News On Our Adoption

Hi Family,

I wanted to write to let everyone know that Josh and I have received some news about a child in Uganda. Rather than making 10 different calls I thought I would just email everyone at once. The last 36 hours has been a roller coaster to say the least.

I got news from our social worker on Tuesday afternoon that Uganda’s government was in fact trying to pass some sort of Bill to change requirements for adoptive families. We have known that a Bill was coming but we weren’t exactly sure when it would happen or what exactly the Bill would state. Well, we still don’t know the exact bill as of now but we do know they are continuing to work (for now at least) with adoptive families who have their paperwork in Uganda. This was really disappointing news and we really weren’t sure what this meant for us or if God was even still wanting us to adopt from here. We decided with the case worker that we would put our paperwork on hold until she called us back with more information. 

As I reflected on the information that night I was realizing just how messy God’s Kingdom work is. However, the Lord has placed a strong conviction on our hearts to care for orphans. Specifically, International orphans. So my prayer really became that of “Lord, this may look completely different than we imagined but use Josh and I any way that you would to care for orphans.”

Fast forward to Wednesday morning. Our case worker calls us and I’m expecting to hear something about the Bill. Instead, she says, “I know you guys had requested a little boy but there are no boys coming through right now. If you are interested, then we have a little girl.” Of course I was blown away. This is absolutely not what I was expecting. 

We'll call her Dee Dee for now - she’s about 1 years old and I have a picture but I’ll wait to send it until you guys have decided if you want to pursue her (because she’s really cute). So I called Josh and we talked about it and of course decided that God has called us to care for orphans regardless of what they look like. Not just little boy orphans but little girl orphans as well. So we accepted!

So this is where we are right now. We officially have a referral for Dee Dee but it is pending an investigation. They do very thorough investigations into every orphan’s life to make sure that there are not family members available to care for them or that if they do have parents that they have legally consented to give up their child. I think the investigation will take several days, but if all checks out clear, then we can begin our process. In the meantime, we are shipping our paperwork to Uganda tomorrow. If all goes well then we could potentially have a court date to meet with the Embassy in July. 

All this to say that we really need your prayers. It is hard to discern the will of God. We don’t know if this is the child that He will ultimately have for us but we are willing to step out in faith and move in a direction that we feel He is leading us in. Only He knows and we trust that He is working all things for our good and His glory. 

 You can pray specifically for:

- His will to be done in all of this

- Josh and I to faithfully follow in obedience to where He is calling us (Uganda or not)

- The logistics of this case and traveling to Uganda

- Josh and I preparing our hearts for a third child

- Dee Dee to find a forever family whether it be our family or another family

We are so grateful for all of your support! 

In Christ,

Angie