I mean, I’ve known for a while that Chris and Amy want to have a family. And I’ve known that, in the wake of their struggle to conceive, they’ve been exploring other options. I also know that, two weeks ago, they made an impromptu visit to an orphanage here in Lusaka – I even went with them on a follow-up visit a week later and of course fell immediately and helplessly in love with every single precious little bundle there. I mean, these kids… I know I’m a mush but, man… They are so desperate to be held that your shadow has only to darken their tiny faces before their little hands are reaching out for you to pick them up. And then, once in your arms, they're literally climbing up your body, hanging on to you with these desperate, don't-let-go death grips, burrowing their tiny faces in to your chest, your neck. All I could think when I looked around was, “Man, how do you choose?”
But then, maybe it’s like my friend Marcelle says – maybe they choose you.
I don’t know. All I know is that this place never ceases to surprise me. You can’t get a work permit (15 months and counting and Amy still hasn’t gotten hers) or a driver’s license (the waiting list has over 10,000 people on it) but a kid? Oh, hey, no – here you go! Seriously. When Chris and Amy decided a few days after visiting the orphanage that they'd swing by social services to register and at least "get the ball rolling" they expected that they'd only be, well, getting the ball rolling. Instead, they were pretty much told that - if they wanted - they could take the baby that day. That day! Chris was like, "Um, yeah – most people get nine months to prepare for this – I need more than nine hours!”
In the end, it took them less than nine days to decide and now – drum roll please – I’M AN AUNTIE!!!! Er, well, technically a “foster auntie” as Chris has asked me to point out. Her name is Kondwani Middle-Name-Yet-to-Be-Determined Bositis. She’s 19 inches long, 7.5 pounds, and approximately 10 weeks old (she was abandoned, so they don't know her exact date of birth, but they believe she was at least a couple months premature). She is also, if I may say so, absolutely positively exquisite. See?
The plan right now is to foster her for a roughly three-month period, after which – if they, in the words of the Zambian social worker, “decide they can love her” (“Decide they can love her??” Seriously, have they met us?) – the adoption will become final. She’s with them now at Macha Mission Hospital, a rural hospital in Southern Province where they’re currently providing medical technical support, and she’ll travel with them to Mwandi Mission Hospital after that. If I get my visa issues worked out (oh yeah, I forgot to mention: I’ve got a whole new set of visa issues and I might actually have to leave the country for really reals this time – and for good. on saturday. unless, of course, our mwa-ha-ha evil plan, which – God forgive me – involves lying to a priest, works out.) I’ll be joining them sometime in the next couple days to serve as their full-time nanny while they're out at the sites for the next few weeks.
I am still hoping to go to Mozambique with my Tanzanian adventure pal, Sam (we’re gonna go to the coast for a couple weeks to rebuild houses destroyed by a storm), and volunteer at the Lusaka Teachers’ Resource Center (a new gig I lined up for myself last week), and go on safari, but the clock is ticking on my little adventure so we shall see!
