Gottcha Day Video must see...

Speaking of the Good to Be Crazy family from my last post. Here is their Gottcha Day video. A must watch video that will certainly bless you. Praise God for their faithfulness....(pause the music at the bottom of the page before watching)

Love you guys!!!

Four less orphans in 2011

For the past year or so, I have had the privilage to get to know several adoption families through blogs. Some I still talk to through their blog and email, but others I have called on the phone for advice or even met  person. Three of these families have finally completed their adoptions in January 2011.

Rachel and her husband Brad just got Legal Guardianship of their sweet Amelia last week. Amelia is a beautiful girl who I got to meet and love on while I was in Uganda. She lived in Charles Tucker's baby home. Rachel, Brad and Amelia are still in Uganda waiting to get Amelia's visa to come home to be united with their other daughter, Caroline. I am praying they will be safely home in the next couple of weeks. You can follow their journey HERE.

Lora and Andrew just returned home from Uganda last night with their sweet Mira, to be united with their five other children. This family has been through a lot in two and half weeks (which is extremely fast, our adoption process in country took four and half weeks), they had their money stolen and they almost had to come home with out their daughter. But, the Lord provided and now they are at home loving on all six of their children. I had the amazing privilage of meeting Mira in Uganda while I was there. Charles Tucker and I loved on her for an hour or so, while we took pictures and filmed her for her mommy and daddy back in the states. Only one month later, her parents were able to hold her in their arms. God is good!! You can follow their journey back home HERE.

Then finally, Julie and her husband just brought twin infants into their family through domestic adoption. I knew Julie through her blog Flutterbugs, but then realized my sister-in-law Leslie knew her as well. Julie and I finally met at one of the African Adoption Fellowships in Atlanta about six months ago. Julie and her family inspire me. They now have five children after waiting seven months to welcome home their babies. They are truly grateful to their birth mother who sacrificially gave these children up so they could be raised in a loving family. Such an inspiring "Gottcha Day Video".  (remember to pause the music at the bottom of the page)


Love seeing orphans come home to their forever families! It never gets old!!

Now Let's start at the beginning...Our Gottcha Day...kind of

We got about six hours of sleep after we got in at 3:30 a.m. early Wednesday morning on December 1st. It wasn't hard to get out of the bed, realizing we were in Uganda and we could actually walk down the street to see Charles Tucker for the first time....After we each took a shower, trying as hard as we could to not get water in our mouths and got settled a little bit...we started the ten minute walk to Loving Hearts Baby Home to meet our son for the first time....

We are definitely getting a little nervous now, at least I am...Dee would not admit it...

As you can see the roads are very rocky and dirty...not the best place to push a stroller...

We are almost there...

The sign we have seen so many times on the internet from so many other families...hard to believe we get to see it ourselves...

The first person I recognized when we walked into the gate to the babies home was Agnus, one of the "Mamas" who takes care of the children. A friend told me Charles Tucker has bonded very well with her. It was so great to finally meet her for the first time. All the kids call her "Aggeee". When we first walked in Charles Tucker was no where to be seen, because he was taking a nap, but after two or three minutes...Agnus walked into the room with him...He was very quiet and just stared at us. (He did not cry like some babies do when they meet their adoptive parents for the first time, because he is used to "Muzugus", white people coming in and out of the babies home.) Oh, but he was so precious. I don't think I fully embraced the moment for what it was until later...just a lot to take in all at once. I was nervous about taking him away from Agnus, so I was apprehensive for a second and then Dee suggested that I hold him, which I am glad he did. Poor baby, he just had no idea what was going on...

So exciting to see us all together in this picture... 

 He continued to sit quietly in my lap for about 15 minutes playing with this toy...He was bigger than I anticipated, but still smaller than Mary Taylor. I just remember thinking he is just so fragile...

Mary Taylor and Henry both were so excited to see their brother for the first time too. They both came up to him and gave him hugs..It definitely melted my heart...They knew exactly what was going on...I just kept looking at him, trying to soak it all in...

Then Dee held him and managed to get him to smile for the first time...he liked this little pink toy that makes noise...he was hitting Dee's hand with it over and over again...

After Mary Taylor greeted her brother she really had a fun time exploring the play room full of toys...

After a little while of sitting in our laps, Charles Tucker got up and started ridding on his motor car, pronounced "mota ca" by all the babies....He rode around on this car very confidently, like he was showing off...it was so cute...

Then Henry decided to get on the back and ride with him...he did not seem to mind...

Henry is so excited to haved a brother..

By the time we left Charles Tucker was chasing Henry around the room and laughing... It was so precious!!!

We all hugged Charles Tucker and told him we would be back tomorrow, but he got quiet and stared off away from us. I guess he realized the fun was leaving. I thought to myself, 'I don't think it is going to be hard to bond with him.' When we were leaving, Henry hugged his daddy and told him he was so glad we decided to adopt Charles Tucker and that he loved him so much...Wow!! It is so sweet to see our children take to him so fast... It was hard to leave him there after only a couple of hours, but I knew we needed to get some errands done before the stores closed....After we exchanged money at the bank, we stopped by the super market to get some food and mainly milk for my children who need a whole cow of milk to get them through the day...Yes, Mom, they like the milk, I know you were worried about that..it is actually quite good, but full of fat, almost like a cream.

This day made our five month wait well worth it!!! I will remember and cherish December 1st always....

Meeting Charles Tucker for the first time.... (December 1st, 2010)

Was amazing....