Going from #1 to #2...Can it be done?

I loved this post that It's Almost Naptime wrote about going from baby #1 to baby #2. Going from one child to two children was the hardest experience of my life, but God has used all of it for his glory! I actually want more children and hopefully the next one will come from Uganda! My only advice is to lower your expectations and trust God moment by moment! This post was so true! Great advice!!!

Third Homestudy Visit

We had our third and final homestudy visit two weeks ago on Thursday.
...Two days before our visit, I realized my husband has schedule Thursday to be the day, the wood choppers come to chop down our one hundred fifty foot tree that towers above our house. We found out six months ago that it is dying and if we do not have it cut down with in a year, our insurance will not cover it if it falls on our house. So... we thought it was best to get it cut down! Most people told us it would be really expensive to get it cut down, but we found a company that did it for dirt cheap. We were encouraged that God was providing for us!..Anyway, the day before, the wood choppers told us they were going to have to turn off the power, but that we could still be in the house. We debated back and forth what we should do, but we decided to stay at our house for the homestudy visit, because our social worker might not come if we can't have the meeting at our house.

    On Thursday morning, I head out to run some errands, knowing I need to be back around 11:30 to feed the kids and get ready for naps. Realizing what time it is, we leave the Teacher/ Parent store and head to the car. As I am buckling Mary Taylor in her seat, I realize what a mess she is from her snack and her hand it bleeding from a paper cut. ( I guess she got it in the store). I try to wipe her off, but I decided to deal with it when we get home in five minutes. As I park in front of my house, I see the wood chopping team has already started taking the tree down. I get the kids out of the car and start heading into the house. I approach the man that owns the wood chopping company and make sure I can walk under the equipment. He then proceeds to tell me that I cannot stay at my house and I need to leave as soon as possible. I yell because of all the noise, "What? I thought it was ok!" Well, he yells, "I did not realize how big the tree was!" I am thinking, 'How could you make that kind of mistake?' I walk in the house with two bags on one arm and bleeding Mary Taylor on the other arm. She really needed a bath, because her shirt and body was now cover in food and some blood. I guess now I need to get packed up and figure out a place to go. It is time for the kids to eat lunch and take naps. The power is off and a tree might fall on the house at any moment. I call my husband and tell him the situation, but he does not see the urgency in it all. I tell him to call his parents to see if we can have our homestudy over there and then call our social worker to see if that is ok. Yes, I am pretty stressed and I am not handling it well! In the mean time, the wood choppers take a break and go eat lunch. I guess they realized I needed some time to get out of there!...About twenty minutes later we were ready to head to Dee's parents house.
   In the thirty minute car ride over to Dee's parent's house, I managed to get my thoughts together, take a deep breath, and manage to open my fist up to the Lord. Not easy to do in stressful situations like that! The little things really get to me, especially when dealing with young kids!  Mary Taylor took a nap at their house and Henry watched a movie. Our third homestudy lasted about two hours and it was our best one yet! We even talked about our my conflict early in the day. I just had to get it out and apologize to Dee for treating him so badly in my frustration of the tree situation. I think we felt pretty comfortable at this point! I guess we should, considering he knows everything about us and he is still letting us adopt a baby! He said it should take about a month to get all the paper work in and then our homestudy will be finalized and sent to the USCIS (I think?)
... It was a crazy day and I was exhausted in every way! Glad the Lord worked it out! Then the next day, it snowed! Not normal for us southerners...

The wood choppers could not finish cutting down the tree until four days later. These trucks and tractors sat in our yard during the beautiful snow, which only comes once or twice a year. Oh, well, no good snow pictures of our house this year! The tallest tree is the one we had to cut down. Sad... it is not there anymore. :(

 We had fun in the snow despite the tractors! Dee and Henry about to go sledding!

 Yes, this is our boxer, Bell! (we also have a springer spaniel, named Milo) We just let the dogs run free outside in the snow. They loved it!

 

 Mary Taylor did not like sitting on the stump with Henry.. at all! That day they chopped this stump into mulch. Now our yard is full of mulch and mud from the tractors!

