Jolie's Story

Hello friends.  By now, I hope you have heard that we were granted legal guardianship of a precious little Ugandan girl named Akansasira Joan - now called Jolie Danielle Akansasira Knight.  Since I have a few moments of peace (thank you, naptime!), I thought I'd let you all know about her miraculous story and how she came to be ours.

Jolie was born in the REMOTE village of Rutaka, about 15 miles outside of the town of Kisoro...right on the Rwanda/Congo/Uganda border.  Her mother died during childbirth and her father fled to Congo shortly thereafter.  She was then left to the care of her elderly grandfather, a polygamist Muslim with more wives, children, and grandchildren than he could afford to feed.

Here is a picture of Jolie's grandfather (who was drunk), along with Jolie's social worker from the orphanage, Annette (you can see how pleased she is to see him):

Here is a picture of the "town center".  This is where Jolie would've gone to school, had she survived her infancy.

Here are some sweet girls from her village.  How in the world does a Snow White dress make it to the most remote part of Uganda???

Jolie has an 11-year-old sister from the same mother.  I do not know her name (but WILL be finding out before we leave Africa), and I sadly did not have the chance to meet her and get a picture with her.  This past March (which is when we felt the Lord's call into adoption!), Jolie's sweet big sister carried her the distance of nearly 15 miles from the village of Rutaka, down the treacherous mountain road, and dropped her off at Potter's Village Baby Home in Kisoro.  The orphanage workers found Jolie extremely malnourished and sick.  They agreed to take her in.

The Potter's Village appeared to be a nice, well-run establishment.  It had nice (for Uganda) buildings and appeared to be clean.  There were scriptures gracing the walls of the rooms, and a chapel schedule with memory verses.  For all of the "warm fuzzies" that the place gave me when we arrived, they were immediately gone upon meeting our daughter.

Upon arriving at the Potter's Village, Annette (Jolie's social worker) told us that she was 23 months old.  This seemed about right because we had been told a few months ago that Jolie was around one and a half years old.  So we were expecting to see a little girl running around and able to function as an almost-2-year-old should.  

When we first met Jolie, she had been "upgraded" to the toddler room because she had just started "walking"  (if you consider taking 3 steps at a time then falling down "walking").  In the toddler room, the babies are expected to feed themselves and are not given diapers to wear.  A worker handed Jolie to me.  This poor baby's face was covered in porridge (remember - she had to feed herself), her bottom half was covered in urine (no diapers), her tummy was swollen from intestinal worms, and she had a white-ish discharged coming from both ears.  She was terrified of anyone new.  For fear of traumatizing her, I had no intention of taking her out of the worker's hands.  But she was thrust upon me and immediately began screaming.  It took a few minutes to calm her down and I was able to get a few pictures:

My initial reaction to this child was "Dear God, this baby needs us."  My second thought was "There is NO WAY this child is almost 2 years old."  

I once again asked Annette - was she SURE this child turned 2 next month?  Annette assured me, according to the orphanage's records, she turned 2 years old in October.  (I would later discover that her court affidavit stated that she was born in 2011 - though it did not give a specific date.  So the orphanage records were wrong.)

Here is the sobering part - the Potter's Village only keeps babies up until the age of 2.  After their 2nd birthdays, they must be returned to where they came from.  And according to their records, Jolie was 23 months old.  That means that this precious little INFANT would be returning to her grandfather's "care" next month, regardless of his ability to provide for her.  Somebody needs to take a moment and thank God for His perfect timing.  Sweet Jolie - you will not be returning to Rutaka to live in poverty and face inevitable disease and death.  God sent us from Plano, TX to Kisoro, Uganda in September of 2012 because He has a calling on your life.  You are now part of the Knight family.  You will be well-cared for and LOVED like crazy.  You will learn about your Heavenly Father.  You are His.  Thank You, Jesus.  What a Savior You are.

If you've made it this far in the blog post, thank you for sticking with me.  But this story is nowhere near finished.  I'm now going to tell you what a flat out MIRACLE it was that we were granted legal guardianship of this child.  (If you want a good laugh, see my previous blog post on Miracles.  Jesus - You have a crazy sense of humor.)

The weeks and months leading up to our visit to the Potter's Village were spent dealing with a gentleman named Ezra - the senior administrator of the orphanage.  He was a kind man who loved the Lord.  He was extremely helpful and knew that little Jolie needed a good home.  Things seemed to be going smoothly...until the day before we got there.  The Potter's Village is owned by a British woman named Jenny.  Jenny had been on "holiday" for the previous 5-6 weeks and had not been informed about our desire to adopt Jolie.  When she arrived home and learned of our plan, she immediately shut it down and said "no way".  Having been a Ugandan resident for many years, and an adoptive mother herself, she would not hear of an American couple waltzing into her orphanage and taking a baby.  Her orphanage had never dealt with an international adoption before.  We were the first.  And IT'S NOT LEGAL for non-Ugandan citizens to adopt Ugandan babies.  She did not know that we were seeking guardianship, which is perfectly legal.

When we arrived at the orphanage, we were instructed by our attorney to stay in the car and let him try to reason with her.  We could hear them speaking...though we couldn't make out words, we could make out voices...and she was doing most of the talking.  It was not sounding promising.

We were motioned to come into her office, where we were seated in a circle of about 7 other orphanage administrators.  We were then put on the witness stand.  Jenny hammered us with question after question about why we wanted to adopt.  What were our intentions?  Why Uganda?  Why would you EVER want to take children out of their country and raise them as Americans?  Don't you know how HARD it is to deal with adopted children?  How will these children ever know about their heritage as Africans?  The judge you will see for her case is DIFFICULT...he hardly ever grants guardianships.  WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS???

