We have BIG news!
We are pursuing international adoption from South Africa!
We are hopeful and working hard to prepare to welcome a new member into our family. As part of our adoption process, we have started a crowdfunding campaign. It may surprise you to hear that adoption-related costs can easily total up to $40,000 or more. This is why we have set a goal of $30,000 to help ease the financial burden that often overwhelms adoptive parents. Although this is a huge goal, we appreciate gifts of any size - $30 will cover the cost of ordering a document, and $100 will pay for one of our trainings. This is also a lengthy process - we could be waiting for a year or more before we travel to meet our new child (or children!), so if you can't give right now, check back later!
We also covet prayers during this time. Please see updates below, or reach out to us directly to join our prayer team.
We hope that by inviting you into this process, you will see yourself as part of the community we hope to build around our child as he/she grows up. Thank you!
Merry Christmas from the SA Hixsons! In our series of firsts here in country, we just celebrated our first Christmas eve and day as a family, and for Bethany, her first hot Christmas (90 degrees and a pool party on Christmas eve!). We managed a good Christmas breakfast of homemade cinnamon rolls, bacon and delicious coffee. We had a meager but meaningful offering of presents, as anything we give/receive to one another has to either be used up, given away, or packed within the near future. We also enjoyed cooler weather and rain all day Christmas, which made us feel just a tiny bit more like we were at home. We’ve been blessed to get connected with a great church and were able to worship on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with them.
Our lawyer and social worker both pushed really hard to get our last documents done before Christmas, to no avail. Government offices are now closed until December 27. There’s a slim possibility we get the passport and visa both on the 27th, but realistically the earliest we will be able to begin traveling home would be December 28. It’s likely it will be later, but we hope and pray we’ll be home within a week!
We were able to get some professional photos taken here at the Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens, and we’re happy to share an official family photo. Thank you all so much for your continued prayers! We definitely feel them as discouragement and malaise are never far away.
*******UPDATE*******
So at breakfast this morning (Wednesday 12/27) our lawyer called and let us know Treasure’s passport was ready. We dropped what we were doing, drove the 40 minutes to pic it, dropped it at the embassy and came back out to our place and started the mad scramble to get tickets and insurance and laundry and goodbyes and pack. About 1pm we were told the embassy was finished with her Visa, so we came back in, picked it, and came back out to our place.
We leave Thursday the 28th and get home via Paris and Salt Lake Friday evening!!! (Steve, we won’t make the HCC Christmas party, sorry). I am sure we will be home before some of you even read this, and that makes me happy!!!!!!!!
Prayers would be most helpful. Looking forward to seeing you all so very soon.
-Brad, Andi, Bethany & Treasure
Hello all and I can’t believe it’s been two weeks since our last update! At the same time, I can’t believe it’s only been two weeks.
We’ve had a lot of challenges the last few weeks, including a visit to the ER with Treasure (she’s OK), and bringing a lawsuit against the Department of Home Affairs of South Africa for failure to give us Treasure’s updated birth certificate (UBC) within the required 30 business day period. We’ve also been blessed with the opportunity to visit the Pilanesberg National Park again and witnessing Treasure learn and grow in so many ways, including starting to gain an understanding of who Jesus is, outgrowing a lot of her clothes already, and baking Christmas cookies together.
We received the UBC this week, and it only took a court case and 40 business days to amend her surname and add Andi and I as parents. We have now applied for her South African passport which may take up to 10 business days, and then we have a US Visa application appointment which only happens Wednesdays and Thursdays. We could be home as early as 12/26 or as late as 1/10, and we probably won’t know exactly when until 24-48 hours before we leave the country. Pray for our sanity, for our emotions as we spend Christmas and possibly New Years away from family, friends and our churches, and as we move locations again next week due to the inability to extend our current accommodation. Pray God works wonders and gets us home quickly! Side note, a number of other in-country adoptive families who have been a wonderful blessing to us were able to head home this week. We are so happy they are gone but we miss them greatly as our world here has shrunk just a little bit more. We hope to see them again stateside some day, but they are from far-flung locations such as New Jersey and Ohio, so who knows when the Lord will bring us together again.
