I (Katie) just had a follow-up appointment with the GI doctor. I’m so relieved to be able to report that it was all good news! All the biopsies from my endoscopy and colonoscopy came back with little smiley faces stamped on them. Well, at least that’s how I interpreted what the doc said! She said that there is basically complete healing from the damage previously done to my colon from my celiac disease and that there is no longer any evidence of the microscopic colitis I had in 2019. She said that whatever I’m doing – I should keep it up! This is even better news than I had hoped for!
To sum up, after all my doctor’s visits this summer, nothing was found to account for me being anemic. But I was told to take iron supplements and retest (in Senegal) in three months. We can pray that that will be enough to resolve the anemia. But otherwise, in spite of several red flags necessitating visits with a variety of different doctors, I have now been given a clean bill of health! Which means we can return to Senegal on Saturday!
As you can imagine, we are so grateful for this good news. Now our thoughts turn to packing and saying goodbye to our girls and other loved ones here in the US and our travel back to Senegal on Aug. 9th. Because of the delay, I am missing this week of teacher training and prep time for the new school year so I will have to hit the ground running. The first day of school is August 14.
We appreciate all of your prayers. This summer has been a whirlwind of medical visits and time with loved ones and travel and visiting our dear partner churches on the east coast. We didn’t feel like we had enough time here in the US but we are counting this as a “half furlough” and we will look forward to doing the other half in two years. Our heartfelt thanks to each of you who supports us financially and through prayer. And we thank God who is the One who has called us to Senegal, the One who has prepared good works ahead of time for us to do there, the One who gives us life and health and our daily bread, and the One who is the Lord of the Harvest for whom we all labor! May He bless the work of our hands during this next 2-year term with much fruit!
Some of you know that I (Katie) have run into some red flags as I’ve gone to different doctor’s appointments I had scheduled tightly into our short time in the US. I wanted to share the good news that I was seen by a cardiologist and there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with my heart after all and it is safe for me to be put under anesthesia for a colonscopy/endoscopy/biopsy. When an initial EKG had shown abnormalities, they cancelled the one that I had previously scheduled. Long story, but because of all this I have had to schedule a bunch more doctor’s appointments which means we will be at least a week delayed to Senegal. The procedure is now rescheduled for July 30 and then I have follow- up appts with the GI doc and my PCP. Pray for good answers and solutions to why I am so anemic and pray for the green light to fly back to Senegal on Aug 9th. School starts on Aug 14 so I’ll have to miss a week of Professional Development and prep time. This is going to be a stressful return as it is cutting it so close to the first day of school. I appreciate all of your prayers so much!
Thank you all for praying for us! God has answered once again so graciously. The Lord has provided a place for us to live during our upcoming home assignment in the US! Over the weekend, we were contacted by a couple who loves Jesus to ask if our family would like to live in their furnished house for the whole year. Of course, we did not hesitate to accept their kind offer – this is such a huge answer to prayer! And we will be within walking distance of our home church, the Barn! We are overwhelmed with gratitude and relief! Our Father, and His people, are so generous!
We are getting more and more excited to be “home” in Connecticut. Our three girls haven’t been in America since the summer of 2016 and our boys have only had brief winter visits, so this is a huge deal for all of us. We are looking forward to so many things – especially to seeing our friends and family we haven’t seen in so long! This five-year term has at times felt a bit like slogging through a swamp – a mud marathon – but we can now see the finish line approaching! Thanks for praying us through!
We have seen a great deal of change in our boys, Will and Jake, since we brought them home a year and a half ago. They came to us speaking only French and now they speak mostly English (with an impressive vocabulary!), along with some Wolof and French. They have both moved about 20% higher on the height and weight charts for their age. For example, when Will came to us he measured in the 3rd percentile for his age; now he is in the 30th percentile for height! At first, Jake would only eat a few familiar foods: rice, bread, eggs, bananas. Almost everything else he put in his mouth, he would chew and then take back out. He no longer does this! Both boys now enjoy a wide variety of foods. One of their favorites is peanut butter and jelly sandwiches — obviously they are ready to officially become American citizens!
