Adoption Update

Exciting news...we are done with our homestudy and have been approved as adoptive parents!! We are so so excited to be done with everything and now we are just waiting for THE call! Please be praying that we are patient during this time and that we put our hope in the Lord not in circumstances or our timing of things. We are really praying that we will have our baby by Christmas, but please pray that if that is not God's will that we will be okay with it! It is so exciting to think that at any moment an expectant mother could be looking at our profile book and at any time we could get a call saying that we were chosen! I know it could take a while, so I am trying not to get too excited but it feels so good to be so close. Keep praying for our little one wherever he or she is! Thank you for all the support!

Uganda 2- Tender Hearts Baby Home 2

One of our projects while we were working at the babies home was painting. We did a lot of painting outside. We painted the outside walls a fun blue color that helped everything look fresher and inviting for children. We also painted an office area for Kenneth and Kathy and the front porch.

As us ladies were painting the guys that came had a couple of big construction projects. They built a gazebo for the children to be able to play outside during the day and have protection from the hot African sun. They also built playground equipment, from scratch! It was such a blessing that the guys were able to come at the last minute!

Each day we were working at the babies home we had a little audience. The home is surrounded by a gate but that didn't stop these sweet little children watching us all day long. They even laid on the ground to get a better look at the Mzungus (white people). We tried to go out and play with them on our breaks. They were so fun! They loved having their picture taken and we gave them candy and stickers. A bus of 22 white people caused such a scene that people were coming to the gate of the babies home at 6 in the morning saying that they heard people were doing healing miracles and helping the blind to see. I wish we could have done that!

Uganda Part 1- Tender Hearts Babies Home

So a week after coming home and I am finally going to attempt to update you all about our trip to Uganda. The trip was so incredible, it is hard to know where to start! I am going to try to do this in groups so there will probably be more than one post! I will try to throw in as many pictures as possible because pictures really do help.

This is a picture of me, Carla (holding Charlie), and Elle. We were the three in our group (of 22) that were coming from Columbia. I seriously can't tell you enough how thankful I am for these girls and what a blessing it was for them to come on the trip!

This is a picture of our amazing team that the Lord gathered from all over the United States (8 states) and London! One of our prayers before going on the trip is that the Lord would bring together a united team...and he did! There were never any riffs and everyone got along so well, especially for not knowing each other. Everyone was not only willing but wanting to work hard and give everything they had. I am so thankful to have gotten to know everyone and really do miss them all!

This may look like an old building to you, but it is a beautiful site to me. This is a school that was next to the guest house we stayed in. Each morning the children would get to school (around 7 am) and would sing praise and worship. It was such a great way for us to start our mornings!

You all may remember a post earlier that was asking for prayer for a little girl at the babies home...well thanks to all who prayed! She is doing amazing. She is so beautiful and has a wonderful sweet little laugh and contagious smile!

Here is the staff of Nightlight with the starters of the babies home (from left to right: Kenneth, Lisa, Kathy, myself with one of the babies, Chelsea, and Ron). Kenneth and Kathy are incredible and have such a heart for orphans in a country where people think they are crazy! They are such hard workers, even Kathy who is due to have a baby in 2 months worked the whole time we were there!

Here are a couple of pictures of the other two children at the babies home. There are currently only 4 babies there now since they just got started. Kenneth and Kathy are trying to get everything organized and set up before they accept more children, but are planning on putting their sign up in January. They told us that once they put the sign up that they are a babies home they will find abandoned babies at their front gate all the time.

This little boy was really everyone's favorite. He is the oldest baby at the home right now and so much fun. He loves to run and be ticked and thrown in the air. He also has a great laugh and is so sweet!

Kenneth and Kathy have done an incredible job making the babies home into a home and not just an orphanage with the money they had. Unfortunately they didn't have a ton of things for the babies like clothes, blankets, or toys. When we got there the boy babies were wearing girl clothes, just because that is what they had. Thank you so much to everyone who donated clothes or other baby supplies for us to bring to them! It was so fun to go through the suitcases of clothes and get them organized for different genders and sizes.

Tennessee Pics & Uganda Update

I can't believe that the day is finally here for us to leave on our trip to Uganda!! We will be leaving tomorrow and returning November 1st. Please pray for safety for our team while traveling and while in country. Also, please pray that we are all able to mesh well and be purposeful in our work over there!! I am so excited! I am not sure if I will be able to update our blog while we are there, but if I can I will! if not, check back in November for lots of updates!

Also, here are some pictures of us with our nephew who we got to meet last weekend! Little Garret was born October 6th! I am his only Aunt which means that I have a huge responsibility, but got to spoil him lots while we were visiting in Tennessee last weekend, which is a good thing since they will be moving farther away to Texas soon! We will get to see him again at Thanksgiving and get in lots more spoiling and loving!

Domestic Adoption Blog Post

Please read this blog post if you get a chance, it sums up why we chose adoption, specifically Domestic Adoption amazingly! I love posts like this since I am certainly not one with words!

http://joiningthejourney.blogspot.com/2010/10/domestic-adoptionorphan-or-not.html

Homestudy Part 1

Today was our first meeting for our homestudy! For those who do not know, a homestudy is a time for the social worker to get to know us better and to confirm that we will be good parents. It also allows her to get a chance to see our personalities for when it is time to match us with a birthmother. The best thing about the homestudy is that it is the last part of our adoption process before the waiting to be placed with our child!! Today Cory and I met with the social worker together. Next week I meet with her by myself, then when I am in Africa Cory meets with her, and then when I get back she comes to our home! All in all, we should be approved by the middle of November. Please be praying for our future child and our hearts during this process, and that everything goes by quickly!

When Life Throws Us Lemons

God has been teaching me a very important lesson lately. I have been having a really hard time with a couple of relationships in my life. I have really been trying to hand them over the Lord so that the negativity does not impact my everyday life and so that I can actually get things done instead of focusing/stressing about them all the time. In one of my Bible studies we are studying Ecclesiastes. Last week we discussed chapter 6. Solomon (author of Ecclesiastes) wrote about riches without enjoyment in verses 1-6. His point was the no one can truly enjoy the gifts of God without God and to enjoy without God is idolatry. This led to a discussion about idols in our lives. Most of the usual idols were discussed, then one girls talked about how some relationships in her life can be idols. This got me to thinking about a few of my relationships, namely the ones mentioned earlier. An idol is something that has negative energy and does not bring glory to God. These relationships had become idols in my life. I was putting all this energy into them, but it was negative energy, apart from God, and I was exhausted. I had really given up all hope on these relationships. Then another friend said that if we truly believe God to be all powerful and all loving then we have to believe that he can restore broken relationships as well (she was talking about friends who recently separated, but it applies here too). Our God is a God of hope, I have to believe that there is hope in these relationships being restored. I need to put my trust in him and not others. Through him all things are possible. Mark9:23- "...Everything is possible for him who believes." The other thing He has been teaching me lately about this relationship is that we are to return blessings for insults. No matter how often they hurt me or insult me I still have to love them and bless them. 1Peter3:9- "Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing." Please pray with me that I can be a blessing to those who hurt me and that the Lord will help me to love them and forgive them through his strength, not my own!!

In other news...we start our homestudy tomorrow!!!!!! I have been long awaiting this day and am so excited!!

Also, I leave for Uganda in 10 days!!! It is getting so so close! Thank you to everyone who has supported us!! If you have anything you would like to donate (books, cloth diapers, baby tylenol) let me know! Also, if you have any long skirts/ dresses that you would like to donate that would be much appreciated as well!!