Brad on a Soap Box: The blessings of a Christian work ethic.
-The Story: After we received the UBC we then walked across the government campus to apply for her passport. The chaos that ensued is honestly hard to accurately communicate. Imagine the DMV hired a bunch of non-Christian highschoolers for the summer to run the office. Once we finally got called up after being skipped multiple times, the woman who helped us was legitimately mad at us because she had to read (scan) a 5-page court order and a 3-page adoption court order. She took forever to help us and approve us to apply. As we walked out of the office finally completing the 3.5 hour application process (with all four of us), our caseworker pulled me aside and only then informed me we needed to pay the head of the office an extra “fee.” When I asked why, it’s because they don’t help “walk-ins” (which is a standard lie), so in order to even be allowed in the office that day, she promised a bribe. Luckily we had brought extra cash and were able to pay the bribe; otherwise our app would have been pulled, or worse denied.
-The Application: A few summers ago, Kenton (our pastor at Christ Church Spokane) gave an excellent 10-part sermon series on work and the Christian work ethic. I’ve listened to it multiple times, and it’s now time to listen to it again. We’ve had to deal with ignorance, laziness, corruption, and greed, all under the guise of governmental service of the people. Be grateful for a society that has a Christian base, because when everyone you have to work with is either wanting a bribe to do their job, incompetent and cannot actually do their job, or just doesn’t care and is there for a paycheck and will not actually help, you get worn down. You want to give up. You cry a lot. You snap at family members for small infractions. You begin to let the world around you seep into you, and you are tempted to become lazy, apathetic, ungrateful, and unloving. Remember to trust in the Lord, love those around you, work hard and love the people you will never meet who depend on your work so that they can do their work. Laziness has ramifications, as does hard work both now and for generations to come. Being here, we can see the ramifications of where rejecting God and letting appetite lead, as a society, will take our nation in another generation. We as Christians need to work even harder to preserve our heritage and be thankful for the amazing societal blessings that God has given us in the USA.
That is all for now. Thanks for all your support and especially prayers. We need every one of them!!!!!
-Brad for the Hixsons (edited lovingly by Andi)
Well, it’s been a month since we did an update. We’ve posted sporadically on social media, but nothing big or official with words or anything. There are a number of reasons. First, we don’t have any adoption-related news. We’re in a holding pattern waiting for 6-ish weeks for the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) to process paperwork. Second, we had a kerfuffle with our AirBNB which took up most of our computer time for several weeks. Third, we went on a big, aggressive road trip. Additionally, we’ve all been taking turns with some form of sick on and off for 3 weeks.
- First – Adoption News
The order of operations on our adoption case is 1) waiting on an amended birth certificate from DHA; 2) applying for Treasure’s South African passport, and 3) applying for a US VISA. Once those steps are done, we can come home. We applied for the birth certificate on October 16. DHA has roughly 6 weeks to process our application from that date. The trouble is, they have been chronically missing their deadline, requiring families to sue. There are four families currently in country with us who are 2-4 weeks ahead of us in their processes, and they are still waiting for their birth certificates, even though they’ve already been to court and had a judge tell DHA to get it done. So if our case follows suit, we are not on track to be home by Christmas. Please pray that God intervenes and gets all these kids’ paperwork processed! All families in the country right now account for 8 adopted kids waiting to go home. Parents need to get back to work, bio siblings need to get back to school, and money is running very tight for some families. Thank you for your prayers!
