A few months ago we thought we'd be adopting a child from South Africa and it'd take two to three years. But just two weeks into the process, we saw a face on our adoption agency's waiting child list, a beautiful face belonging to a little boy in Uganda ,but virtually no information about him in his profile.
Before we were approved for more info about him, waited and waited for a letter from my spine surgeon say that yes, I am capable of parenting. It took five weeks and finally arrived. Turns out, the agency needed more info in the letter. So we waited (again) for a new letter. Finally, two months after we first saw his face we got the info we'd been waiting for.
Adopting a waiting child means some pretty huge changes in the game, especially in terms of time. Instead of taking two to three years, he could be home in as little as nine months. That means an extraordinary amount of fundraising to do in a very short amount of time. We're we prepared to take that on?
Yesterday, after two weeks of praying and talking (and asking a ton of questions of our agency, who has been very patient with us!), we made a decision.
We are pursuing him!
I wish I could tell you every little thing I know about him and show you his beautiful face. He is gorgeous. But we've been urged to keep this info off the Internet. Talk about a test of character for me! I have trouble keeping even the littlest bit of exciting news to myself.
What's next in the process is our first home visit next Friday. We will have two more over the next couple of months. Once our home study is completed, hopefully in late April, it will be submitted to Uganda for early approval while we work on our dossier.
In the meantime, our agency knows that it is our hope to adopt this specific little boy and any families who inquire will be told we're pursuing him. Additionally, once our home study is submitted to Uganda for early approval, his profile will be removed from their site. In a few weeks, a social worker is going to visit him on our behalf and at that time, the orphanage will be told of our plans.
We never imagined that so early on in the process we would know who our child is or that the process would be so much shorter! Like I said, things never go entirely according to plan.
In the meantime, we covet your prayers. Some things you can pray about specifically are:
- For his health and safety.
- For our hearts. It's been extraordinarily difficult knowing who he is, but being so far away.
- For peace and patience. There's a lot of uncertainty in the process. Please pray we are able to take it one hurdle at a time and not get overwhelmed.
- For finances. Because of the incredibly short timeline, this will be an ongoing need and concern.
Lots of love,
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