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!!

Provision & Promises

There has been a lot going on lately, and I am really bad at keeping up with the blog, so this may be a long one!

God promises us that he will provide us with whatever we need to fulfill his purposes. As I have said many times before, the biggest thing we were nervous about going into this adoption was the finances. Through much support we were able to raise $1,000 several weeks ago in a giveaway on my friend Danielle's blog!! Thank you so much to everyone who participated. I was honestly blown away by how generous everyone was. I was honestly just hoping that we would get between $300-$500, but God showed us how great he is and far exceeded our expectations!

Along the lines of adoption, we finally have our homestudy set up! We had all of our paperwork in but one sheet from Cory's job stating that we have health insurance. We finally got it and got assigned our social worker. She is exactly who we were praying that we would get!! We have our first meeting on October 14th. Please pray that it goes quickly and we can get all of our meetings in before I leave for Uganda! God makes so many promises to us in the Bible and I have really just been trying to repeat those to myself throughtout this process. Acts1:7: "He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority." We are still praying that our child will be here by Christmas, but even if he or she isn't I know that God has a reason and that his timing is perfect and better than mine could ever be. God chose who our child would be even before the world was created. Check out this awesome passage from Psalms139:13-16:
"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

I have also been praying a lot for God to equip us with what we need to go to Uganda. Not only for myself, but for our whole team, especially my friends Carla and Elle who are coming with me. Throughout the whole process of getting ready for the trip I have been completely at peace about everything, including financing it. Even now that the trip is less than 3 weeks away I am not stressing because I know that he will provide all that we need! We have our tickets booked and have learned more about what we will be doing while we are there. We will be spending several days at the Tender Hearts Baby Home. We are then going to be serving in the community. We are going to be running a Vacation Bible School with for the children of a lady called Mamma Mary. Mamma Mary is a former Muslim, converted Christian, who has adopted over 30 children! To read more about her and her children click here! We are also going to be serving with Manna Ministries- a group that gives food, love, and teaches about Christ, and a pregnancy crisis center that teaches women about the alternatives to abortion. Please be praying that our work will be meaningful and effective and that the Lord will keep us all safe!

Adoption Fundraiser

Hey everyone!

My heart is incredibly overwhelmed this morning as I think of all of the work and generosity that went into this! Cory and I have been so blessed by the selflessness of the friends that the Lord has placed in our lives here in South Carolina and I can't say Thank You enough for all that they have done!

Check out this raffle our amazingly sweet and generous friends put together for us to help us bring home our precious baby boy or girl!! You can enter for $5 an entry and it all goes straight to fund our adoption.....and you can win some really cool prizes!! Please also forward this on to anyone else you might now who would be willing to enter!!! If you have any questions let me know! If not, happy donating!!!!!!!

http://cevallosadoption.blogspot.com/2010/09/fundraising-giveaway.html