Endangered Species

We learned about Covenant Care through our friend, Beverly, at church. Her sister works with this adoption agency and is currently fostering an African-American baby in her home. Dee and I had the chance to attend a Covenant Care meeting in Atlanta two weeks ago. Covenant Care is a domestic adoption agency in Macon, Georgia. We learned that the numbers of abortions among black women are astronomical. Some people believe that our government has made it to be a racial agenda, a way to control the population, birth control. Covenant Care is hoping to spread the awareness of adoptions to birth mothers in Atlanta. These birth mothers need to know that there are other choices besides abortion. Covenant Care hopes to raise at least 1 million dollars to buy a building in Atlanta. One of the directors told the story of God leading her to the most perfect building for Covenant Care. The building is right next to an abortion clinic. Wow! When a birth mother goes to have an abortion, she will see another choice right next to her. What a testimony this could be to God's grace! How cool would that be! The director knew God was speaking to her and she knows God will raise the money in his time. Until then, they will pray and trust God's will. The stories were such a testimony to God's amazing work. Some were joyful and some stories were not as easy to hear. Dee and I left emotionally drained and ready to adopt an African-American child right then and there. Two days later, we decided that the Lord is still calling us to adopt a child from Uganda, unless he directs us otherwise. Maybe we will adopt domestically later...who knows!

Every 4 days in American more black children are killed through abortion than the KKK killed in 144 years.

Georgia leads the country in the number of reported abortions performed on black women, 18,901 in 2008 alone.

Read this article "Black Children Are an Endangered Species".

This video is a debate discussing the newly posted Billboards about African-Americans being an "Endangered Species". The video is long, but very informative. Georgia Right to Life has put up 80 billboards around Atlanta.  http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2010/02/24/am.abortion.billboard.cnn?hpt=T2

Sarah is home with her forever family!

After following the blog, James 1:27 for a couple of months, I realized that the Levys live in Atlanta. So... yesterday afternoon, I took both kids to welcome Amy and Sarah Levy home at the Atlanta airport. What a privilege it was to witness the uniting of a family for the first time! It was such an amazing experience!  It is a miracle that Sarah was able to come home so fast, much less come home at all, considering everything that is going on in Uganda right now. God moved mountains for Sarah to be adopted in Uganda, pass all the clearances, get a visa, fly on a plan... to make it home to be with her forever family! Praise God for his sovereign plan! God's heart is for orphans to have families!

We got to the airport just in time! 

   

I also got the chance to met a blog friend, Mandi, at the airport 

with her three kids. Mandi is hoping to start the adoption process very soon too.

 

Henry is not so sure what to expect..

but he knows we are waiting to welcome Sarah home!

 

Mary Taylor loved looking all the people waiting for Sarah!

How special to witness this family come together!

 

Amy, Sarah, and I think one of her sons.

  

Amy, Sarah, and another one of her sons.

  

All the kids that came to welcome them home!

The Levy family together at last and Sarah is home forever!

Then we hung out at the airport for a while talking to other families that are involved in adoption.

So neat to meet other families that have adopted trans-racially. This little boy, Silas, was adopted domestically when he was a small baby. This family also lives in Atlanta. So neat to connect with other families! Henry had a great time running around the airport with Silas and Mandi's boys! At one point I told Henry to stay close to me and not run too far away because there are 'strangers' here. He then runs around yelling to the other kids, "Watch out, there are strangers here! Watch out there are strangers here!" I guess I had never had the stranger talk with him.

Henry and Silas trying to get close to the dinosaur!

 

Henry and Silas sharing the cowboy hat!

What a blessing to witness this miracle!

I will not leave you as orphans I will come to you. John 14:8

Thank you God for loving us in our sin and 

making us your sons and daughters in Christ!

I am strong mommy!

Henry usually gets up first in the morning. He comes upstairs to say hello to me and then goes to play with his toys. On this particular morning, five minutes after he got up I hear the front door close. I am still in bed..

Me: " Henry?!" 

Then I heard the front door open and then it closed again.

Me: Henry?!

Henry: Yes!

Me: Come here!

Henry marches in with his blue puffy vest over his pjs, with his baseball cap on his head, and his Thomas the Train rain boots on his feet. I wish I had taken a picture.

Me:Henry what are you doing? You know you are not supposed to go outside by yourself.

Henry: I just went outside to see a bird. I heard him and I wanted to see what he looked like.