- Second - The Kerfuffle
-We booked a long-term AirBNB for this trip, and chose a house that had a number of amenities we anticipated needing, including space for children to play and study as well as safety and security for said children and all of our important documents. Our house did not have a number of things the listing said right off the bat, but it still had a pool. After a few weeks and increasingly weird skin issues, Brad bought test strips and found our pool was a chemical nightmare. Additionally, cleaning staff and the host entered the property frequently, including moving our belongings while we were away at a national park. Our plan had been to leave most of our stuff in Joburg at that rental while we did the epic-road-trip-of-epic-proportions. Instead, we chose to pack all our stuff, leave half of it with another adopting family while we left for three weeks, while arguing our case to AirBNB to get out of the contract, and find a place to stay in Joburg after said road trip. We had to do a lot of that planning while we were on the road trip. So we packed up everything we had, had to buy more suitcases (as Treasure is now a part o the family and has stuff as well as all the things we purchased once in country), leave our AirBNB while the host heckled us as we moved out saying we’re bad people and she wouldn’t let us out of the contract, stay in a hotel the night before we flew to Cape Town, get 7 pieces of luggage to a friends place an hour outside of town (without access to a car) an then fly out of town without a place to come back to. God cared for us through all of it, and after a lengthy process, AirBNB did let us out of the contract and refunded quite a pretty penny they had charged us for nights we did not stay there. We were also able to find an affordable place to stay in a safe neighborhood when we returned to Joburg. Praise God for taking care of us!
- Third – The Epic-Road-Trip-Of-Epic-Proportions
Our Itinerary (in case you want to Google Maps where we’ve been): We Flew to Cape Town on November 4 and rented a Kia Carnival (An amazing car!!). Stayed in Camps Bay (Cape Town suburb) for 5 nights. Went Southeast to Hermanus for 3 nights. Drove to the Southernmost tip of Africa, and then popped north to Robertson for 2 nights. Headed straight East through the Klein Karoo to Oudtshoorn for 3 nights. Drove South South-East to Wilderness for 3 nights, and then finally to Port Elizabeth/Gqeberha for a night to repack and prep to fly back to Joburg.
The Map - https://maps.app.goo.gl/jvZNJibqGf85c3ho9
Cool things we did: Saw so much amazing wildlife (African penguins, fireflies, ostriches, monkeys, baboons, southern right whales, dolphins, lots and lots of birds and lizards, farm animals, and tortoises); rode the cable car up to the top of Table Mountain; visited Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for more than 20 years; played at beaches in the Atlantic, Southern, and Indian Oceans; went whale watching on a boat; drove through some of the most lovely countryside we’ve ever seen; toured the breathtaking Cango Caves; tasted local wines and foods; rode horses; visited the Cape of Good Hope; made it to the Southern most point in Africa; and toured a dairy farm.
Overall the trip was a huge blessing, and Treasure did really amazing staying in multiple places and living out of a suitcase. She struggled with carsickness a bit, but it wasn’t too bad. By the end we were all ready to take a rest and get back to a more laid-back schedule, including having home-cooked meals again. We also had struggles on the trip, including some food poisoning, taking turns being sick/having allergies, gout, and nosebleeds.
We are now back in Johannesburg, and this time we have a rental car, so getting around will be easier than the first month we were here. Brad is now a pretty skilled driver, although traffic can be extremely stressful (cars are right-hand drive here, and we drive on the left side of the road. Also pedestrians are everywhere and extremely unpredictabl). We’ve uncovered our school books and puzzles and are getting back into a quiet routine.
We’ve also been blessed to start plugging into a missions community just outside of town; we were invited to a large American Thanksgiving potluck, put on by Ex-Pats that run a children’s home here, and we enjoyed an evening with 100+ people of multiple races and backgrounds who all love the Lord. We’ll be visiting their church on Sunday – the lead pastor is from the States and has been a missionary here for 27 years – and are hopeful for it to become our temporary church home. We’ve had fun visiting different churches on our travels, and it’s been a blessing to be reminded of all the different ways people love Jesus, but we haven’t quite felt at home anywhere yet. Oh, and Andi made an apple pie and potato rolls to take to the potluck, without any measuring cups or a pie plate. It all turned out!
