Friends, I wish we had more to report at this time.

We do know that our case is still being considered.  Still praying for their swift deliverance.

We are very disappointed to report that the children are all still in Goma.  No flight has yet come for them.  We are tying to dig for answers for this as well.  We are learning the depth of the brokenness of the system that has crippled their country and orphaned millions of children.  As we share in the sufferings of Christ and reach out to love these children, we are acquiring scars of our own.  I never thought it would be this hard.  But these scars are not bleeding wounds, they are quickly mended and carefully attended to by our own Father.  We have the promise in James 1 that our sufferings and the testing of our faith produce steadfastness.  And that steadfastness will have its full effect, that we may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.  So we wrestle to count it all joy.

Thank you for checking in and for your faithful support and prayers!  God is bigger than all of this.  I think we are in the part of the footprints poem when there was only one set of footprints in the sand.

Humanitarian Flight Approved!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today, we finally heard that our children and the other 5 children being adopted to the US have been granted the next humanitarian flight out of Goma!  To back up a few days, a UN representative and Immigration Official last Friday/Saturday came to visit the orphanage, interviewed the orphanage director, and each of our children  one by one.  He told them when he left that he would be back for them as soon as possible.  I heard from Gilbert this afternoon that the children have been asking every minute when they get to fly in the airplane!  At this point I don't know that they even understand that this is possibly sparing their lives or that they will be coming to see us, they are just so excited about flying on an airplane!!  I love that childlike simplicity.  I don't think they have been outside of those orphanage walls for approximately 3 years.  They even washed their clothes and have been ready to go for days and are sad as yet another day comes to an end with no one coming to get them.

At about 4:00 this afternoon we learned that the Immigration Official had made it back to Kinshasa (after other humanitarian stops), spoke with our attorney in Congo, and they are now filing the necessary paperwork to get them on the next humanitarian flight.  We do not yet know when the next flight will be but our agency will be checking in with them daily.

Please pray that the flight comes before any new fighting erupts.  So far M23 has withdrawn from Goma and is waiting just a couple miles outside for negotiations.  They have already stated their intentions to "re-take" Goma militarily if negotiations do not occur on their timeline.  There have been no signs of negotiations beginning yet.  As this is all brand new news, we don't yet know what will happen from here once they are in Kinshasa.  We are still praying for a second miracle of humanitarian parole.  Otherwise, the children will have to wait in Kinshasa for the remainder of the legal proceedings to take place (we hope) from Kinshasa.  But much thanks to our mighty God that they will wait in a safer place.  Pray that the flight comes SOON!  Pray for their safe flight across country as this will be a little "puddle jumper plane" I am sure!  And please pray for all of the children and the entire community left behind in this humanitarian crisis. 

Hopeful Update

We are currently awaiting approval for Humanitarian Parole.  It is very rare but in circumstances as dire as these, it can occasionally be granted.  This would mean the children could leave Goma immediately and come into the US.  The hang up with this is that they would have to come out through Rwanda and there are ethical tensions that complicate the process.  Best case scenario would be a combination of Humanitarian Parole and the second possibility below.

Secondly, our agency just informed us that there is the very near possibility of them flying out to Kinshasa on a humanitarian flight across the country (to the safe side of Congo) with an Immigrations Director.  He is flying into Goma tomorrow night in the first humanitarian flight to the area.  He will speak with the orphanage director and they will discuss possible arrangements.  I don't know what would be to discuss!!!!!  They are asking the Committee to move ahead with the current documents we have and finalize the adoption since Goma will not be operational in the courts for the remainder of the process.  Or if not, see if Kinshasa can file the rest of the process.  The latter could still take a while but at least they would be safe  in the waiting.

I am a little bit in shock as we just received the news about the humanitarian flight possibility.  We are still not getting too excited because there are a lot of "ifs".  Thank you to all of you for your friendship, support, and prayers!

Hearts held hostage

After the elation of getting to talk with Nico and Anwa for the first time has now worn off, today has been a much more difficult day.  I woke up early and couldn't go back to sleep.  At first, I was recounting all of the remarkable ways so far that it has seemed that it is just more than coincidence or misunderstanding that has laid the path of getting us to this place of grieving hope where we are today.  We have exhausted all options that we could think of over this holiday weekend.  Chuck has spoken with consulates, attorneys, foreign embassy personnel, and has drafted a letter to our congressman and made an appointment at immigration services.  We had our hopes up for a while that they would be able to legally escape to Rwanda on refuge papers and the adoption be completed in the US.  For the time being all answers at this point are that we just have to wait.  There is nothing we can do.  Sitting and waiting is the last thing we want to do after hearing yesterday from Trent that during the fighting a bomb had gone through the orphanage wall and kitchen yet never exploded.  (Thank you God for protecting them, YOU DID HEAR AND DID ANSWER OUR CRIES).  We can see in the near future the crumbling of this nation or much more bloodshed, rape, children becoming orphans and child soldiers as they lose families in the mass exodus, courts with officials who have likely fled, and if anyone happens to still be there, a confusion over who has authority upon return.