Me: Don't ever go outside by yourself without telling mommy. I would not know where you are. Somebody might take you and I would never see you again.

Henry: But, mommy,  I am strong, I can fight the bad guys, I turned 3 at my slip'n'slide birthday party, when I was in your tummy I was not strong, but then the doctor ripped (c-section) me out of your tummy, and then I became strong when I turned 3 at my party.

I am trying not to laugh at this point.

Me: But, Henry, you never open the door without mommy...

Henry: Well, mommy, I just wanted to see the bird that was watching the cars and the school buses and he was black and red, then he flew off.

It was so early in the morning, (well for us), I was so cracked up by this conversation.

Me: Henry, if you open the door with out mommy, next time you will get a spanking.

Henry: Ok, mama

Me: I love you too much! 

Henry: Yes, mama.

Then I gave him a big hug!

Three and half is such a fun age! I want to make sure I remember these conversations! :)

Your Hands

In the pain, in the frustration, and in the waiting of life. God does not leave or forsake us. He knows what is best and what is good for us. He created us and has designed us for a purpose. God is even sovereign over our bad choices. He makes all things new! With all the uncertainty of life, we know that God is holding us in his hands.

Blessings

      I have so many blessing in life. One of my favorite blessings are my parents. They gave me the greatest gift growing up and that is the knowledge of my Savior. My parents lived the 'gospel' in our home. For example, my mother taught me to "put myself in other people's shoes". In highschool, when I would gossip about someone, she would always defend the person I was talking about. She would say, "Maybe they were having a bad day, or maybe they don't feel good about themselves." At the time, it annoyed me, but she was Christ to me, she had compassion to the 'least of these.' And my father was always inviting the whole world over to our house. He would talk to anyone and always tried to include people in whatever we were doing, like pool tournaments, lunch, dinner, movie, or just to hang out. As a teenager, this drove me crazy, but he was being 'Christ's hands and feet' to people around us by loving them. When God opened my eyes in college to my own sin and I realized how big of a Savior I truly do have, this knowledge was made alive in me. Their Savior truly became my rescuer and deliverer! God used my parents to make me who I am today. I am forever thankful to them!
      Now my parents are grandparents twice over and are about to have a third grandchild through adoption! Once my parents realized God had truly called us to increase our family through adoption, they jumped right on board! God is opening their hearts to the beauty in adoption too!  I am so thankful to my gracious mother  who has been working very hard to raise money to bring our third child home. She has designed stationary and magnetic paper dolls for people to purchase. All the money goes toward the adoption of our child in Uganda. If you are interested, please go to the website, Kaki Husaidia (Kaki Helps in Swahili).

Sarah has been adopted in Uganda!

 

Remember the little girl, Sarah, that basically had a "death sentence" when Ugandan Adoptions were put on hold? Well, Sarah has been adopted into the Levy Family! Praise God! Despite "the HOLD" put on Ugandan adoptions, the judges have granted her to be legally adopted in Uganda. The moment she steps onto American soil, she will be a citizen of the United States of America. Read more about her story at James1:27.

Good News for Vow-Breakers

The gospel can change our marriages too! A very wise friend sent this article to me taken from the blog Living Story By Grace.

Lifeline Ugandan Update

UGANDA NOTICE - 2/8/2010

The following information is free to be shared in full, not in part! If you choose to copy and paste, please include the entire notice.

Lifeline is committed to provide timely and accurate information to all of our families in regard to the current situation in Uganda.

In response to the concerns of the United States Embassy in Kampala, the High Court of Uganda has decided to suspend issuing court dates for legal guardianship cases until a resolution can be made between the Consular’s Office and the Government of Uganda on the intent of Legal Guardianship. While this will delay the process of prospective families who are attempting to secure a court date, it does not signal that the process has stymied. The position of the High Court is that time should not be wasted on issuing new legal guardianship cases for which the Embassy might not issue visas. Lifeline’s advocate in Uganda continues to feel strongly that the opinion of the High Court towards the legal guardianship decrees should not conflict with the standards put into place by the United States government and that this miscommunication of intent should clear in the near term.

