Why Adoption? Why Uganda?

I wish I could put in writing exactly how I'm feeling, but every time I try, I end up erasing it and for all you English majors out there, I am not a good writer. So, please forgive me. I am going to attempt to explain why Kenton and I feel like adoption is for our family. The official start was when Kenton and I were sitting on the couch, sipping our coffee and reading our bibles. I then turned to him and said, "I think its time we really start thinking about adoption." I was so overwhellmed with emotion that I couldn't contain the tears running down my face. God has placed a huge desire in my heart to raise one of His children as my own and I could not shake that feeling. We have known for a while that we would eventually adopt, but we just didn't know when and where from. Well, we feel like now is the time and that Uganda is the place. First off, let me try to give details as to where God has taken my heart. I have always known that there was a great need for adoption all around the world but recently, I felt like God has shown me just a little bit of what His heart feels like when He sees His children cry, starve and die alone without a  mom and dad to comfort them. This is something that I cannot just pass off as a temporary feeling. I believe we were called to give a child a family, hope, opportunities and lots of love; with God's help I know we are perfectly capable of raising another child like he/she came from my own womb. I can't explain it but my heart literally aches to hold and comfort a child that has never heard "Its ok, Mommy is here." Every time I tend to my girls when they are sick or hurt, I always think there are millions upon millions of children who will never hear those words from a mom. I have been broken over that. I know it is not new news. There has and always will be an orphan crisis but I feel like my eyes and my heart have finally been opened and that opening became a desire. Don't get me wrong. We are not pretending to solve any kind of crisis. We are just a couple who is obeying what God has called us to do, and that is, to take 1 child (for now) and give him/her a family and a home.

We chose Uganda because there is a huge need there. This is a country recovering from war, AIDS and poverty and with over 50% of the population being under the age of 15, there is an obvious orphan crisis there. There had not been many adoptions out of this country due to a requirement that one had to live and foster the child in the country for 3 years before the child could legally be adopted but in the last couple years,there has been made a way for parents to be granted legal guardianship and then the adoption can be finalized in the US. This is a relatively new program for most agencies but from what I've read, things are going pretty well. However, we are fully aware that anything can change due to the nature of the country and the nature of adoption. This will cause us to be fully dependant on God and allow Him to take control and I see that as a great opportunity to draw closer and closer to Him during the process. We have surrendered our own agenda and any expectations that we may have in our mind of how we think it should all play out. For example, we originally wanted an infant girl, but that may change down the road due to the need for boys to be adopted. We know God will be the one to place a child (or 2...hehehe) in our family. He cares way more for His children than we do and we trust Him to work out the who and how old.

So that is a very tiny peace of my heart. Hope it helps with the why. We invite you to join us on our journey and ask for your prayers as we expect a crazy, sometimes scary, faith filled road to find our child.