which I didn’t mind one bit. :) And most of the time he just climbed right on himself and rested his head on my chest. (aww....*tear*) Clint also gets a lot of those sweet moments when we’re walking around town and Nicolus is too tired to keep up on his own (I don’t quite have those mamma-biceps yet to have that job. Someday...)

Nicolus was tested for Tuberculosis today using the skin test. Which meant...yep, a big needle that he was NOT happy about.  He squirmed so much on the first try that the needle slipped out and the fluid sprayed the  in the eye!! Yikes. So, she tried again on his second arm (this time daddy did most of the holding) leaving him with 2 battle wounds! (sorry, kind of a blurry pic)

He shed a LOT of tears but quickly got over it and moved on! We will return to the doctor on Saturday to check the skin and make sure he didn’t have a reaction.

Since we skipped lunch and tried to maintain energy with some packed snacks, local "mini" bananas and jack fruit (delish!) we were all pretty famished when we got back to the guest house.  Including this guy:

Raise your hand if you think this full plate of food (already half-eaten by the time we got the camera) is enough to satisfy a little 3-year-old squirt? Well, it's not. He ate a whole other full plate.  It’s official. He is a smaller version of Clint.

Speaking of which, while he was eating his second plate (ha) Clint taught him how to use his hands to sign "more”, “eat”, “thirst” and “all done”.  Way to go, Clinton! Trying to get a pic of that soon.  We can already see this being a huge help when it comes to meeting his needs. 

And Nicolus had a breakthrough today when he started repeating words after me! He has actually barely spoken at all since he’s been with us, although sometimes he will mumble a little Luganda and I have to pull Rashid in to help translate if he’s around. Anyway, we’ve been reading an ABC book together where there are pictures that slide over their corresponding letter and word and he loves it.  He sits on my lap and chooses a picture to slide and I say the word. He repeats most of the words and has the cutest little accent (be still my beating heart). Sometimes he is more consistent than others but overall I am THRILLED to hear his little voice. I have loved getting to know his laugh and see him smile...and now hearing him say words I understand is such a joy! Here we are tonight trying again in the dark with dad’s headlamp. 

Making shadow puppets while we waited for the generator to come on for the evening.

Can’t wait to see what else Uganda has in store for us! In the meantime, please keep these things in mind for prayer:

• The “to do” list is still long so please pray that court will indeed happen on Monday and that we will receive our Guardianship Order right away so we can quickly move on to getting his passport and visa.  
• Pray his TB skin test comes back normal so he can be cleared to come into the States. He had a previous test done that came back negative but the one from today was done at a UN medical office which is more “official”.
• Ask that Nicolus become more and more comfortable around us even though we cannot communicate fully. We are so thankful that overall he recognizes us as his caretakers right now and comes to us when he has a need. Ask that we would be successful in finding ways for him to communicate those needs.