Day 14

Today has to be the toughest day to right about but amazingly the most peaceful day to write about. Today we meet with the lawyer this morning and there we found out for sure that Ethan's mom and dad are both alive and even though the dad only comes and goes, he is by international standards not an orphan. After we found this out we talked with Sam here at the guest and he suggested that we seek legal counsel, when you are in an international country your legal council is the consultant at the US Embassy. We drove over to the Embassy and being American citizens the Ugandan receptionist would not allow us in. So we got the phone number and called the consultant. He told me that under no situation could he approve a VISA for a child that had both parents involved in even a limited portion of his life. With this news we had no choice we had to request that Ethan be returned to his guardians.We called up David and told him the news, he arranged for us meet with Ethan's Pastor right away and we headed back to the attorney's office where the pastor was at. Ethan fell asleep on the way to the office and once we were there he stayed asleep the entire time. At the office the attorney's paralegal drafted up a notice stating that we were handing over Ethan to the pastor who would hand him over to his mother. As we handed Ethan to the pastor another elderly lady that was with him wanted to hold him, and he woke up as we handed him to her and he cried shortly then was fine as though he knew who the lady was. They left we watched them walk down the street and he did not even cry.After we left the office we headed back to the van and the drive that has been with us through the entire process look at us with shock in his eyes and asked, "Where is the baby?" We almost lost it laughing, and told him what happened.There is some bright news today. Even though we have been through this we are still encouraged, because we know that God has a plan for us here and we know that there is a purpose to this trip. We actually called a baby cottage that we previously had talked to and they said that they would love to talk to us. We are going out there tomorrow and they have ORPHANED children available. They said that there are a few people stateside that are waiting but that with us here we may be able to cut in the ques. So the process for this orphanage is that both parents meet with the child and with a probation officer present to make sure that the parents both care for and can bond with the child. Then one parent can leave and the orphanage submits for a court date and one parent stays for that process. This works out perfectly since I, Aaron, need to leave middle of next and Tiffany can stay as long as needed. So we are excited about this opportunity.Please continue to pray for us, we know that you all are because we have peace today and have essentially lost Ethan today. We know that only through God's strength that we are able to stand right now, let alone look to open our hearts to another child.