Lifeline seeks the best interest of all orphaned children in Uganda and around the world. For this process to be completed, it is essential that governments have an adequate and clear plan. We pray that this delay will both strengthen and ultimately sustain a relationship between the countries of Uganda and the United States of America for the betterment of legitimate orphans. This process should provide necessary safeguards for the protection of children.

Lifeline is continuing to monitor the solution, but also realizes that it may take some time for things to resume.

In the meantime, commit to pray for the orphans of Uganda, the people of Uganda, and for God’s glory to be made know in this central African nation.

Blessings,

Claire Davis
International Social Worker

You know you are an adoptive parent if...

You Know You're An Adoptive Parent IF...
1. The fact that there are 147 million children without a parent to kiss them goodnight has made you lose sleep.
2. You realize DNA has nothing to do with love & family.
3. You can't watch Adoption Stories on TLC without tears.
4. The fact that, if 7% of Christians adopted 1 child there would be no orphans in the world, is convicting to you.
5. You spend free time surfing blogs about families who've experienced the blessing of adoption.
6. It drives you crazy when people ask you about adopted child's "real" parents.
7. You were "pregnant" with your adoptive child longer than it takes an elephant to give birth (2 years! - oh lets hope this isn't the case for us!!)
8. You'd no idea how you'd afford to adopt, but stepped out in faith anyway, knowing He'd provide (He has!)
9. You have (want to) taken an airplane half-way around the world to meet your child
10. You believe God's heart is for adoption.
11. You realize that welcoming a child into your heart & family is one of the most important legacies you could ever leave on this earth.
12. You know what the word "Dossier" means & you can actually pronounce it correctly!
13. You've welcomed a social worker into the most private parts of your life.
14. You shudder when people say your child's so lucky that you adopted them, knowing full well you're the blessed one to have him or her in your life.

Borrowed from the Blog: http://celebratingchaos.blogspot.com/

A video of Frankie's journey home

Frankie has been home for two weeks and he is adjusting well to his new home in America. Watch this precious video of his journey to his forever family! So neat!

Craft Inspiration for the LOVE month

       I have once again been inspired by Andrea over at Babe of my Heart blog. Andrea and I go way back to college at Auburn University in Alabama. We first hit it off when we were in East Asia on a summer project with Crusade. We really bonded on that trip, especially when the people told us, "Too small! You need big size!" We laughed and sang our way through that summer. Literally, we sang Titanic's 'Love Must Go On' in every taxi ride along with the taxi drivers. That was the only way we could relate to them without knowing Mandarin. That summer we learned to think outside of ourselves and see the world through God's eyes. God's love compelled us to love others! God continues to weave our lives together and now we are supporting each other to adopt children from Africa. I am thrilled to have her on this journey of adoption.
       Andrea is a very talented person to say the least. She really enjoys doing crafts with her kids and has the best ideas that are simple and easy to do. I love reading her blog for many reasons, but one of my favorite reasons is to steal all her great holiday and craft ideas! So far, for the month of February, I have been organized enough to do some of them. I hope to get to some of the others soon!

       The first craft I did was the Valentine Fortune Cookies. Henry has been opening one cookie per day since February 1st and will continue until Valentines Day. The pink, white, and red felt cookies are a great way to start the day with a little message from God about his love for us! Henry was a little confused by the name, 'cookie', so I let him have a jelly bean or candy heart along with the verses to make it a little more special (he's a three year old)! My favorite part about this is, next February, I can pull out my valentine's box and these felt cookies will be ready to go.

   My next craft was inspired by Andrea too, but I did an easier valentine centerpiece over my kitchen/dinning room table. All, I did was cut out hearts and glue them together. Then I used a hole punch to punch a hole for the grosgrain ribbon and then attached it to my 1980's chandler. I am was a scrapbooker, so I have lots of card stock paper and ribbon. No time to scrapbook in the middle of the adoption process! Anyway, I try to get Henry to help me with these projects, but he lasts about 30 seconds and then he is off again, running around the house. I am so glad I have a girl, Mary Taylor is already showing more interest than Henry!   

 The last craft that we have attempted so far, is the Valentine Window Mobile. We tried this tonight and it was really easy and they turned out great. What I love most about this craft was the fact that I did not have to leave my house to get any supplies. All you need is wax paper, crayons, string, ribbon, scissors, knife, marker, towel, and an iron. I don't think I melted the crayons enough, but they still look pretty cute! Tomorrow, I am excited to see what they will look like in the daylight when the sun comes through the window.

