Letters in English, from Uganda.

I can't even tell you the excitement that filled me as I opened the letters that the girls and their Uncle sent to us. The letters are filled with such love and excitement from our girls about the hopes and dreams they have to be apart of our family. Each of our daughter's wrote Steve and me a letter just telling us of their excitement to know that someday, they will have a family too! I think though, what touched my heart beyond words, they each wrote a letter to Elliot and Aleah! They talked as big sisters to little siblings have the joy it is going to be to be their big sisters and how much they are looking forward to it. We also received a lovely letter from the girls' Uncle sharing his gratitude and love for us. When I opened the envelope with his letter in it, I was in tears immediately as I saw two pictures of our girls when they were years younger! I can not tell you how much this meant to us to have a little piece of their past in our hands. He said he has prayed that the girls' wish of finding a forever family would come true. He shared that as much as he loves the girls he just can not provide for them the way he would want too. He also said that Steve and I were a part of his daily prayers. We feel like we are truly the blessed ones. I am so thankful for him, that he cares so deeply for these girls and wants so much for them and their future.

Our hearts are filled with such incredible joy to think that so soon, we are going to be a family of six! We will have four children under our roof. Steve and I talk about how much fun it is going to be to share our lives with are four amazing and beautiful children! We fill so blessed, our cup is truly running over!

All in His time

This post is from a few weeks ago. Although it is still accurate, we are still waiting I wanted to post it for the record so to speak. We are hoping to have news soon!

Waiting is hard, it doesn't matter where we are or what we are waiting for, but to wait is hard for most of us. Waiting to bring home our children, waiting for all the funds we need to get them here, waiting to hear the plans for my husband's future in the military, waiting to know if a family will love so much that they are willing to let go.

We are doing a lot of waiting right now. For those of you who are wondering, that is what we are doing right now, just a lot of waiting. Please pray for us. Please pray that God comforts us through the process and continues to provide all that is needed. Please pray for our girls and their hearts, that they are prepared for all the changes that will happen in their life.

A Good Week

This week I had two important "Ah-Ha" moments. First I realized that adoption for us is totally possible and that these girls are going to be ours, forever! I can't tell you how long this journey has been in my heart but for it to be so close that I can see the finish line, although it is still pretty faint, it is there. I can't wait for it to be touchable.

Second, I realized that the money will be here when we need it. That the good Lord will provide all of it, when we need it, maybe not until then, but it will be there. That is such an overwhelming feeling of comfort knowing that God has a plan for this too. As my mom said to me, "if He takes care of the little birds, then why would I ever doubt He would not take care of me!" Such a good thing to remember all the time, in any situation!!

My mom and I went out and clearance shopped this weekend. We were able to find the girls a few items at great deals. It is so fun to see clothes in the closet for them, just waiting for them to come home. Last night as I was looking at each of their little piles, I realized that this is possibly more clothes then they have ever had in their life, and yet, I was thinking they still need more. They still need jackets, coats, shoes, underwear, ect. You get the picture. And right now, they have three outfits to their name and they still smile. A lesson I know I could learn from.

Steve and I have decided to make fudge in three yummy favors and sell it in hopes of raising enough money to move to the next step in the adoption process. We are making approx 4 oz shaped hearts of solid fudge, one of each flavor, peanut butter, mint and regular. We will then package them in cute valentine wrapping and applying a handmade card to them. We are hoping to sell a lot of them!! If you are interested, just let us know and we can make arrangements for you to get your own!!

Blessings to all!!

A month later...

Do you ever just have a feeling and know? Something inside you says this is not going to be the easy path but definitely the path worth taking?

Do you ever read or hear something and say to yourself, if there was only something I could do?

I had that feeling in December when we decided to once again hit the adoption trail. It is such a hard and long path filled with so many ups and downs, unknowns and at times, too much known that is makes it that much more difficult. 

When Steve and I started on this path this time we had pretty much decided that we would like to add two children close to the age of our birth children to our family, one boy, and one girl. The thought of having two boys and two girls was very exciting to me! Don’t get me wrong, I was really nervous about it too. I knew there would be days that I wondered what we had got ourselves into. But then I would remember all the times that Elliot and Aleah have just wrapped us in their love and it made it all worthwhile and I could not imagine that feeling, x4. How blessed is that!

Then God introduced us to this sweet girl, H. She desperately wanted a home, a family of her own, with the dream of being a teacher some day. Steve and I talked about it and decided that what could be better than giving a home to an older child that desperately wanted a family. Then we found out she had a sister. There was just no way we could leave that sister behind. God made sure she was available for us to adopt as well! So now our family is so blessed to add two girls to our family, H is 10 and M is 9. (I promise to post pictures very soon!!)

