Hamner's Adoption Blog

Clint left for the embassy at 7:30 Thursday morning. Trying not to get my hopes up, I really didn’t expect him to be seen as Thursday is not an advertised day for US citizens to come and we had already received the news that the embassy would be closed on Friday for a Muslim holiday. I’ll keep my comments to myself about this J When the clock struck 9:00am and Clint had still not returned, I began to get very hopeful. I thought, “Surely good news is headed our way and possibly even an interview for Monday!” As Clint walked through the door of the B & B, I tried to read his face-good or bad? He said, “I have good news and bad news”. Always one to want the bad out the way first I said, “Tell me the bad”. Clint responded, “We don’t have a visa interview till November 5 th ”. I shouted, “Well what’s the good then?!” Clint’s response, “We have an interview”. I guess this was the one time when I should have reversed the way I ask for news. To be completely honest, ...

Passport Purgatory ZG’s passport didn’t get issued on Tuesday, which pretty much eliminated the possibility of leaving on our originally scheduled flight. We are bummed about the delay.   Actually, we don’t even ask about when we might get to go home anymore. On Wednesday, we decided to get up and not worry about the passport at all.   After convincing the Chicago family to go to Rancher’s with us, we decided to leave at 2pm for a late lunch.   Just after 1pm we received a text from our facilitator telling us to go to the passport office. All the text said was, “230 passport office fingers crossed”.   Carla and I were anxious.   Would we be disappointed again, or have our prayers answered?   Being at this point and time in the process and having an understanding of how the passport office functions, we didn’t get our hopes up too much.   I insisted to the Chicago couple that they should come with us so we could still have our late lunch.   ...

Indifference Indifference is a strange emotion.   One side of indifference takes you towards obedience, the other side of the spectrum takes you to abandonment.   You know on The Biggest Loser, during “weighs ins”, how the scale teeters back and forth above and below the target weight loss needed for the team to win that week’s challenge, that’s how we are on the Indifference spectrum right now. Some days we hold true to the promise that we are cherished and beloved; we are looking towards obedience.   And other days, we blankly stare down the pipe, alone, looking towards abandonment.   The line is crossed without even knowing that you have turned your back on God.   We have all felt abandoned. Take ZG for example, she was literally abandoned.   She still reels from the effects of being left alone when she was eleven days old.   Just yesterday she woke up from her afternoon nap and we weren’t there. Tears poured like a broken tap as she tried to...

ZG's First Jack-O-Latern We spent the afternoon at the B&B and carved a green pumpkin. ZG loved helping.  She is wearing one the outfits that her NANA sent her. The package only took two weeks to get here and arrived today! Doesn't Mommy's necklace she got at market look nice. 

Enjoy Today: Or At Least Try To Everyone keeps asking us when we are going to get to come home with ZG.   I told Carla that from now on I was going to start answering the question by saying, “Hopefully before the next Halley’s Comet!”   Here, some days you can’t help but think you’re trapped in a bad Lifetime movie. Specifically, the part of the movie where the main character has just lost her job, her baby was stolen, her face was ripped off, the railroad henchmen burned down the farm, and the evil ex-husband has come back to town to seek revenge.   All of that rolled up in the same movie.   Why couldn’t it have been like Win a Date with Tad Hamilton ?   Cheery and light; with traces of Josh Duemel’s bare chest. Instead, it’s a double feature of heartache and misery. But wait. Don’t Lifetime movies, as cheesy as they are, always leave you wanting to watch another one because Crystal Bernard, Charisma Carpenter, Heather Locklear, or Katherine ...

First of all let me say that a former student of mine reminded me once to celebrate in everything. So for today we will celebrate the small steps closer that we are getting to returning home. The answer to how to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. No John Hooper, its not with extra salt and a side of bacon! Are You Ready For Some Futbol Saturday was a big day for Uganda.   Their country’s prized soccer team was scheduled to play Zambia in their home field advantage of a two match set that would be determined by the aggregate score of both games.   The match last month resulted in a 1-0 loss for Uganda on Zambia’s home field.   That meant that the Ugandan national team needed to win by a margin of at least two goals.   The match had obliviously started because I took a look around the B&B and there was no one.   The normally bustling street was stone cold quiet.   Just an hour earlier, I was invited to sit down with the staff and e...