Glory Days!

Glory days... as in glory to God for some really wonderful days this week!

Monday we had Sam's IOM appointment to read his TB test, do a physical and some other general things (height, weight, etc.) It went very well, and the doctor doing the medical thought Sam was a sweet boy, so that was fun for us to share him with her for a bit!

Tuesday we went to a pool with some dear, new friends that we met here in Uganda, and (though Tony and I got burnt by the bright, equator sun) we had a fantastic time, plus Sam had his first swimming experience! He basically treated the whole pool as a lazy river, and went belly-up on his inner-tube all day! We really enjoyed ourselves, especially because we were all done with IOM, and could now just relax and wait on news from the Embassy!

Yesterday (Wednesday) we received awesome news: We have an Embassy appointment next week! Sam's medical papers made it to the Embassy quickly and we are able to get in to interview for his visa! This means that we very (very) likely will be back in time for Mother's Day! This is such a huge answer to prayer! Thank you all for joining with us as we lifted that timing up to God, and please continue to do so, as we don't have the visa just yet, and still long to be home in time for Mother's Day!

Today was Sam's birthday, and man, did we celebrate! We had a delicious chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream(y) with 25 wonderful friends! We were so blessed my the many amazing people who showed up to have cake, ice cream(y) and lemonade, and celebrate our son's special day, of course!

Tomorrow is the last day that we plan to go to a market, so friends, if you still would like to donate to our GoFundMe fundraiser, today is the day! (That isn't to say we couldn't have someone pick us up some more of the 'incentives' but they will definitely be delayed!) So please donate today if you want a sweet hand-rolled paper bead necklace or an African stuffed animal! And hey, in case you didn't notice, if you donate just $25, you hit the first 'incentive' mark, and get to be one of the first to see Sam's picture! You will get his photo about a week before it will hit social media, so if you are dying to take a look at my cutie pie son's face, you get 'first dibs' if you donate $25 or more before we return home! ... Aren't you dying to know what is behind the heart in all my photos of Sam?! It's just $25 to see that face a week sooner! (Yes, a shameless plug... I want to get this sweet boy home!)

So glory to God for these days that have been obviously filled with His glory! We count ourselves more than blessed to not only be on the 'final lap' in this adoption, but that we get to call Sam our son everyday! So many blessings, so much glory!

"We have sufferings now, but these are nothing compared to the great glory that will be given to us." Romans 8:18

The Prefect Mother's Day Gift for This Mama

All I want for Mother's Day is to be home.

I just want to celebrate Mother's Day with my son and my mother.*

I won't ask for anything else.

I need no other gift.

I want no card.

Just pray me home, please.

Please pray us home for Mother's Day.

* (And my dad, because it's his birthday that day too.)

Final Fundraiser!

Many of you have been following our adoption story as it has played out for about a year now, while others of you may just be tuning in!

If you do know our story, you know we have been hard at work fundraising and pinching pennies to complete the adoption of our son, Samuel, in Uganda. (For those of you who don't know our story, here is the link to our Pure Charity page, where you can read our adoption story and watch our video.)

We are doing one final fundraiser in attempt to complete the fundraising goal we originally set, (we were a bit shy of that goal before we left for Uganda), as well as to try to supplement Tony staying in country the whole time, and taking some unpaid leave at work; originally our plan was to have him return home on April 19th, but after raising a toddler together for the past three weeks now, we are realizing that it is much easier together, and that we are really doing such a great job of bonding with him here, that we think it healthiest for all of us, (especially Sam), that Tony stay the whole time.

All donations are so helpful, no matter the size, and through GoFundMe, we are able to offer some 'Incentives' at certain donation levels! We are really excited to offer these to you! But the largest incentive is still helping us to bring our son home. We have to purchase his airline ticket still, pay for a few big things in country, and, (if we can cover those), we'd like to keep Tony here with us, his family, so we can all grow together in this important time of attachment!

As the title of this fundraiser suggests, we plan for this to be our final fundraiser, so if you have not yet partnered with us to bring home Sam, and you want to be a part of his adoption story, NOW IS THE TIME! Get in on it through this fundraiser, (or by mailing us a check), so that you can say you were a part of this AMAZING homecoming story!

Here is the link to the final fundraiser on GoFundMe! 

Please share our GoFundMe fundraiser with others and on your social media accounts so we can reach others through you! This is a huge help to our family and fundraising!

Please note: Incentives #2 & 4 require us to purchase items while here in Uganda, and to ensure we have bought enough for all who donate, we'd appreciate your donations for Incentives #2 and higher by Friday the 24th; if we receive them later that we cannot guarantee you will get those items in a timely fashion, or possibly at all. We likely can have another adoptive family pick us up more on their visit to Uganda, but we cannot guarantee them after that date, and certainly cannot guarantee when we'd get them if someone else picked them up for us later. Thank you for your understanding!

Photo credit: Stitches Thru Time blog

Photo credit: huffingtonpost.ca

Passport is in hand!

Wonderful news! Sam's Uganda passport is sitting right next to Tony and my U.S. passports, right now! We're done with that wait!

But along with that wonderful news is some not so wonderful news:

The reason we needed the passport was to move onto the next step of the process, which is getting his medical appointment done at the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and so as soon as we got our passport this afternoon, we rushed over to the IOM office to try to get an appointment scheduled for Monday, (or even possibly squeeze in at the end of the day today)! The bad news is that we had been told and believed we had been given all of Sam's file, so when we got there they asked for the blue form from the U.S. Embassy (check), the passport (check), two additional passport sized photos (not check, but not a deal breaker), a form that we filled out with address information (check), medical history (check) and his birth certificate (not check, deal breaker............).

