Happy 30th Birthday Zack!

Zack turned the big 30 this past weekend. We had a great surprise birthday party for him- great because he was really surprised! His sister came in all the way from North Carolina, and his college roommate and his wife made a surprise visit as well. We so appreciated everyone making the effort to help us celebrate such a momentous occasion. It was a wonderful time of fellowship and fun....and food :)

Love my Mom....Love Being a Mom :)

Even though last year was "officially" my first Mother's Day, this year really kind of felt like the real thing :) Last year at this time, Caleb had only been home around 5 months, and though we loved him dearly, we were still getting to know each other and still bonding, he was still learning to trust us, and we were all kind of still in semi-survival mode. Now, we are just like old pals :) We have had so many good times together. Seriously, I love being this guy's mommy! He is the best. No doubt about it. And he is going to be an awesome big brother. What did we ever do without Caleb?



I have been a daughter for 27 (almost 28 years now :) so I have that role down pretty well :) And my mom definitely has the mom role down. If I could only do it as well as she does one day.....Love you mom. Oh, and you are an awesome grandma (or bobbi, as Caleb says).




I was kind of looking over my blog and realized I had not posted anything very "serious" (for lack of a better word) in quite a while. A good serious post is needed :) And God has been teaching me some serious things that I need to share....so I look forward to doing that soon!

Destination: UGANDA!!!

Thursday evening we received a call from Nightlight Christian Adoptions, the agency offering the Uganda pilot program. We were told we were accepted into the Uganda program! Praise the Lord! This is a huge blessing and opportunity for our family! It has taken a little longer than we thought, but we finally have a clear path to pursue for our second adoption, and we are so excited. So, here are some details about the program:


-The program is through Nightlight Christian Adoption, a really wonderful agency.

-Uganda is a landlocked country in East Africa- It comes sooo close to bordering Ethiopia....but not quite as you can see from the map below :)

-Over half of the population of the country lives on less than a dollar a day

-This is a pilot program.....which means expect anything! However, the timetable appears to be such that we will wait between 3-6 months for a referral after our dossier is received in Uganda. This could be much sooner, however, as we are open to a child of either gender under 2 with HIV. We also indicated that we are open to a sibling group of 2 children with HIV, under the age of 3 :)

-Most likely, we will travel within 1-2 months of receiving our referral, but this could take up to 6 months....again, it is a pilot program.

-We will stay in the capital of Uganda, Kampala, for at least 3 weeks, though this could be a bit longer too. However, one parent may come home after a few days.

So, where are we in the process? Well, our home study is complete, and we should be receiving it in a week or so. At that point, we will apply to USCIS and wait for their approval, which is reportedly taking around 90 days. During that time, we will assemble our dossier, and as soon as our USCIS approval comes, ship all our paperwork to Uganda!

We are very thankful and humbled for this opportunity. To God be the Glory!

My Tender Hearted Boy......

This past week I had the opportunity to speak to our local MOPS group about my adoption experience- as an adopted child, an adoptive parent, and a child adopted into the Kingdom of God. It was such a great opportunity and I was so thankful for the experience. I pray God used something I said to speak to the wonderful ladies.

At the end of my presentation, I played the Chapman (Steven Curtis and Mary Beth) family's adoption story. If you have ever seen this video, you know at the end it includes SCC singing "When Love Takes You In" and it also includes the music video for this song. We noticed Caleb really watching the video, and at one time, his back was to us as he was completely engrossed in the song and video. When he turned around, he had tears rolling down his cheeks. I immediately asked him what was wrong, and he replied, "Sad." I asked him why he was sad, and he said, "Movie sad". We were in awe and I almost started crying myself! He was so touched by the video! I have been praying that God would give Caleb a compassionate heart and that he would love others the way God loves. Thank you Lord!

Happy Easter....& An Open Door?

We had a great couple of days we have had! Papaw and Nana (Zack's parents) and Micah and Erin (Zack's sisters) came to visit the weekend and we all had such a great time! The weather was beautiful and we had lots of fun playing outside. And what a beautiful Easter day it was! God really blessed us with gorgeous weather to celebrate the Risen Christ. Caleb also received a nice surprise from the Easter bunny- he was pretty excited about that :)

