And So We Wait

Well, we found the municipio open when we went in early yesterday morning and found the man in registro civil who could do the birth certificate, but he wouldn’t. He says we have everything we need except a physical copy of my carnet card.

Not the photocopy nor the police report nor the evidence of the process for the new card was acceptable. I must have the physical copy of the carnet or of my passport.

I don’t currently have my passport either because it was sent to the States long ago in an attempt to get Walter’s social security number (unsuccessful). However, Simon and Christine from Huaral were in Virginia recently and were able to pick up the passports for us. They were sent from Lima to arrive today, so we wanted to try that.

But when I went to pick up the package today, the shipping center was closed. I’m hoping they will be open tomorrow. If so, we will pick up the box and then take the passport and try to get the birth certificate for Willow–again. Fourth or fifth time’s the charm, right?

If the passport is not accepted, we must wait until my carnet process is finished. I talked with the attorney a few times last week and this week, and he is making progress, but he keeps hitting roadblocks.

The latest roadblock is that I may not even be able to get the carnet in Cusco, but I may have to fly to Lima. So, the next flight I take may not be to the States after all!

If we must wait on my carnet, it is basically guaranteed that we will not be able to fly to the States the end of July. We would still want to take a furlough trip when we could, but we’ll just have to see when that would be.

Because we were turned away from the municipio, Steph and I decided to visit Rafael and Elisabet so they could meet Willow. The people here struggle to say “Willow,” so we use her middle name Arlene for them. They would pronounce it something like ahd-LEN-eh.

Thank you, dear friends, for sharing your prayers and favorite verses of comfort and other encouragement. I’m doing my best to exercise my patience and trust muscles. They can be pretty weak at times. Steph is a great example in that way.

A praise to God is that we prayed yesterday and this morning that God would help us to sell some animals in preparation for traveling, and out of the fog, Jubinal showed up and bought three of my bulls. That felt like a reminder from God, telling us that He’s still watching over us.

We plan to sell a number of goats, mostly bucks, at market tomorrow. We’re hoping to get a good price to help cover the farm costs.

I have fallen behind on updating you all on our kids, but we are very pleased to have had a majority of doelings. Currently, we have nearly fifty goats with all the little kids. I’ll try to get some photos and updates in the near future.