When I returned to Parakou after the retreat, I expected to be able to pick up our baby and begin our life with her. That's what I expected but the Lord and the foster parent wanted us to wait a couple more days. The Lord had told me to not say anything when we met the evening before we got our baby. This was most difficult for us because I so wanted to connect with Ruutu immediately.
We arranged to meet at the director's home on March 12 for the hand over. The director's wife weighed Ruutu and we took pictures, reimbursed the foster mom for all the expenses she had had, and she was ours!
We took her to the clinic in town to have her ears pierced, changed her name to Alicia Ruth and began our journey together. Friends found a crib for us, someone else gave us cloth diapers, etc. You might wonder why the first thing we would do is get her ears pierced. In Benin and West Africa, baby girls have their ears pierced within a day or two of birth. We lived on an African compound with about 6 or 7 high school students, and a pastor and his wife. It would make life easier for all of us if her ears were already pierced.
The journey north to our home proved to be quite full of interesting little events--significant ones to say the least!
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