In adoption news, it appears that God has opened a door to us that we thought had been closed (this was one of the situations we were playing through). To make a long story short, a very reputable Christian agency is offering an amazing opportunity! They have recently began a orphanage ministry in the African country of Uganda, and are seeking 10 families to begin the program. The amazing part- the families selected to be a part of the pilot program in Uganda will only be responsible for their travel and immigration costs- the agency is not charging any fees! This is absolutely an amazing thing! There is an application process to be accepted into the program, and then the ten families are chosen by the agency's board of directors. The applications are due in a couple weeks, and then the board will meet. We are not quite sure when we will know something for sure, but we feel like it will be sometime in May. Needless to say, this would be a true blessing to our family financially, and to be involved in the ministry this agency is establishing in Uganda would be even more awesome! There are around 2.5 million orphans in Uganda, and HIV is a huge issue. Uganda is also a smaller adoption program and not as well known as Ethiopia, so we feel this would be a great opportunity to spread the word about adoption from Uganda. Just keep us in your prayers.....we will keep you updated! Either way, we will be going to Africa to bring home our second child. Awesome!

God's Glory......

Hello? Caleb managing the office :)
Enjoying one of his favorite meals....chicken and french fries

The Pose....what else can be said about this one??

Today Zack and I held an America World seminar at our church. As America World Associates, we have done a few of these in the past, and each time we are so blessed by them! It is our honor to help tell others about the miracle of adoption any way we can. So far, we know of at least three families that have submitted applications to America World after attending a seminar. That is at least four children who most likely will be adopted! Praise God!!! He moves hearts in awesome ways!

The seminar today went awesome! God really showed up in an awesome way, and counting Zack and I and my parents (who always try to come for moral support), there were 17 people! That is the best turn out by far!! We were able to speak with many of the families personally after the seminar, and we believe that more children will be adopted! Again, praise Him!

Zack and I have often talked about how we never could have imagined how God would use our adoption to bless so many people and to open so many doors for us to speak about adoption. We are humbled and honored to be able to be used in such a way. It is such a blessing!

In the last post I wrote about feeling as if God was leading us to wait a bit before we made any decisions, as we were waiting to find out about a few different situations and circumstances. In the past week, God gave us an answer for each of them! So, we feel confident to move ahead in our decision to adopt from.......Ethiopia!!!! We have a strong peace in moving forward with this decision. We will be requesting a child ages 6-18 months of either gender (which will most likely result in a boy- a brother or Caleb!! yay!!!! ) that is HIV positive. Because we are requesting a child that is HIV positive, our referral could come as soon as 1-3 months after our paperwork reaches Ethiopia! We are not quite sure when our dossier will reach Ethiopia (we haven't even submitted it to our agency yet), but we are estimating it could be there by the end of May. It is crazy to think about bringing home a child this year, but I guess it could happen!

We are now going to commit ourselves to preparing as much as possible and learning as much as possible about HIV and how to give the best resources and care to our child. We have already done quite a bit of networking in terms of medical care and getting to know other families who have/are adopting children with HIV. We trust God will continue to lead us in this way as we seek to show His love to our new child!!

It's March Madness and that can only mean one thing......Break out your blue and cheer on those Kentucky Wildcats! As you can see from the pictures above, Caleb is already a full fledged Wildcat fan! We raise them right in Kentucky :)

In adoption news.....well, no concrete decision has been made in regard to country, still. We just feel like the Lord is asking us to continue to explore some very specific scenarios and situations, and this means....more waiting! Trust me, I don't want to wait. I want to just go, go, go! Especially since we have all our paperwork ready to submit for our dossier! It is so different than our last adoption- we had to wait and wait on paperwork. This time, we have all our paperwork completed, and our social worker is basically just waiting on us to decide the country so she can write our home study. But, we wait. It is hard. But, with God's grace and help, we wait.

What has been the most exciting thing to me the last couple of weeks is to see how God has used our previous adoption to lead so many people to adoption, even if it is just to peak their interest. I stand in awe of God's glory and sovereignty. Just a couple of weeks ago I ran into an old high school friend at the post office. She knew of our adoption and she asked me how Caleb was doing. She also expressed to me that she and her husband were interested in adoption and that they would be traveling this summer to do mission work in another country, and would really be interested in adopting from that country. I tried to encourage her as much as possible, and I also gave her our blog address. I took down her email and sent a few links regarding adoption. Long story short, she is now signed up to attend the upcoming adoption seminar and we are having lunch soon to talk more about adoption- so awesome!!! Then, just last night we were at the park with Caleb and we ran into a young couple who has not been able to have children biologically. I had spoken with the young lady many months ago about adoption, but hadn't heard anything from her. After speaking with them last night, she seemed very interested in attending the adoption seminar as well. God is at work, and we praise Him for that!

Being able to play a small role in helping others along the path of adoption has helped our anxiousness and waiting with our own adoption pass more quickly. In the meantime, we continue to pray and look for opportunities to speak to others about the awesome plan of adoption!