Godfrey turned off his phone as he walked into the Ministry of Education so we've been sitting here for the past nearly five hours waiting. His smile as he walked out said it all: the decision to not register our three schools had been reversed. The students who have been waiting to find out if they would be allowed or not to take the national exams will be beside themselves with joy, as will be their parents, and everyone else who has played a part in helping build these schools and to give these kids a chance at an education. It seemed like almost a cruel joke last week, that after having been for years known as "the unchosen ones" -- the students who were not among the lucky few from their villages who were sent away to government boarding schools -- only to have the door so unexpectedly opened for them to go to school, to work hard, study harder, and now after all of that work, after three very difficult years of much sacrifice, to be told last Thursday that their schools wouldn't be accredited this year and they wouldn't be allowed to take the national exams. It somehow seemed so unjust, so simply wrong, so cruel even, that in my heart I wanted to be angry.

What happened over the weekend is difficult to explain really. There really wasn't much we could do. Yes an important phone call had taken place on Thursday night, yes we had spent hours discussing how best to make our appeal, but in the end what stands out was the hundreds of emails that came in to say that people were praying that somehow the decision would be changed.

We are thrilled of course. The work is not over and we still have to wait for the actual physical piece of paper -- it's never over until it's over as they say -- and then we'll have tons of forms to fill them out (it's a lot of paperwork for so many students!), we'll have hours of standing in line at the bank to pay the exam fees for the kids, but our burden is lifted, we'll do it all with a bounce in our step, and I suspect that when it is all finished, we'll take a very deep breath and sit down and have a very, very long meal together.

Susan says all the time -- if it were easy it would have already been done. She's right of course. But really there's something sweet about staring defeat in the face, having no real hope and no way out, and then to see something totally unexpected unfold in a such a wonderful way. And the July 31st deadline is only 3 days away.

We sure have a lot to thank God for!