So now, here we are about a month later and things are going CRAZY fast. We had our home study and we were told it could be complete in about 2 to 3 weeks. The home study is the final piece needed in order to be ready to send everything to the US government asking permission to adopt and to the Uganda government asking permission to allow us to make these girls part of our family. So now we wait and pray. Pray that the girls are excited and patient through this process, pray that the funds, or as a dear friend says, the ransom for our girls comes at the times we need it. We pray that when the girls leave the school that it makes room for two more girls, two girls who don’t have a bed to sleep in or food in their tummy at night, a chance too for them to find their forever family. 

We have been asked numerous times, why Uganda. The stories of orphans everywhere are heartbreaking. Every country has a story; every country has a child longing for a family of their own. This is our story. God put this in our hearts to love these girls and to bring them home. We read about the orphans in Uganda and our heart aches. I know that God has a plan but I don’t think his plan was for us to allow 2, 3, 4 year olds to live on the streets fighting for their food alongside the rats and dogs. I don’t think God’s plan was for us to allow children to be left in fields and on railroad tracks (yes, I said tracks) to die because their parent(s) felt they had no option but to leave them. I know every country has its story and I know every country has a call for help, but this was the calling that God put in our hearts. The place God called us to make a difference. One or two or even three children may not seem like much of a difference, but God takes that one example and multiplies it. In 2009 there was approximately 69 children adopted from Uganda by American families, in 2010 that number is over 200 children, and for 2011 we know it will be higher. That is the difference one child can make; one child, one calling, one God.

So why did we choice Uganda? We didn’t, God called us there. God wants us to help make a difference. I am not sure where our story will end but I know this story starts with two sisters in Uganda who just want a forever family and a mom in Montana who just wants her girls’ home.

More Decisions made...

I hope this finds you all well and safe. We have been passing a silly little cold bug around and I was able to avoid it until the last couple days! But I am thankful it has given me time to update you on the mountain God is moving.

Steve and I decided that we are going to do this adoption independently. Uganda is one of the few (it might be the only) country that let's you do an independent adoption. We have been in contact with a lawyer in Uganda, we have found an agency to do our home study, and we have started gathering the necessary items to get the process moving. My prayer is that our kids are home for the holidays next year.

The sweet girl that we are hoping to adopt is in her preteen years. As I mentioned before, she has a little sister that we were hoping to locate but were gently warned not to get our hopes up to high because there was not a high likely hood that we would find her. Well I emailed everyone I could think of and have connected with a lady who is actually going to Uganda in December and she said she knows that the girls have an uncle and she thinks that she will be able to find him and have him help her find the sister. As my mom and I were out gathering some small things to send to this sweet girl, I could not help but think of that sister and how much I did not want to leave her in Uganda alone. I came home and noticed I had an email. It was from one of the contacts I had made to inform me that yesterday, someone had brought the younger sister to the same orphanage as the older sister!  They were now together and ready to be adopted!! This is a miracle! I have to tell you every time I shut my eyes I see Gabrielle the angel with his mighty wings, wrapped around this precious little girl, delivering her to the orphanage so that she too, can have a family, her forever family. I cried and cried and praised the LORD! What a wonderful Christmas gift!

Now we await our beautiful son. I can't wait to see what God has in store for us with this little boy. I know he will be the perfect addition to our family! Please pray for all of "our" kids, the current and future ones!

Well that is it for now. If you have any questions, send them my way!

Many blessings ~ Janelle

I can't believe I FINALLY get to write this!

I have wanted to be able to write this blog for a long time and I can't believe I am finally able too!

What an amazing experience we are going through right now! I have met some amazing people on the Uganda adoption website and with them by our sides, we are moving full speed ahead on adopting and think we have found a match with a sweet little girl. We also learned she has a sister and we are trying to locate her and see if she is still available for adoption AND to make our family even better, we are going to add a little boy to the mix. SO God willing, we will have not, two, not three, not four but five children in our home! Can you imagine all the love? We are so excited!!

About a month ago when we knew we were really serious about this, we started saving all our coins towards the adoptions. Today, Elliot went into our room and got the jar. I was telling him to put it back but he said just a minute Mom, I want to show you something...so a little reluctantly I allowed him to take the jar. Elliot put the adoption jar next to his piggy bank, and unloaded his entire piggy bank into the jar!!! He said he wanted to help bring our kids home! I was filled with such pride and joy for this little boy that as a five year old, gets it! He really gets it. I cried and cried. I told him that Jesus was jumping up and down because he was so happy and proud of Elliot. What an amazing heart that kid has!! SO if you would like to help us toward our adoption and bringing our kids home, one of things you could do is please consider saving your change. It is pretty easy to just throw in a jar and let it add up!

I promise to post more soon!

Love you all!