Additional prayer requests include patience and joy for Brad and Andi as we are very homesick, and taking charge of keeping the girls occupied every day without a regular schedule is challenging. We also pray for health, as various stomach and sinus bugs have been plaguing us off and on. We also pray for a joyful attitude as we put up with various challenges associated with how this country is run, including frequent power and water outages, awful fiscal decisions (near weekly reports of managerial governmental theft), and a lazy bureaucracy that won’t process a simple form. Lastly, wisdom in parenting as we try to thread the needle of lots of love and support while instituting discipline standards with our new daughter, and supporting Bethany’s needs as well.
Much love to all, and please keep sending the encouraging texts and social media messages! We don’t always respond, but they are always encouraging! Also just a note to say that Brad cannot receive messages via his US phone number currently, as we got him a South African SIM card. However, he is on Whatsapp, so he can receive messages through that app under his US number.
We're getting our business done and day by day feeling more at home and comfortable getting around. Last week we successfully completed the medical appointment (Treasure was a champ about getting her blood drawn) and our adoption noting/application for an amended birth certificate. So several big hurdles completed, and fairly quickly. Now we have hit the time where we wait for 6 (or more) weeks for the amended birth certificate to be processed. We have heard that the IT department for the agency processing applications is on strike, so that could delay things.
We are also currently working on extending our visitors' visas so that if there are delays, we original three Hixsons can stay in the country legally. We spent our whole day today on an adventure to Pretoria for our visa extension meetings. We got to ride the Gautrain subway, and it was very clean and smooth!
We're also simultaneously trying to plan fun things to do like visiting other cities and going to the game park. So the girls are having a lot of fun, and Brad and Andi are having lots of stressful conversations and experiencing decision fatigue. But overall we are in good spirits, things are moving along, and the family continues to gel and bond together. Also, the purple Jacaranda trees are blooming all over the city, and it is just gorgeous everywhere we go.
Today is our 3rd Sunday in country and it has been an adventure. We traveled Friday to a cultural village (think Jamestown, Charlestown, Fort Vancouver) except the emphasis was on the local tribes of the Sotho, Pendi, Zulu, Xhosa, & Ndebele and stayed overnight. It was great. We stayed in a mostly traditional hut, but it was a bit more like glamping in a yurt as we had electricity and a bathroom. We ate breaded crocodile and sundried caterpillars and a ton of other great food. We had planned on going later in our stay, and might go again, but this trip was totally last minute. We had no water for over 24 hours due to "load shedding" while the municipality fixed the watermain here in Joburg. After drinking most of our water bottles dry and flushing the toilet with a bucket of pool water, Andi and I had a meeting of the minds and decided to skedaddle until such a time as our Joburg place had water. We have lost power a number of times, but the house battery allows us to continue on with lights and things, but we did lose power last week long enough to go fully dark. I found some candles and we read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for a bit before having an early bedtime.
This morning we were able to worship with a local church body about 4-5 blocks away from our house (and since we have water restored we were all clean!). It was great. We've been streaming Holy Covenant's service from the week before and it's been great to see our church family, if a week late and a literal world away.
The adoption day was October 5th and it was great. Like most things that deal with the SA gov, we arrived at the courts and sat around for a few hours before they called us back to chambers, asked all four of us a few questions and sent us on our way after letting both girls give the official stamp of approval with the judges stamp. It was fantastic. We are now solidly mired in paperwork bureaucracy for the time being. Treasure is officially our daughter, and we cannot leave the country with her. We have filed for an official name change and are waiting for a medical appt., but both are taking far longer than really should. We're getting a little frustrated as we cannot leave the city for longer than a day as either process may suddenly move forward and recall us immediately to Joburg. While there are many things to do, most are not free so we are trying to be thrifty.
Please pray for movement on either the name change or the medical appts, for interpersonal joy, for forgiveness, for thankful hearts and lips, for safety, and that we would worship the Lord and move forward his kingdom where we are.
