Updates on the "Big Baboo"

We've been without much web access for several days, so here is a cliff notes version of the latest:

- This has been a productive week! We signed the adoption decree at the Nepal Ministry of Women and Children on Monday (making him legally our son), Tuesday we got his travel document from Nepal (usually a two-day process and we got it done in one day!), and Wednesday we had his doctor appointment and submitted all our paperwork to the U.S. Embassy. We will have our interview at the Embassy on Monday. Once that interview is completed, they do the investiagation. If everything checks out, we get our US visa to bring him home.

- We've moved back to the Yak and Yeti Hotel after 4 days/3 nights at Bishwa and Ramila's home. We had a wonderful stay with them and learned so much about Nepali culture (more on this later). But their home is a traditional 4-story Nepali home with no room for our very busy little 2-year old boy to move around, so we decided to come back here so he could get outside and play as most of the rest of our time here will be long periods of waiting on our travel approval from the US Embassy.

- L is adjusting to us relatively well; he's become "daddy's boy" as he's attached strongly to me. Its very different for me to have a little guy wanting me all the time, but Tanya says its good because she couldn't carry around our 28-pound "big Baboo" (Baboo is the Nepali name for baby boy) for long. We've decided that "Baboo" is better nickname for him than "Gophale" ("the round one"), since Ramila told us that its really a derogatory term in Nepali, although quite humorous to us.  Mom is playing with him and feeding him, so he's warming up to her. He's used to having one primary caregiver in the orphanage, so we understand that he has no concept of having two parents. Pray for good days and patience as we often find ourselves waiting around in offices and riding in the back of a hot mini-bus most days, tough places for any 2-year-old.

- Continue to pray for us and this country; we are learning much about this place and this culture that breaks our hearts. God is moving here, but things are unstable politically and the people have little hope. Bishwa has shared with us his heart for planting churches outside KTM and he has a great vision. If we have time, he's going to take us on a drive just out of the valley for a few hours to introduce us to some of the new churches in the villages around KTM.

- Also pray for the other adoptive parents who have become fast friends forged in the fire of the this absolutely crazy experience.  Several of them have been here longer than we have and all of us are facing the intense pressure of having every line of every form scrutinized and every detail of this process examined in a country in which absolutely everything (including traffic laws...) is haphazard.  So little is in our control and our lives are on hold until all these details work out.  Even for those of us accustomed to mission trips and cross-cultural experiences, none of us have ever been a part of something quite like this.