Why Uganda?

So the question keeps coming up- "Why Uganda?" I will probably not be very good at answering this because I am not sure we are entirely sure, but this is what we do know about why...

First, you can go back and see this post and read the one before it also if you feel so inclined. Many of the "reasons" are in those two posts.
Second, we know the God we serve cares not only about the people here in this country, but also about people in the rest of the world! Of course the most "famous" verse in the Bible or the one that is taught and talked about a lot...
John 3:16, "for God so loved the world, that he gave his only son..." Certainly includes more than America.
John 4:9-10, "4:9 By this the love of God is revealed in us: that God has sent his one and only Son into the world so that we may live through him. 10 In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins
Acts 10:34-35 reports, "Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism ³⁵ but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right."
So interesting that Peter, a Jewish man, would be recorded as including all nations, but American Christians can so easily forget about the rest of the world. But God is so much bigger than just America.
Third, the verse that most stands out to me is James 1:27 when I think about adoption, "Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you." Orphan is defined as, "a child deprived by death of one or usually both parents."
There are over 2 million Orphans in Uganda and almost half of them are orphaned because of the AIDS crisis. How sad is it that Christians don't see this and many other countries who have similar statistics and answer the call to adopt. God himself adopts us as his own, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father." Romans 8:14-16. It seems so clear to me if God chooses to adopt us, we should do as we see the father doing. Will it be easy for us to do? No, probably not. But it was not easy for Jesus to go to the cross and die for all of my unrighteousness either. 

One of the hardest parts so far has been fear. Fear of the financial costs, fear of traveling, fear that something will go wrong and I will end up heart-broken, fear of what people will say/think/do that would hurt one of my kids, fear that our children (all of them) will have a hard time adjusting, fear of the language barrier, and the list could go on. But I do not have to live in that fear. I can give all of that to Him, who created adoption, so that I could live. I stand in his promises." For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." 2 Tim 1:7.

I have a spirit of Power, love and sound mind! So awesome. Thanking Him for that. So we want to ask you, "Why NOT Uganda?" Why not bring an orphan into a family. I say, "Satan, get out of my way! I am coming to get my babies!" After all, the most dangerous place to be is between a mother and her babies!

Adoption updates and how this started

Well we are two more interviews down, two physicals, a few more forms and $1000 to go on our home study. What is a home study you ask? Well, I am so glad you asked so that I can let you know how benign and un-scary it really has been thus far.

2011
Aug 2011- Matt tells me he is ready to start talking about an adoption

2012
March 2012- Matt attends an adoption informational meeting with an agency and also finds out about other agencies in our area for domestic infant adoption
Rest of 2012- We talked about, prayed about, thought about, debated about and finally decided to partner with Catholic Charities to begin our adoption journey

2013
January 24, 2013- God was changing my heart in a big way. He was moving to get us off of our plan and onto his. You can read more about that towards the bottom of this post.
January 25, 2013- We meet the social worker and have our first interview. During the interview, she told us that 5 months ago they had no waiting families. Now they have thirteen and they did 6 placements last year. The math for that figures out to about a 2.5 year wait! Because we also have biological children, it would probably make it longer than that. Later that day, I received more confirmation that The Lord had other plans for us. You can find more about that on this post.
January 31, 2013- submitted our child abuse and background check. Also were fingerprinted, so I guess we are in the system now- ha!
February- March 2013- researching more about international adoptions and filling out the
ENORMOUS paperwork packet...ok so it was only about 20 pages long...but still... Also, sometime in this timeline, I heard Matt tell one of our friends we were adopting from Uganda! My heart lept. He had never actually said it. I was so excited!
March 13, 2013- Matt and I had our individual interviews. We still need to have our physicals done. Both of the kids medical paperwork is in. Our background checks came back. Also, emailed agency that we found out about that does Ugandan adoptions.
March 21, 2013- Spoke to the agent at Florida Home Studies and Adoptions (FHSA). You can visit their site for more stats on Uganda and some information to think about concerning the orphans of Uganda. We met their first criteria and then we got a copy of their fee schedule. It was comparable to everything I had researched about adopting from Uganda. We decided to go with this agency.
April 2, 2013- Agent from FHSA called back. We are placed on a waiting list. She also tells me about Ruth. A four year old girl who has been through her first failed adoption by a family who felt they could not finish. She has a clean medical history and has been left. Broke my heart!

We don't know if Ruth is ours or not, but will you please be praying about our adoption and that the journey would be a clear and precise one? We know we are called to adopt, we just don't know who...