We answered every question she gave us as honestly and gracefully as we possibly could.  The bottom line was this:  We would not be here unless we were 100% SURE that the Lord had sent us.  This is HIS plan, not ours.  We are simply obeying.

And that's when it happened.  The most bizarre change of personality I have ever seen.  Out of nowhere, Jenny says "Well, then.  You better go get her and take her with you.  She needs to get used to you before your court date tomorrow."

HUH?

WHAT?

Ummmmmm...okay.  Quick.  Sign the papers.  Get the baby.  Get in the car and SCRAM before this crazy lady has a chance to change her mind.

And she did change her mind.  The next day.  After we had already been given a care order from the orphanage.  So it was too late for Jenny.  We had every right to keep Jolie with us until the judge's ruling.  We literally had 5 minutes of grace from this woman...right when we needed it.

Speaking of the judge...(This story just keeps going.  Is anybody still reading this???)... 

We had been warned that the judge was tough in Kabale (where the district High Court is).  But we had never been inside a Ugandan court room, so we didn't know what that meant.

Here's what it meant:

This judge never even looked up at me or Bradley during the entire hour we were in his office.  He was rude to our lawyer, and didn't really look over any paperwork that was handed to him.  We had 3 additional witnesses with us to testify that Jolie's best interests would be served in our care - Ezra (from Potter's Village), the district probation officer, Columbus Stanley (can you handle that name?!), and Jolie's elderly grandfather.  Out of all of these witnesses, the only one the judge wanted to speak to was the grandfather.  This man had been debriefed by our lawyer (George) as to EXACTLY what to say when called upon.  Unfortunately, things didn't go down as planned.  He told the judge that he didn't really know who we were.  He "guessed" we were taking his grandchild to America, but he would probably never see her again.  He really didn't know what was going on.  He was extremely noncommittal...not exactly what you're looking for when your judge is "difficult".  (Side note - a few weeks prior, this grandfather had practically BEGGED Emma and George to take his other grandchildren.  Can they all go to America?!  Hmmmmmm.)

George kept bringing up the fact that the grandfather is a polygamist and couldn't afford to feed his family.  The judge would hear none of it...he knew of many children raised in polygamist families and they turned out alright.  This argument was invalid to him.  

Almost every argument was invalid to him.  

He then began flipping through his date book, deciding on a time to hand out our ruling.  He kept flipping and flipping and flipping...WAY too many pages.  For the love of God!  Are you going to keep us here until Christmas?!  

September 25th.  Come back then and I'll give you a ruling.

Bradley and I have never felt such defeat in our lives.  We left that court room not knowing what to do.  We collapsed in our hotel room and sobbed while sweet Jolie just sat there and looked at us.  We were ABSOLUTELY SURE that this judge would NEVER give us this child.  What do we do with her?  Do we send her back to Potter's Village?  What's the point in even keeping her with us when she'll just be taken away in a few weeks?  

GOD - WHY ARE WE HERE???!!!

But she was so sick.  She needed so much care.  Care that she couldn't possibly receive at the orphanage.  

NO.  

As long as I am capable of caring for this child, I will do so.  Even if she is taken from me in a few weeks.  At least I can get her well NOW.  Precious girl, let's go to Kampala and get you some medicine.

Bradley and I cried the entire 10-hour drive back to Kampala.  It was during that drive that the Lord ministered to both of us and told us to wait this thing out.  See what He does.  "They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength..."    

And so we waited for 3 weeks.  Falling more and more in love with this angel every day.  Jolie quickly warmed up to both me and Bradley.  And we quickly discovered that she is Miss Personality.  She is very vocal (a true trait of a Knight girl, if ever there was one), very funny, very friendly, and oh so sweet.  And she loves to smile.

Daily I BEGGED the Lord to give us this child.  I BEGGED Him to give me a sign, a scripture, a word from Him to cling to.  Something that assured me that He would give her to us.

But nothing came.

The only thing I ever heard from God was "Trust Me.  Trust Me.  Trust Me."

TRUST YOU???  What does that mean?!  Does that mean that You'll give her to us?  Can I trust You to give her to us?  Or does that mean that I'm going to go through more pain and heartache and I'll have to trust You then???  I need an answer!!!  Will she be ours???!!!

Holly, you are Mine.  Trust Me.  Trust Me.  Trust Me.

Okay, Lord.  I'll trust You.  I'll trust You.  I'll trust You.

This became my mantra...my song...my strength...my life...I'll Trust You.

When I had to send Jolie back to Kabale for her ruling to be handed out, I had absolutely no assurance that I would ever see this precious baby again.  If we were not granted custody, she would return to the orphanage.  It was the lowest I've ever been, yet the safest I've ever been.

God - I've seen where she came from.  I know what her life will be like.  I know that she won't survive.  I know that there are millions of orphans like her around the world and it breaks my heart, but I KNOW this one.  Give this one to me.  Save her life, Jesus.  Save her.

And on September 25, 2012, Jesus saved her life.  We were MIRACULOUSLY granted guardianship of this precious angel.  No one was more shocked than me.  No one had doubted more than me.  

Jesus - YOU ARE GOOD.  You are trustworthy.  You keep Your promises.  You love Your children.  

You love this precious child more than I ever possibly could.  

Jolie's Ugandan name is Akansasira, meaning "The Lord has had mercy on me."

Thank You, Jesus.  Thank You, Jesus.  Thank You, Jesus.