Many of you have been praying for us since we started this adoption process in 2013. We never imagined it would take us this long to get this point! We had hoped our trip to the US in March 2019 would have resulted in the boys receiving their citizenship, but due to a State Department rule change and poor communication between US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) and the US Embassy in Dakar, we are having to do this further step. But we are thankful to finally be nearing the end of this process! USCIS granted both boys an appointment for their citizenship interviews on January 27 in Hartford, CT. We have purchased plane tickets for the four of us (Corey, Katie, Will & Jake) to spend just over three weeks in Connecticut while our three girls are at boarding school. We will be in the US from January 23 to February 18.
We are overwhelmed with gratitude for how the Lord has already provided so much of what we need for this trip. Friends have generously covered the cost of our transportation from Kaffrine to Simsbury, including the plane tickets. Isn’t that amazing and wonderful!? Other friends have volunteered to let us stay with them. (We sincerely hope that they don’t regret this later!) And someone else has offered us the use of their vehicle. These sacrificial gifts have been such an encouragement to us during this stressful time and have reassured us that the Lord, and His people, love us and are close by with a helping hand.
We would love to be able to borrow a second car for when our out-of-town family comes to see us and so that Corey and I can use our time more efficiently. And we are looking to borrow three car seats as well (a booster seat for Jake, a 5-point harness car seat for Will, and a 5-point harness car seat for our 2-year old nephew just for a week). If you have a car or a car seat we can borrow, let me know via email or Facebook messenger. We will also need to borrow winter coats, boots, snow pants, and clothes for the boys. As a side note, if you have boys’ summer clothing sizes 5 – 8 in good shape that your sons have outgrown, we will happily take them back to Senegal with us for Will and Jake.
Thank you, friends! Looking forward to seeing some of you soon!
We received a reply from US Citizenship and Immigration
Services (USCIS) today. Unfortunately, they did not issue Will and Jake
citizenship as we had hoped, citing the fact that we do not reside in the US as
the reason for this refusal. They suggested we apply for the boys’ citizenship
by filing an N-600K form for each of the boys, submitting $1,170 along with
each form. Then we will wait for some months to hear back from USCIS with an
interview date in the US a few weeks later, necessitating another costly trip
for the four of us.
This seems like a colossal waste of time and money from our
perspective. We are also concerned about the timing since the boys’ US visas in
their Guinean passports are only valid for one year from the date when we
entered the US with them, which was Feb. 28., and we have heard that the
estimated time it takes for USCIS to process this kind of application averages
9 months. It is particularly frustrating that the US Embassy in Dakar did not
put us on this path in the first place.
But while we were reading USCIS’ letter and researching the
process before us, the boys were giggling and wrestling on the floor with their
sisters… and I was reminded that they have been part of our family for over a
year. They are not orphans living in an institution, begging for someone to
hold them, play with them, give them attention… They have a mom and a dad who
will fly across the world for them (again!) because we love them, and because they
are our sons. This is what parents do. Our heavenly Father has done a lot more
for us! So, we are grateful, and we press on.
Pray with us:
for the peace of the Lord to rule in our hearts
and minds
for His provision of the time and money needed
for this process
for this process to go quickly enough that the
boys’ citizenship papers are issued before their visas expire at the end of
February, or wisdom about applying for another visa if it isn’t going to happen
in time. This is the part we have a lot of questions about…
for stamina to persevere through the red tape,
and joy despite this circumstance
that this process will be completely 100% over
and finished forever soon!
Family photo at our annual SIM Spiritual Life Conference – July 2019 on the coast of Senegal (about a three-hour drive from where we live)
"Please help us by praying for us. Then many people will give thanks for the blessings we receive in answer to all these prayers."
About the Garretts
Corey and Katie Garrett have lived and worked in Senegal since 2000 with SIM, an interdenominational, international evangelical organization. They have three daughters and two sons.
Subscribe
You can subscribe to receive updates to the Prayer Log via email…click here to sign up.
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here:
Cookie Policy
You must be logged in to post a comment.