I just never felt our family was complete with our three girls, so as Matt and I
In October 2010 we were so blessed to be able to serve with Show Hope (Steven Curtis Chapmans organization) in helping people who attended SCC's concert to sponsor special needs orphans in China. Wow, we were truly blown away that night and both admitted to it being one of the best serving experiences we had ever had! During our Guatemalan adoption Show Hope's grant to us was almost the final amount we needed to pay for our adoption expenses, allowing me to then be able to go to Guat to foster the girls!!! So, needless to say we were beyond blessed and thankful to them! We definitely left that night changed and convinced we were not done adopting!
I remember praying literally "anything Lord, anywhere, whatever you have, just show us" and He was faithful to do so! We read Proverbs 24:12, which lead us to Psalm 82:3-4... and as followers of Christ we knew could not be ok with not doing anything.
Our 1st adoption was in so many ways about us wanting to be parents, this adoption is much more about meeting a need! I started making a list of countries open for adoption and slowly started crossing some off - we're too young (cross off Madagascar, China, Taiwan), process too long or travel requirements not do-able for our family (cross off Columbia, Haiti, Malawi)
and on and on. The list was shorter but I still had no idea where in the world we were being called.
In early December I attended the memorial service for a dear, dear family friend. After the service I found myself in conversation with a friend about her Ethiopian adoption and she encouraged me to look further into the Ethiopian program.
So I decided to use an online adoption search site to contact any and all agencies that work in Ethiopia and then waited.....
December 14 I answered the phone to hear "I'm sure since you used (previously mentioned) site to find me, you've been bombarded with phone calls and emails BUT....." and the best part; this agency was the ONLY one that I had heard from. As as the days passed any and all other agencies came with roadblocks: we weren't eligible to adopt w. this agency, they didn't have any adoption programs that met our desires, or we just plain never heard back from them and on and on. As I spoke w. this 1st agency I expressed our desires for this adoption, and what we could and couldn't do adoption wise, to which the program coordinator suggested U*GANDA! I had already crossed U*ganda off my list having seen the requirement of living in country for 3 years, but what I hadn't learned is that that is only ONE of the ways that a family can adopt from U*ganda!
There are children waiting. just waiting. for a family in U*ganda..... no referral waiting list, no long lines of people requesting such and such, just children who need moms and dads, WAITING.
U*ganda's national language is English, hello not needing to learn another language to get around! U*ganda's median age is FIFTEEN (yes, you read that right, the lowest in the world), FIFTEEN! U*ganda has 2.5 million orphans. U*ganda's dossier is simple (huge sign of relief after Guat and PGN)! If you're interested read more about U*ganda.
Our hearts were sold and still are, on U*ganda!
