We had six whole, long weeks to prepare to fly to Uganda to meet our daughter. Part of me was so excited because I finally allowed myself to shop for our girl. I was so nervous that everything would fall apart (for good reason, see post here), and I knew it would break my heart to have things in our house for a daughter we planned for but never met. So I just never shopped for her at all. The other part of me was in agony because six weeks seemed like such a long time. Packing proved to be slightly overwhelming. It didn’t help that we were traveling across the globe to meet our very first child. We had no idea what to expect or what she would need while we were there. Luckily, we had good friends who had done almost the exact same thing three years prior who really helped us know what we needed to take with us, what we could get while we were there, gave us contacts in country, etc.
About three weeks into our wait, something really unexpected happened. The little girl that our best friends met and fell in love with {link here} when they were in Uganda showed back up at the baby home. With nowhere to go. I was certain our friends would adopt her. I begged my best friend to travel with me to see her. But after prayer and consideration of their current life circumstances (they had had two more kids since they were in Uganda), they felt like the answer was no. I was heartbroken, she was heartbroken. We prayed for so long for this little girl to have a family that loved her and the thought that she might just be stuck in an orphanage was nearly unbearable. Then my friend said something totally unexpected to me: what if you adopted her? At first, I balked at the idea. We were two weeks out from traveling. How on EARTH could everything come together fast enough? And more importantly, did we even want to adopt two kids? The whole thought was so completely overwhelming. We spent 18 months preparing mentally and emotionally for one daughter. I wasn’t sure that in such a short time I could come to terms with having two daughters, let alone mobilize everyone and everything it would take to execute this. But the more Corey and I prayed together, the more God showed us, once again that our comfort and ideals for a perfect life mattered far less than giving one of His children a home. One of the biggest issues standing in our way was the money it would take to accept a referral. Total with all the agency and in-country fees it came to just about $10,000. We would be crazy to take that on, right? We had already blown through all the money we put aside for a down payment on a house. We didn’t have even an extra dollar laying around. And then my best friend said something I will never forget: sometimes you have to just take the step, trusting God to provide.
So we said yes.
Well, to be more specific, I called our agency and asked if it would even be realistic to consider another referral less than two weeks before our travel date. The coordinator I spoke with sounded just as skeptical as I was feeling. She said she would look into it and get back to me. She called me back the next day, telling me the process was far easier than she thought it would be and if we wanted to accept the referral she would send it to us ASAP. Just 10 days before our plane took off for Uganda, we accepted a referral for our older daughter. I don’t think my heart stopped racing until we left. And then as soon as we landed our attorney dropped a complete bombshell that left us devastated.
To be continued….
To catch up on the rest of our story:
