Tender Hearts Baby Home

I wanted to share this video with you all. This is an interview with the gentleman who runs Tender Hearts Baby Home. This is the baby home that our child(ren) will most likely come from. I was incredibly touched by the video. You can tell that Ken and his wife Cathy truly have a heart for these children. What a blessing to know that such a loving couple is caring for the children at Tender Hearts. I pray that God will bless what they are doing in their community.

For more information on how to support Tender Hearts and Ken and Cathy, visit: http://www.nightlight.org/tender-hearts-babys-home-in-uganda/

Dossier Completed!

Some of the paperwork for our dossier.  

We are so glad to be able to say our dossier is complete! It ended up being a little more challenging than we had anticipated. Mostly because of some odd views Uganda has on notarized documents. Long story short, we had to have everything notarized by a notary public with a commission expiration date that was at least two years away. This became especially challenging when we needed to find a notary to bring to our doctors office! We are thankful for various connections and wonderful people in our lives that helped us out!

So, that is behind us and God has proved his faithfulness again and again throughout. We sent the massive pile of documents to our agency to be reviewed. We received an email last week letting us know that everything looks good! Then last Friday our agency emailed us to let us know that we are on the waiting list. We are number 15!!!! There are 30 people in the program, so we are dead center. We still do not have a very specific timeline, it just depends on so many things. Our agency is saying 9 months give or take.  

What's next in the process? Mostly, we wait for a referral. As far as how long that will take is anyone's guess. Their goal is to match children with the best possible family. We are open to one or two children, up to age three. Also, we are open to a number of special/medical needs. We are praying that 2013 will be the year that we bring our little one home!

It is very exciting that the next step in the process is receiving a photo of our son or daughter!! That will be an amazing day. Most of my friends think we will be adopting a daughter. If you ask Aaron, he is convinced that he will have a little brother AND a little sister. I told him that he can pray to God about it. His response was, "I will ask God and he gonna say yes". Oh boy! He actually does pray about it, and if God says yes we are going to have our hands full!

The fee to accept a referral and be matched with our child is $4500. Thanks to our amazing family and friends we have enough to accept a referral! What a relief. After we accept a referral, our agency will get us a court date. Once we have a court date, we will travel to Uganda to meet our little one!

Here is where we're at with the finances:

Donations: $11,127

Fundraisers (coffee, hats, garage sale): $1,378

Total raised: $12,505

Out of pocket: $5819

Adoption cost is estimated at $27,000+

Praise God!!

Check out this mysterious donation: 

The note says, "Don't give up on your adoption, be encouraged!"

We checked our mail today and this was in our box! It's rubber banded to junk mail. Our neighborhood has locked mail boxes. No one would have access to our box. It has to be from our mail carrier. We have no idea how they knew we are adopting. So crazy!

Also, the adoption tax credit passed! This is great news. We are still trying to figure out what exactly it means for our adoption. We know it will help, we just aren't sure to what extent. We have some grants/programs to apply for now that our dossier is finished. I can't believe how close we are to having all of the funding we need! 

Thank you, thank you to our family and friends. This adoption WOULD NOT 

be possible without your generosity. We simply do not have the words to express our gratitude.

Things to pray for:

• God's glory be shown through our lives and this process to everyone involved
• That our hearts would be prepared to meet the needs of a grieving child or children
• The the hearts of the kiddo(s) would be protected and be prepared for a new family
• The courts favor toward us and being granted guardianship of our child or children.
• All of the details that will go into traveling to Uganda. The timing, help with Aaron, someone to take care of our house/animals and time away from work for John.
• The rest of the finances, mostly in-country expenses and attorney fees.

Why Uganda?

I've been meaning to write a post about how we chose Uganda. I know a lot of people wonder not only why Uganda but also why International.

It's funny because I hardly even know what to say. If you had told me 8 months ago that I would be in the process of adopting from Africa, I would have explained that you were mistaken. I barely even understand how all of this happened. I'm still surprised that we are really doing this. We're really going to adopt a child from Uganda.

I know what some people are wondering. Aren't there kids without parents right here in America? Why not just adopt a child from this country. Well, yes there are kids that need homes here. I'm not sure there is a right or wrong when it comes to providing homes for children. There is so much need both here and around the world that you really can't go wrong. I have friends that have adopted kids here in the states and that is a beautiful, wonderful thing.

To be honest, the only answer I can give is that this is the path God has put us on. Originally, I thought we would become foster parents and adopt that way. John wasn't as interested in that path and we were both concerned about having to give up placement after placement. We've already experienced a lot of loss (that's another story for another day) and we didn't think we would be up for foster care at this point. I actually feel that there is a really good chance that we will become foster parents at some point down the road. For now we want to adopt, so fostering children is not the best fit for us.

When we spoke with our agency, we did say that if there was an American child that they were having trouble placing to let us know. We would definitely consider such a child. I think we feel called to be more mission minded about adoption. There really isn't much of a need for people to adopt healthy white infants! There is certainly nothing wrong with doing so, in fact it is wonderful; it just isn't where we feel God is leading us.

The need for adoption in Uganda is huge. Adoption isn't the only answer for all of the Ugandan orphans, but it is part of the answer. The AIDS epidemic in Africa along with war has left millions of children without parents. Children die of diseases that are preventable and/or easily treated in America. We feel that not only can we provide a family for one of these children, but we also have the resources to care for a child with special needs and medical conditions.

We didn't set out to adopt a child from another country, but we weren't opposed to it either. And this is where God has led us. It was a lot of little things which added up to become something big. As followers of Christ we should have a heart for all people and all nations.

Isaiah 43 makes me think of international adoption. In the context of the chapter, the Lord is calling collecting the scattered children of Israel back to himself.  However, this verse is applicable to all people because Jesus extended this promise to all people of the earth through his death on the cross and resurrection.  In this way we can all be adopted into God's family.

Do not be afraid, for I am with you;
    I will bring your children from the east
    and gather you from the west.  

 I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’
    and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’
Bring my sons from afar
    and my daughters from the ends of the earth —

everyone who is called by my name,
    whom I created for my glory,
    whom I formed and made. 

Isaiah 43:5-7

Do you like coffee?

John and I sure do! We are excited to announce our very first adoption fundraiser. As I mentioned before, adopting is a step out in faith for us. We do not have all of the fees for adoption. We are always looking at ways to save and raise money to help us reach out goal!  We certainly can't do it alone. If you would like to help, here is one way you can!

Simply use the link below for our coffee shop with Just Love Coffee. Then click shop and support. A portion of anything purchased will be donated to our adoption fund. It's quite simple! 

https://justlovecoffee.com/about/beneficiary/great_big_love/

Progress update

We are still at the beginning of our adoption journey. Currently, we are working to complete our home study. This involves gathering a lot of documents (birth certificates, tax returns, proof of insurance), getting physical exams, completing classes and meeting with a social worker. The home study is to prepare us for adoption and it's challenges, and to ensure that we are prepared to adopt a child.

Most of our documents are turned in. Our fingerprints have been taken (the first ones we'll need anyway) and our child abuse clearance. All three of us have had our physical exams. John and I attended our CORE adoption class and now we only need a few more hours of education. We have a social worker and have been meeting with her the last two weeks. Our last home study meeting should be this week! 

In case it wasn't clear from my last post, we have chosen a country! After much prayer and consideration we have decided on Uganda! We are very excited and would appreciate lots of prayer!

:)