My dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable.  Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.  1 Corinthians 15:58

Our daughter Agum is the biological neice to Sabet and has lived with us for 2 1/2 years.  She is now seven (8 in October) and her mother died when she was just 1 1/2 years old. 

We always knew we would have Agum as our daughter one day, years before we ever met her and our family prayed for her diligently.  She is very much a part of our family and life.

After 3 years of field service our family is due for a 6 month home assignment in October for rest, reporting and fundraising.  We were very much looking forward to bringing Agum with us for this time.

South Sudan is a new nation, and is lacking many things including policies and procedures for such things as adoption.  Sabet chose to get a temporary custody order until systems are in place and we can travel to Juba and begin adoption proceedings, hopefully next year.

We were told that to take a child out of Africa we would need a court order stating we are the legal guardians.  EASY right??  Not so…Sabet drove to Wau, the second largest city in South Sudan, about 8 times to get the papers we needed and have them translated from Arabic to English with a court stamp verifying the accuracy.  He was told come back next week, tomorrow etc. and to no avail.  This is 70 miles on a dirt road one way, taking over 3 hours. 

After much endurance he finally got the paper and left with Agum for Nairobi to attend two appointments, one at the UK Consulate and the other at the US Embassy.  Both of these embassies do not issue visa’s prior to three months before travel is requested.  We felt confident we were to apply even though we had no idea what the outcome would be. 

We felt earlier this year we were to postpone our home assignment until May 2012 but after much discussions we decided to try and get the visa’s for Agum.  Sabet was granted his UK visa but Agum was denied.  Apparently child trafficking is a major issue between Kenya and Europe.  They asked Sabet to come with the death certificate for his sister and the birth certificate for Agum.  Aaahhh….very frustrating as neither exist.  Surely they know this is Africa, the bush areas don’t have such things?  Well we are dealing with a Kenyan embassy where ‘such things’ are readily available.  Should we try a different embassy?  Khartoum is part of North Sudan which we are no longer part of and South Sudan doesn’t have any embassies yet!! 

It’s not in vain, the paper we have will help us start adoption of Agum more easily.  Now we just need to get the grandfather from Khartoum and the grandmother here in Tonj together with Sabet, myself and Agum to Juba and wait for a judge to hear our case!!  We surely need a miracle and ask you all to be in prayer.

As a result of the British High Commission saying no, it made getting a US visa even harder and they also required more papers.  So we are now faced with postponing the home assignment until next year.  Please pray for us as we make these adjustments and continue to trust the Lord for our needs.