 

Last night, my sweet husband came home with these beautiful flowers!

(not to mention he was late, but that is not the point)

So thoughtful! Love is in the air!

   

Adopted for life ...and in Death

We have heard a lot about the Haitian orphans who have com home to be with their families in America, but what about the other orphans who did not make it? This is a precious story of a child born an orphan, but died a son. Read this article, Adopted for Life...and in Death. Very sweet, but very sad. :(

Still on HOLD, but a little HOPE

Our social worker from Generations sent out another email explaining the situation about the visas:

"We received an update on the visas in Uganda. The Consular had decided she did not want to accept the Ugandan judges' order unless it was strongly worded that there was understanding that legal guardianship was being given for the purpose of adoption. She wants more specific language added into the orders. The main judge that our lawyer Isaac had been using had always done this, but the judge stepped down 6-8 weeks ago and the other judges had not been using this specific wording.

We are still working with the Consular to find out what steps need to be taken to make this change. Our attorney is speaking with judges and members of the Uganda Parliament to guarantee this wording change will be made by all the judges. As long as the wording is changed by the judge that is over the case, then the Consular will grant visas for US Citizens. Similar problems have arisen at the US Embassy in Uganda in the past and have been resolved successfully in a matter of weeks. Our attorney is hopeful that the current situation will be resolved in a timely manner as well.

We will keep you updated as we learn more information and this situation gets worked out. I do not mean to worry any of you, but wanted you to be aware since you would have probably heard through the internet anyway. Again, adoptions are not being closed but rather they are simply putting a hold on visas until they can work out the wording. This situation will not effect most of you, especially if you are still in the home study process.

Please pray that all the judges in Uganda will make this wording change quickly and easily for the children whose cases are going on in Uganda right now, who this situation most directly effects. God wants to put the lonely into families. I will keep you updated as I have new information."

My friend from James 1:27 blog has some amazing news! Her judge is going to rewrite her legal guardian papers, so the US will give her a visa. Sarah is going to be adopted and is going home very soon! Next Friday, everything will be finalized. Sarah was the exception because of all her medical problems. The Ugandan government saw the urgency of her situation. Praise Jesus! As far as I know, she is the only orphan being adopted and brought to the United States as of right now. Please continue to pray for all the other families that are stuck in Uganda without a way to bring their sons and daughters home. If God can move mountains, he can make this happen!

Adoptions in Uganda on HOLD = (

I just got an email from our social worker with Generations:

I wanted you to be aware that we have heard that Legal Guardianship Immigrant Visa issuance in Uganda is currently on “hold” due to a problem with the wording used for the legal guardianship paperwork in the Ugandan courts. They have not shut down adoptions in Uganda, but the U.S. has asked them to put a pause on issuing visas until they can work out different wording with the Uganda courts. Our Ugandan attorney has a appointment at the US Embassy in Kampala tomorrow to obtain additional information and potential ramifications relating to this situation. Generations is confident that hearing directly from the Embassy will cut through a lot of rumors now circulating on the internet. I will email you again tomorrow to let you know information. At this time, this is all the information I have and will not have more accurate information until our lawyer meets with the Embassy tomorrow.

       When I read this email to my husband, he said, that means, WE CANNOT ADOPT A CHILD FROM UGANDA, as of right now. The Ugandan Judges might rewrite the documents, but who knows. This is not good news for us, but more devastating is the people who are already in Uganda adopting their children. They have been there for weeks, trying to get their children home. One blog friend, James 1:27, has been through "heck" and back trying to get her daughter Sarah home. I am heartbroken for her and her family!! They either have to move their family to Uganda for three years or leave Sarah an orphan forever!! Sarah has been malnourished and has many other problems from being institutionalized. My friend quotes on her blog, "This is a death sentence for Sarah".

      Please pray for these families that are trying to get their children home! Pray that the Lord will give us guidance and show us what steps to take in a new direction, if the decision of the U.S. Embassy is final. As horrible as this seems, we know we serve a Good God! We know God has a plan that is perfect! We trust in his sovereignty!