Malaria Facts

Eliana was diagnosed with malaria, and was hospitalized for a few days, but is now back at the home of the orphanage director. His wife is caring for her, along with some other sick children that need care. Thankfully after receiving meds and fluids, she is slowly recovering. The great thing about malaria is once treated, it clears up quickly for most children. When we are in country, we take a daily pill to prevent contracting the virus.

Below I put some information on malaria, a very preventable disease! Uganda is the #1 country in Africa at risk for and confirmed cases of malaria.

Update..or lack thereof..

For anyone who doesn't know, I got a many of Eliana's pics day before yesterday and knew immediately she looked very sick.

After I emailed the director he said she was indeed sick...she has high fevers and "body weakness". He said he was taking her yesterday morning to the hospital and I have had no feedback since then from him. We are just praying that she is getting stronger and better but have faith God will take care of her.
I will keep everyone updated!

By the way, her tummy looks very distended in these pics...which it is to some extent, but nothing like this! She just has her hands pushing it out. I have many more where it looks more "normal".

Please pray for this little girl!!!

Amy

Prayer for a Grateful heart

Faith..

Eliana,

When we decided to move forward with you joining into our family, we knew it would come with hardships. Little did we know, it would include your sickness before we could get to you. It is so unfortunate that we can not be there to hold you in Uganda...there is nothing more a child needs in sickness than a mother's touch. However, there is thankfully a touch even stronger than this.
His touch heals when a mama is there and when she is not. His touch heals when we need Him and  when we don't even deserve to be healed. His Healing Hands are what makes my faith. The only comfort in your sickness from afar is that God always delivers. He always answers. It may not be the answer we want or think we need at the time...but the answer is ALWAYS RIGHT. It is exactly what is meant to be. And that alone..is what gives me peace....and ultimately gives me faith.
We love you from afar, and I know God brought you this far..and He isn't going to fail you now. We will be there soon.

Much Love Sweet Girl,
Mommy

Signed Affidavits!

Thank God the affidavits we will submit to court were signed today in Uganda and we will print to have notarized and will overnight today along with all the other load of paperwork to Uganda to be submitted to court. We should have a court date given within the next week of being submitted.  One more step down, very close to getting a COURT DATE:)

Thanks for all your prayers:)
Amy

Update

I will refer to our main contact in Uganda as "Mr. A" from now on...it will be easier instead of "orphanage director" every time I write an entry! So, communicated to Mr. A via email yesterday and he said that Steven is taking meds now and should be better soon. Still praying for him to recover quickly! Can you even imagine being 4 and not having a mommy to take care of you when you are so sick? That thought alone makes me so sad for him!

On another note, Eliana's grandmother and uncle are signing paperwork this Friday (getting to Kampala  (the capital city) from where they live (outside of Jinja) is a very big deal...Mr. A goes with them, and even Mr. A doesn't have a car, so they hire a driver to get them there). Her uncle is out of town now and has been for a while, working to bring home food/resources for the home, and promised to be home Thursday night where they can leave Friday.

Little by little, step by step, we are getting closer. After they sign the affidavits, we have them notarized (5 copies) and then we overnight them with all of our other mounds of paperwork, which are all notarized/blue ink yada yada.., and our attorney submits them to court to receive a court date! He did say that the courts, although closed, the clerical side of court will still give court dates, and dependent on the amount of work they have, determines the time of our court date. It could be "soon". Remember what I mentioned about "soon" in Africa? NOT the same as in the US! But hoping for an end of August court date! Prayers for that please!

I keep asking for pictures and Mr. A is getting those "soon" as well:) We shall see if we get one before court! Supposedly her new bed will be there this week...she has never slept on a bed (or probably even seen a bed!), so I know she will be so excited! She has shoes on her feet now (for the first time) and clothes and milk in her belly! My biggest concern for her is health, staying well until we can get there!

Thanks for all your prayers and support!

Prayers going up!

I spoke to a lady in Chicago today who is adopting from the same place in Uganda, a little boy and little girl. She has already been once, showed up for court, and the judge said she was too busy to see them and to come back after closures in late August! I can only imagine her disappointment since she had already met, and bonded, with the kids. This was in June, and they came home after the news. Today, she had more bad news that her son had contracted malaria (again) and was extremely ill. She doesn't really have a lot of information, but that he was in pretty bad shape, and is vomiting, diarrhea, etc...and dehydrated. Malaria kills children there all the time, so of course she is so worried and I am praying for him and her! Would you please say a quick prayer for little Steven? He is 4 years old, sweet, adorable, and very sick:(

This makes me scared for Eliana too...as she lives in the same home (well, I would call it a room), with him, and 5 other children, 2 of which are the orphanage director's children.  Please pray for all of their health, safety, and for God's healing hands on them all.