I cannot even begin to tell you the amount of disappointment I felt in that moment. Here we thought we were waiting on our passport... turns out that we were really waiting on both the passport and  birth certificate and didn't know it; not only was it not in his 'complete' file, but that it is still on the desk of the person who needs to sign it.

Guys, I was truly sick and devastated.

But God is still good and sovereign. He got us our passport in just one week, which is so fast for Uganda time!

And now we know we need to pray over that official who has Sam's birth certificate to sign it early Monday morning so that we can get in to IOM as early as possible on Monday, and try to get in later that day! It is possible, because we already gave them everything else they need, (so we're in the system), though it's still not super likely. Nonetheless, let's all pray for just that - the signature on the birth certificate first thing on Monday and for IOM to get us in for his medical check on Monday too!

Thank you all for your prayers for the passport, and thanks for joining us in praying over this one last thing before the medical check can be done!

Missing so many of you amazing people! Love you all!

It's official!

As of this afternoon it is official: Sam is our son!

This day was full of surprise blessings and I can't help but feel like it was all of you who are praying for us, petitioning God for us, and helping make it possible through faith!

When I woke up this morning I sent a text message to our social worker to see if there was any way, (since we were expecting our ruling tomorrow), that we could plan to have our son's 'going away' party tomorrow too; the 'going away' party is the final visit to the orphanage, and a big step to starting our own adventure as a family! Unfortunately, the answer was 'no', because the kids had a full day planned at the orphanage, and that we didn't have the ruling just yet to make it official. I was disappointed, but understood.

The morning was productive enough from there - I was getting some personal and volunteer work done on my computer, and enjoying a bit of quiet time as it rained a bit outside. That's when we got a call from our social worker saying that our written ruling had arrived but needed some edits from our lawyer, so we were thrilled but knew we had one more day left before the edits would be processed and printed by the court again.

A little while later we got another phone call, this time saying that the written ruling was officially done, edits and all, printed, and in the hands of our lawyer! We were so excited! Sam was ours! Sam was family! Sam had become my son ... officially!

After that news, our social worker tried talking to the director of the orphanage again to see if we could do the party tomorrow now that we had the ruling, and guess what? She agreed! The director went from saying the day was 'too busy', to 'sure, why not!?'

On top of all that, we also were told to go in for Sam's passport interview... tomorrow morning, first thing!!

Guys, your prayers and our great God are getting things done!

To those of you who are praying over us:

• Please say a prayer of praise and thanksgiving that the written ruling is complete, that the party is tomorrow, that we have the passport interview tomorrow, and that this is all happening quickly! God is good and we want to thank him for all He's done and is doing!
• Also if you would be in prayer that the passport would be processed quickly, (just like the written ruling), that would be such a huge blessing to us! Each step of the process has to be completed in order, so we weren't able to file for his passport until we had the written ruling, and the next step, (his medical check to be allowed in the U.S.), cannot be completed until we have the passport, so your prayers for the passport to get done quickly mean his medical check gets done sooner, (and the sooner the medical check is done, the sooner we can get his visa and get him home to all of you who want to love on him)! 

The process is crazy, but worth it, because tonight I heard the words, "I love you, Mama," for the first time, and that makes all the paperwork and waiting worth it! 100% worth it.

Thank you again for your support; we could not be moving along this quickly without your prayers and wouldn't be here in the first place without your monetary support and verbal encouragement! We love our community and miss you all!

Easter and Redemption in Uganda

Easter always brings to mind some important 'R' words to me, like the oh-so obvious 'Resurrection', and others like 'Reconciliation', 'Rescue', 'Relationship' and 'Restoration'. This year, though, it reminds me most of the word 'Redemption'.

The first definition for 'redeem' in the Merriam-Webster dictionary is "to make better" and as a Christian as well as an adoptive parent, today this word and definition mean something extra special.

My son has already spent much of his life in an orphanage, and this homecoming story that is playing out is all about making his life better and improving my own life as well. Being his mama has already made me a better person, so he and I are both being redeemed - he from a life of institutionalization and I from a life of complacency and ease.

Redemption is also something I experienced recently when I started having those fears creep in about if I could parent, how I would raise a toddler from another country/culture, how I could care for another little being besides myself, if he'd learn English fast, if he would keep pinching, etc.! I let some pretty ugly fears and darkness creep in, and needed redemption something fierce before our court date. The good news is that my God is in the business of redemption, and he came to my rescue. Thus today I celebrate a redemptive risen savior in full confidence with my soon-to-be-son.

But enough about me, (I will try share more about this redemption I recently experienced another time,) because I know you all want to hear about how Sam is doing!

Here's a little glimpse of our Easter:

 
Sam got a small Easter basket with just a little candy, (didn't want to overwhelm or overload his first year)! And Tony and I got to worship at Watoto Church, so everyone was a winner this Easter Sunday!

Sam is doing well and he really enjoyed his first 'Peep' candy ever! He called me 'Mama' a few times today, without prompting, which is new! We had a fun day of play - Tony chased Sam around and around in circles  for hours, and there was so much giggling! Sam even got to enjoy some soda, (this will not be a common occurrence, but it was Easter, so...)!

We're all doing well but keep us in your prayers for a speedy process... we'd like to have all three of us return home together, and I'd love to have extra time with him at home to get him used to life in America! So please keep praying for Godspeed! We can absolutely feel your prayers and the are seeing the results of them - we appreciate them (and you) more than you know!

"Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people." Luke 1:68

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, For He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people - See more at: http://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/God,-As-Redeemer#sthash.D4Mn2m6N.dpuf