To Whom It May Concern

If you have been following along, since we met Isaiah a week ago, we have been dropping him off at the orphanage every night. This was starting to wear on us and was getting confusing for him (though the free babysitting was nice). We could see him change everyday in the way he would react to us when we would pick him up - nice big smiles by Sunday, but in order to start the bonding process, we really needed to take care of him full-time.

Though we had been trying all last week to get the last document that would free him to us for good, we knew that Monday we had to get things done. Our quest started at the Minister's office at 10:30 in the morning. We had been told that the document would be ready by then but when we got to the office.... the document had not been signed. We were told to call back at 3pm to see if it had been signed. Meanwhile, we went and applied for his Rwandan passport... and were told that we could have this by Thursday... not too bad. When the clock struck 3, we were on the phone to the Minister's office. We were told the document had not been signed and that the Minister was in a meeting. It was time to go and sit and wait for the document.

Our friend dropped us off at the office and left to go to a meeting. Johanna and I came in with Isaiah and after some brief conversation, we parked ourselves down in the waiting area of the Minister's office. We were determined to get this document today. Well, in the afternoon, Isaiah can get a little antsy pantsy (as we have learned). We sat and sat (some of us squirmed)... 3:30, 4:00, 4:30. After I felt that Isaiah had 'made his presence known', I walked him outside of the building. As I was sitting there trying to entertain him, this nicely dressed woman walked out of the building and smiled at me. I had recognized her as the Minister from the newspaper in the office. I picked up Isaiah and rushed back into the office. Johanna was still just sitting there and I asked her if the Minister had acknowledged her but to my surprise, she did not. Without a word, the secretary got up from her seat - walked into the Minister's office and disappeared. We didn't know if we were going to be here until late into the evening as the Minister had left for another meeting.

After some time, the secretary walked out of the office, looked at me - asked for the baby's name and just sat down at her desk. After a few minutes, I was told to approach her desk. She pushed a book across to me where I was to sign for the paper. I did so and was then presented with the letter - "To Whom It May Concern"! Isaiah was now officially allowed to live with us! After I walked out of the office, I told him just that and got a nice big smile from him.

This was a victory today and one more step in getting Isaiah home with us in Canada. God is awesome!