Still waiting to see what day Eliana's family will be headed to sign the paperwork this week. Will keep everyone posted!

You made the paper!

Here is the ad that is in the local Ugandan paper to announce your adoption.

THE REPUBLIC OF UGANDA

IN THE MATTER OF AN APPLICATION BY JOHN ESTIN DAVIS AND AMY GRAY DAVIS FOR LEGAL GUARDIANSHIP OF MBEDHA JOAN

 (MINOR)

GENERAL NOTICE

  Mbedha Joan

Born on 13rd January 2012

Both Father (Isabirye Bategana) and Mother (Tyamisa Aidha) are deceased.

NOTICE is hereby given to any surviving relative of the above child Mbedha Joan of Magamaga village, Buwenge Sub County Jinja District and to all whom it may concern that a Petition is being filed at the High Court of Uganda at Kampala for the Legal Guardianship of the above mentioned child. Unless you contact; The Probation and Social welfare services department of Jinja District, Shared Hope for Orphans Uganda, Buwenge Town Council Jinja District, we shall proceed with filing of the petition. 

Dated at Kampala this 11^th day of July 2013.

………………......................

M/S ANGUALIA BUSIKU & CO. ADVOCATES

COUNSEL FOR THE PETITIONERS

Drawn and prepared by;

M/s Angualia Busiku & Co. Advocates

Plot 3 Parliament Avenue,

Raja Chambers, 1^st Floor Suite No. 32

P.O. Box 27689 Kampala.

www.lawyers-uganda.com

Dear Eliana...

Eliana,

We heard from the attorney today you will be in the newspaper this Friday or Saturday (and can I tell you how cute your picture is?). This is mandatory in Uganda , to make sure all are aware of the adoption. Also, this week your grandmother and uncle will be signing a petition for you to have a forever home in the US with a mommy, daddy, and brothers. They are so excited to see you have a better life and to thrive with a family. I can't wait to meet your grandmother and ask her so many questions about you and learn about your culture.
You are truly a blessing. There are so many times in life when we have no control and no clue as to what is ahead. Adopting you is a perfect example of God's grace and perfect plan. I can think of nothing stronger than the urge of wanting to protect my children, and now...you are my child and my instinct is to want you to be safe and well.  I pray for you and hope for you, safety, until we arrive to give you more love than you can even comprehend.
We love you already and we are so grateful for the gift of you.

Mommy

Introducing....

Oh my goodness...what a couple of weeks of emotional ups and downs. Whew!

A HUGE blessing is we are moving forward...

With a sweet little 17 month old girl.   Both of her parents are deceased and she has been with her grandmother who is extremely poor and her living conditions were pretty bad. She is staying in the orphanage director's home right now with he, his wife, and kids, as she is pretty sick and malnourished and needs time to get stronger. She is a teeny little thing right now...weighs less than 20 pounds...to put that in perspective.. all of my boys weighed 20 pounds at 6 months old! She speaks Lusoga, a Ugandan language. Since she is so small, she doesn't speak much anyway, so learning English should be easy for her.

Court is closed from July15-Aug 15 so we will not be able to go until after Aug 15. We have a lot to prepare for between now and then!

We are beyond thrilled to welcome her into our family! We have decided to name her "Eliana Abigail" Eliana means "God has answered" and "Abigail means "My Fathers Joy".  We will most likely call her "Ellie". And here she is in all her cuteness...:)

Cute with a freshly shaven head!

Please pray with us that everything goes smoothly with her and we are so blessed and thankful that  "God Has Answered"!

Waiting once again...

I know many of you know that we lost the referral of little Sofia about a week ago. If you do not, the short version of the story is, after a necessary newspaper advertisement stating our adopting her, a brother of her late father came forward and would not sign the affidavit to continue with her adoption. We looked into fighting against him, however, after 3 meetings with the orphanage director as well as our Ugandan attorney, the family decided for us to cease proceeding with the case, due to family problems and their discrepancies with the American culture. We are so sad to not be able to proceed, yet we know we did all we could, and as hard as it is, these things just happen sometimes in international adoption. It's part of what we signed up for on this journey (as bad as it stinks).

So what does this mean now? We wait and although it will be hard not to get TOO attached to pictures, we will move forward with whatever child chooses for us (and that should be very soon). I have heard a couple of times of people losing 2 referrals, but odds are on our side that will not happen:)

 Once again, it's all out of our control, just prayers for our future child, and our family as we navigate through this process.