Travel shots!

John and I received our travel vaccines yesterday. We had to get 6, yes 6, shots! Yellow fever, meningitis, hepatitis A, tetanus, and 2 more I can't remember! We got medicine we will take daily for malaria while there and then continued for a week when home, and an antibiotic for both of us (with multiple refills) to take with us for not IF but WHEN we get diarrhea. Apparently it's rare NOT to pick up something while there!

Progress

I heard from our attorney in Uganda today, who has been amazing so far with communicating with us, and the newspaper advertisements have been placed. Also, her 2 surviving relatives are meeting at his office tomorrow at 2:00 to sign the affidavit that confirms their consent to the adoption After this, we sign and it is sent to court to receive our court date. Time is ticking very quickly so we are hoping and praying for that court date before court closures in mid-July!

Here is a copy below of what is in their local paper:

BIG NEWS!!!

We are so happy to finally be able to announce we have been matched!
I just knew..

A) Our baby would be a boy
B) Our baby would be a young BABY , i.e.: under 18 months
C) Our little one would come in God's perfect timing and when we least expected it

Turns out, I was only right about C....


Long story short, we were presented with an opportunity to consider a toddler, just a little over 10 months shy of Eli's age to be exact (2.5 years)...although I was a little hesitant at first, as I had not "planned " for that.   After receiving pictures of this sweet, beautiful little GIRL, praying, and just simply "having the feeling" that this is our daughter...we have accepted her and are moving forward with adopting her into our family! We are beyond excited (and many other adjectives that would be impossible to describe) and praying for a quick process to get her home!

Her name is "Sofia", we are so thankful that she has a beautiful name that we will keep! She lost both of her parents shortly after birth..lived with her sick grandmother up until about a month ago when she was relinquished to an orphanage in Jinja, Uganda.  She speaks NO English! Her language is Lugandan. Uganda's national language is English but many of the small villages speak their own languages, and hers happens to be one of those! So, we definitely have our work cut out for us with communicating for a while. The rest of her story will be hers to tell:)

We are possibly looking at a court date the week of July 8th. Court closes in Uganda for a month from July 15-Aug. 15 for rainy season so if not that week , it will have to be after court reopens in August.

So, since I have made this blog private (we can in no way ever post a picture publicly until we are officially legal guardians of her)...I can post on here:) So here she is...

The first picture we ever saw of Sofia

The most recent pic, taken last week at her medical appointment- how cute!

 The orphanage director said he would let her hair grow (they shave all girls heads) so it looks like I need to figure out quickly how to take care of it! He also told her that she has a mommy and daddy that live in the United States and will be coming for her soon and he said she is so happy and smiled really big.

We are so grateful for everyone's prayers and support and feel so blessed to be able to be on this journey. We have a lot of work ahead of us to get her here...paperwork, court, travel, etc...but now that we have a sweet face to look forward to, we know it will all be worth it.

What's going on!

Wow, it has been a while since I have posted...baseball, school getting out, vacation, etc, has kept us all so very busy! This adoption process has been challenging at times to say the least, especially since my impatient nature doesn't like to wait...but the good news is, things are moving along and soon enough we will have news to share. At this point, I do feel it will be best to make our blog private...as when we do have our little one we can share with close friends and family, without worries of anything that could potentially hurt our case. We are not allowed to show pictures of our little one publicly, when we do receive them, until we have been to court in Uganda.:( 

There have been surprises every step of the way and I know good and bad, that will continue to happen, but we are in and ready for the next step..we are SO close!

Please let me know if you do want to follow privately and I will approve it:)

Much love and thank you for all of your prayers!

Amy