We made it home! Praise the Lord! We had a very looong past 2 days. About 40 straight hours total of traveling and layovers. Béni did great! He was quite excited to ride on a plane and go to America with us. He had a few moments of sadness/impatience while waiting to board the planes. Before boarding the first plane in the Congo, the Lord blessed us to meet a young Congolese guy who spoke fluent English and Lingala. He was able to speak to Béni and translate a lot of Béni’s questions. Even more of a blessing, this same guy happened to be sitting on the same row across the aisle from us on the plane. Béni sat by him briefly carrying on a lengthy conversation and had a good time! The Lord truly ordained this meeting.
I have to share a humorous incident from the airport yesterday. Turns out Béni is terrified of automatic flushing toilets. He went in the restroom to do his business and during the process the toilet flushed on him. Apparently (according to Brady) he screamed and ran out (pants around his ankles) for all to see in the crowded airport restroom. He had to work up his courage to go back in and complete his task.
We were also grateful for our facilitator/translator while in the DRC. Our paperwork was done in record time! Even though we couldn’t get home earlier than scheduled, the time we had with Béni in country was a great opportunity to begin bonding and adjusting. Our facilitator left us this wonderful/amazing advice. He said “It is a beautiful thing what you are doing…adopting Béni. You are giving him a better life. But it will only be temporarily better if you do not teach him about the gospel and about Christ. That is all that matters.” How awesome is that!
We’ve been home about 15 hours and things are going smoothly. Béni slept peacefully in his bed (in a shared room with Manny) all night. He LOVES Manny and Manny loves him. He was a little sad at first when Manny headed off to school this morning. But he recovered. Shockingly, Béni also LOVES the dogs; which is an awesome surprise! Béni is fascinated with everything; particularly the car. The first thing he did this morning was walk out to the garage and mumble something while gently petting the car. Even now he just keeps walking out to the garage and touching the car. He keeps asking for the keys, thinking he’s just gonna hop in and drive somewhere! Sorry pal!
That’s all for now! I’m sure we’ll have more humorous stories soon!
Filling the Time
The countdown is on. Two more days and we will be US bound. Our time here has been a productive one of bonding and learning each other, combined with large blocks of boredom. The highlights of our days generally consist of going to the “market” to get bread / water, etc. I would describe it as a “bankrupt Sears”. It has a little of everything, but it’s all subpar.
We don’t feel nearly as comfortable venturing out on our own as we did in Ghana. Perhaps we just haven’t been here long enough to feel adventurous (thankfully). So we have mostly just stuck around the hotel.
We have developed our own little language with Béni consisting of an English-French-Lingala hybrid with a little bit of signing mixed in as well. So far it is going well. He has shown us a stubborn defiant side on occasion, yet he has also begun to submit to us regularly as his parents. He should learn pretty quickly by watching big brother Manny when we get home! We have also tried to begin learning the basics (i.e. ABC, 123) through games. He is beginning to take to it. He can count pretty well in French, and thus has taken quicker counting in English than to his ABC’s. He seems to have an extensive Lingala/French vocabulary; which I think speaks to his intelligence. And he finds it necessary to carry on fairly lengthy conversations with the hotel workers in their language. They get a real kick out of what he says… Lord only knows what he is really saying about us.
Once he learns to focus his attention, I believe he will make remarkable strides in schooling. As with the addition of any child, it will be challenging at times. The language barrier certainly adds a different dynamic. Early on we simply couldn’t explain our reasoning behind saying “no” to something. Instead, it just sounded like “no” as a permanent response – which usually displeased him. We’ve thankfully gotten better at communicating with the help of some online resources and nice locals who translate for us. At any rate, we are adapting and learning. We are ready, and thankful to God for choosing to bring Béni into our life as our son. He certainly adds an entertaining element and should provide us with humorous stories for quite some time!
We don’t feel nearly as comfortable venturing out on our own as we did in Ghana. Perhaps we just haven’t been here long enough to feel adventurous (thankfully). So we have mostly just stuck around the hotel.
We have developed our own little language with Béni consisting of an English-French-Lingala hybrid with a little bit of signing mixed in as well. So far it is going well. He has shown us a stubborn defiant side on occasion, yet he has also begun to submit to us regularly as his parents. He should learn pretty quickly by watching big brother Manny when we get home! We have also tried to begin learning the basics (i.e. ABC, 123) through games. He is beginning to take to it. He can count pretty well in French, and thus has taken quicker counting in English than to his ABC’s. He seems to have an extensive Lingala/French vocabulary; which I think speaks to his intelligence. And he finds it necessary to carry on fairly lengthy conversations with the hotel workers in their language. They get a real kick out of what he says… Lord only knows what he is really saying about us.
Once he learns to focus his attention, I believe he will make remarkable strides in schooling. As with the addition of any child, it will be challenging at times. The language barrier certainly adds a different dynamic. Early on we simply couldn’t explain our reasoning behind saying “no” to something. Instead, it just sounded like “no” as a permanent response – which usually displeased him. We’ve thankfully gotten better at communicating with the help of some online resources and nice locals who translate for us. At any rate, we are adapting and learning. We are ready, and thankful to God for choosing to bring Béni into our life as our son. He certainly adds an entertaining element and should provide us with humorous stories for quite some time!
