A Nostalgic Summer

When we left Mbingo to stay in Yaounde, I did not expect to be transported back to summertime in the late 70’s/ early 80’s. I have seen a lot of articles in social media recently about creating nostalgic summers for children - summers like I had as a kid- playing outside with friends, riding my bike until it was dark, with no scheduled pintrest activities in sight. You know, the “idea” of summer many of us have in our heads. That is what we have stumbled upon during our time in Yaounde. We are staying on a missionary compound that has SO many kids. It is gated with a guard which allows the children a safe place to roam and play all day! There is even a playground and a soccer field. As I am writing this, I just watched two girls ride past our house on their bikes, a toddler toddle past my window, the sounds of kids playing is drifting into my windows, and my girls are reading books with friends. They have already played on the playground and built play-dough creations in the back yard this morning. It is not even 11:00! They are outside almost all day (except for the community wide rest time).

Our 4^th of July celebration was right out of a Norman Rockwell painting! The kids had a bike parade in the morning complete with patriotic tassels and parade music. Charlie won most patriotic for her Statue of Liberty bike! Then there was an impromptu dance party. In the evening there were old fashioned games like the three-legged race, watermelon seed spitting contest, and potato sack races (well actually African market bag races). Afterward, we had a picnic with hotdogs and all the fixings.

My girls are loving life right now and that makes my mamma heart happy. It also makes waiting for the adoption to be finished much more tolerable. And speaking of the adoption- ADOPTION UPDATE-  we have finally sent in our finalized US home study and our “Petition to classify orphan as an immediate relative.” This is a two-pronged application. The first part will either approve or disapprove of Josh and I as suitable parents to adopt a child. This should take about 6 weeks to either gain approval or to hear back about any “Requests for Evidence.” RFEs are ways for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to clarify any area of concern in the home study. Apparently, these are becoming more and more common. There is a chance that we won’t have any RFEs, but honestly the way our adoption has gone- I am not holding my breath.  If we get approval from the UCIS, then the application goes to the US Embassy in Cameroon. They will then investigate O’s case to make sure she meets the US “orphan” requirements and that there is no child trafficking involved. How long will that take? Who knows? We are hoping to be home before Christmas. In the meantime, we have enrolled Charlie into the missionary school here and even O will get to go to preschool two days a week. They are both so excited!

I am not the most patient person. In fact I really hate waiting, but I am so thankful that our girls are really enjoying our time in Yaounde and making great summer memories.