If we allow ourselves even for a short time to dwell on the circumstances, we begin to lose hope.  I can not afford to do that!  Neither can Chuck.  The pain of not being able to adopt these children would be one thing, but the pain of wondering their fate if left behind would be something entirely different.  We need a fresh word from God.  These past 6 days have seemingly been never ending days as we wait for Monday morning to roll around and see if our attorney in Congo has made any progress with his requests on our case.  Time is not on our side and if time has a thief, it is Congolese litigation.  As my mother-in-law said, "we don't need everybody to say "yes" we just need God to say "yes".  In which case, we know it will be.  God please keep our hearts and minds in a safe place regardless of the outcome.  And please bring those two precious children that will already forever be Hetzlers home immediately.  I believe, help my unbelief!

We "meet" them on the phone today on Thanksgiving!!!

Last night after midnight we got a call from our friend Trent who said "I am getting on the bus with Gilbert and I am not afraid.  We are going into Goma!!!  We are going to check things out on the ground and make sure they are ok.  We want to see how things are in Goma and take them some food.  If they were my kids, I would want to know. I will call you from there and maybe you can talk to them."

Oh my gosh!!!  As you can imagine, I slept about 30 minutes all night long.  At 2:30 am he called and said they had safely crossed into Goma and that the soldiers weren't in the city.  They were outside of the city training.  At 6:00am we got a call from Trent and got to speak with Nicodemu and Anouarite for 30 minutes!  They are absolutely precious.  They were trying their very best English and we spoke some occasional Swahili. Trent was translating the rest for us.  Highlights... Nicodemu has a very strong, confident, yet gentle and respectful voice and when asked if there was anything he wanted to ask us, he asked what he was going to be able to eat when he came to America.  We told him, "anything you want!!!" and started listing everything I could think of from ice cream to steaks! He also sang us a song and has a very very good singing voice, wow!  Anouarite joined him super quietly at the end of the song.  Anouarite is very shy and Trent says she is super sweet and has been latched onto him all day.  She spoke occasionally, with a very quiet gentle voice.  We finally learned how to say her name.  It is ahn-wa-ree-tay with the accent on the ree.  Her nick name is "ann-wa" and that is how she introduced herself.  "My name is ann-wah".  Nicodemu kept saying in English "my name is nee-ko-day-moo (strong stress on day with his cute little African accent).  They are calling us Mama and Baba, Nicodemu said "hello dada" (sister) to Annalise.

Nathanael and Annalise woke up and got to speak with them as well.  Nicodemu counted to 9 in English and Nathanael and Annalise each sang them a song.  I sang them a song too.

I am still in shock.  We asked how they are and they said "nzuri" which is good.  We explained to them that things are difficult now because of the war and that we are doing everything we possibly can to get them home as soon as possible.  We don't know how much they understand, seems like very little of this concept.  Then the older kids got Anouarite to say "I am hungry, give me some of that food" - in Swahili of course.  Everyone broke out laughing.  Unbelievable.  We are still in shock.  I even prayed against my will that if they would not be able to come home that God would just not allow us to be able to speak with them.  I was so worried laying awake all night and not being able to get through.  Finally the phone rang at 6:00.

I know there is so much more that I can't remember at the moment but that is enough for now.  Trent will call us when he gets out and is taking videos of them!!!  Oh, and get this... Trent says he thinks they look like us!  I just have to laugh out loud.  Chuck and I have thought the same thing, that they somehow look like they belong with us as improbable as that seems.  That was one of our first thoughts when we saw their pictures but we didn't know that anyone else would think that.

This is the best Thanksgiving ever.  And we recorded the whole conversation.  God, please bring them all the way home!  Thank you for this Thanksgiving blessing.

In the aftermath

Fighting ceased yesterday for now.  The rebel group has taken over the city of Goma and is occupying now.  Chuck is in New York today and is trying to get an appointment with the Congolese Ambassador at the United Nations.  Please pray that he will be able to get in to see him and that the meeting will bring about some successful clearances or expeditions with the final court proceedings so that we can get them out of there as soon as possible.  Our Congolese attorney is asking for the same things there in Congo with the Ministry of Justice.  Please pray that God will continue to strengthen the hearts of Nicodemu and Anouarite and that they will not be shaken.  Though we are grieving for them and the region, God has been so near to us, and to them we trust, and is faithful and very much still in control!  Nothing is impossible with our God.

Goma has been taken

Fighting has stopped. 
Goma is now under M23 authority.  M23 seems to have political ambitions, not brutal violence for the sake of violence.

It is far too early to know what this will mean for the adoption, but at least we now know that all 180 or so children in the orphanage are safe from the fighting.
What a tumultuous time for this entire region.