How was the trip?

I wrote this about two weeks ago, but just got around to uploading the pictures.  Thanks to Melanie Poteat for taking most of the pictures!  I was too busy snuggling with my cutie to take very many.  We would have loved to have taken more pictures of people and country, but you're not really allowed to take pictures.  Most pictures we have of the streets, countryside, etc., are taken from inside our moving car.

So back to the question everyone wants to know, but is so hard to answer.  It was an emotional trip.  Several months ago someone else told us there are third world countries, and then there is Africa.  I spent two months in Honduras and 2 weeks in India- two countries filled with a lot of poverty.  While DRC reminded me a lot of those countries (trash, crazy traffic, houses made of whatever scraps could be found, etc), the DRC was even harder to witness and experience.  I feel selfish even saying that because it's not my reality...I get to come home.  But it's true. 

There were so many homeless people on the streets.  Not far from our hotel was a homeless pregnant woman sleeping on the street.  Kids in tattered clothes and sometimes we saw small kids in nothing but underwear.  People would do whatever it took to make money.  One of the things that broke my heart was seeing a family sitting off the side of the road (on the way out of the city) hammering rocks till they were powder (children included).  I don't have a picture of them hammering it into powder, but here are a couple of them selling a bag of rocks they hammered to smaller sizes.

There isn't free public education therefore most of the children there do not go to school.

They will hopefully sell the powder (or small rocks) to a builder to make cement blocks.  They get the rocks from the Congo River. 

We saw a lot of people out there with hammers breaking off chunks to haul off.  There is an overwhelming amount of aid and work that needs done.  There is a reason most parents I've met that have adopted get involved in supporting programs over there.  It's almost impossible not to do something, but hard to know where to begin.

My heart also went out to the families stuck in country.  There were four American families at the hotel we were at who have been there 3-4 months with their spouse and most with bio kids back home.  We saw a tiny glimpse of the heartbreak they are experiencing.  So ready to get home to their families, but not wanting to send their children back into foster care or orphanage after months of being together.  When we were there one of the guys did have to go home and another one was preparing to go back.  While it was so hard leaving our little A, I went knowing I would have to leave her.  These families (and many others who have already left) went thinking their children would be coming home.  So when people ask how the trip was...obviously I was beyond overjoyed that I was able to meet and spend time with our little girl and see/experience her country.  But my heart was also burdened with so much sadness.

Before I share about little A, I will say the Congolese people are a resilient and strong group of people.  They are survivors.  We were encouraged by several there who said they may be burdened by the state of their country or their situation in life, but they have hope and joy in the second coming of Christ.  I wanted to have a pity party for what most of the people there are going through, but they reminded me that's not what we are called to do as Christians. 

Buying beans and lots of other food to take to the orphanage.

We took donations to a school and orphanage.  Here is one of the teachers on the job.  Since everyone breastfeeds, babies are always with their mamas.  Love it! 

Our translator whom I loved...such a good Godly man!  His beautiful wife is a seamstress.  We had her make us a couple things.

 

As I mentioned before I didn't get as much paperwork done as I had hoped, but I would do it all over again to spend time with our little A!  I will TREASURE our week together the rest of my life. 

LOVE this girl!!  When she was tired that thumb was in her mouth...so adorable!!

I keep a journal for each of our kids (which is why I don't take the time to update this as often as I'd like) so I wrote each night about our time together.  She is such a joyful, happy baby full of life and personality!  She is 10 months, crawls everywhere, and is pulling up on furniture.  She only fussed when I wiped her nose or she was sick of being in the car.  I asked the foster mom, Mama Rosalie, what makes her upset, and she said she doesn't like to be left alone.  If she is by herself she will cry.  I can definitely see that.  Little A loves people and loves to be held.  For a girl that likes to be held she is also a wiggle worm!  She will fit right in with her rowdy brothers. She was very curious and all over the place, but still right by me so I could hold her at the drop of a hat.  I didn't mind!   She was a fighter when it came to bedtime.  I would try rocking her to sleep (without a rocking chair), and she would squirm like crazy.  She would eventually fall asleep on my chest leaned back in bed sucking her thumb...precious moments!  Actual co-sleeping was a little rough...especially in a twin bed.  I only slept an hour our first night together.  We were both pretty restless, and she kept crawling up on my chest to sleep.  So sweet, but impossible for me to sleep like that since I can't even sleep if Zac is touching me in bed.  Thankfully it got a lot better as the week went on.  Little A loves taking a bath, liked to touch my face and put her face on mine, really good at eating table food, and has the cutest/daintiest sneezes, whines, squeaks, etc!

She has 4 teeth and two more are poking through up top.  She likes to drink from a water bottle and would gargle the water.  This girl was full of smiles and loved to jabber!  The best thing about our time together was that she KNEW I was her momma.  I don't know how, but she did.  Several Congolese people even noticed her strong attachment to me.  She loves people and would let Melanie, our driver, translator, or other moms hold her for a bit, but it didn't take long for her to lunge back for me. 

She had such a contagious smile!

Even when her foster mom came to pick her up she was happy as a lark to just stay in my arms.  I talked to Mama Rosalie for about 10 minutes, and she never reached out for her.  When it was about time for her to go Mama Rosalie started talking and playing with her and A went to her with a smile on her face.  It was good to know that she loves both her mamas.  I will say she did fuss a bit when she was strapped on Mama Rosalie's back (I don't have those pictures yet, but will share them later bc it is adorable).  We think it was because she knew she was officially leaving to go back because she never fussed when I put her in the ergo.  That could just be a biased mama's speculation though.  :)  I'm not going to lie it was ROUGH leaving her.  I cried the night before when I was singing her to sleep for the last time.  Then to make it worse the foster mom arrived 2 hours early to pick her up on Monday which was shocking since usually everyone is late there!!  So from the moment I heard she was downstairs, 30 minutes it took to pack all of A's stuff up, while I was talking with Mama Rosalie, and when I had to turn the opposite direction to go back upstairs to our room tears were streaming down my face.    Luckily I had a ton of packing to do to keep my mind busy.  I had to just keep moving.  It was hard not having Zac with me.  I gain so much strength from him.  I am so thankful Melanie came with me though because it would have been even harder going through that experience alone.