Praise the Lord!

We were approved, after a very lengthy application process, for a $2500 grant with Lifesong for Orphans. We are so excited to be able to receive this matching money.

Do you want to hear even better news??? We already have $1000 of that from one of our generous friends which is becoming $2000 with the match!!!

We are still working for the other $1500. We are so thankful to our Father who has provided exceedingly, abundantly more than we could have thought or asked for. We know he will supply our needs and we know he does it through many different ways. We have been so blessed by all of our friends and family who are willing to listen and her the call of the Father to be a part of bringing new kids to be a part of our family.

If you are wondering how to get your donation matched, here are the directions Lifesong provided to us:

Make checks payable to: Lifesong for Orphans. In the memo please place "Bolin #4751" to identify that you would like your donation to go to our family. Please mail your check to Lifesong For Orphans, PO Box 40, Gridley, IL 61744.

If you prefer to give online, go to Lifesong for Orphans, Donate to Adoption Family and complete the form. Be sure to include our family name and number Bolin #4751. (note: Paypal will charge an administrative fee of 2.9%+ $.30 per transaction. Your donation will be decreased by the amount of this fee)

Note: In following IRS guidelines, your donation is to the named non-profit organization. The organization retains full discretion over its use, but intends to honor the donor's suggested use

Individual donations of $50 or more and yearly donations of $250 or more will receive a tax-deductible receipt. Receipts for donations under $50 will gladly be sent. upon request. Lifesong 501(c)3 tax exempt organization

Sponsor a piece of the puzzle

Our adoption puzzle has a beautiful photo on it and I absolutely love the quote on it. The suggestion per piece sponsorship is $5. When you sponsor a puzzle piece, we will write your name on the back of the piece. Then when we get our kids home, there will be a record of who was a "piece" of the puzzle. So get your piece today! As we build the picture, I will post new pictures so you can see the progress of the image. Maybe you want to sponsor one for each member of your family? Or maybe one for your business? Maybe even one for your family pet! You let me know what name you want on the back of your puzzle piece :) 

I saw this idea and immediately fell in love with it. I told my adoption team about it and they gave me the ok to do it!  So, will you sponsor a piece, or 10 today? You can give directly through PayPal or our youcaring page on the sidebar. Make sure to comment on what you want your piece(s) to say!

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...

Longing

I guess I didn't realize what waiting for your child to come home would feel like...Everyday (and we have just started the process) I can't help but feel like there are "littles" missing from our lives. The next part of the story from the day of our interview goes a little like this...

Thankfully, Pam and Dave were here to watch Noah, Foster and Lucas (a little boy, born the same day as Foster, I call my "adopted during the day son"- I am providing daycare for him) during our interview. When I got back, it was off to rush to LEGO class. Thanks to good friends Krystle Williams and Michelle Fairrow for organizing and putting it together. My mom called on the way and I told her as much as you know from reading the last post. When I told her about Liv's blog and that I thought we were going to investigate further adoption of something other than a "healthy domestic infant" she shared with me that she knew we were "going to adopt from Africa." I quickly said, "well that is strange because I do not want to go to Africa." Fast forward a few more hours. We were off to a Gator Gymnastics meet for Noah and his Cub Scout Den to go to. I briefly talked to someone else and she said, "I know this is going to sound strange, but when I was reading a post Liv did the other day, I had a strong feeling 'That is Ashley's baby.'" She was talking about a little girl whose mom died and she and her brother were abandoned by the rest of their family. This is a post from Liv's FB wall about the children, made by someone else, "These two children are the ones whose mother recently died and the extended family will not take. It is thought the father beat the mother when she arrived to tell him she became "born again". She suffered from chest problems which may have been caused by the father's abuse." Derrick and Peace are their names. They are thought to be about 4yrs and 2 yrs.

I don't know why those two thoughts from those two people were shared with me that day. Maybe God just wanted to move our hearts off of our plan and onto his. Maybe it isn't about Peace and Derrick at all. I just can't help but think about what the six (me and 4 boys- Noah, Derrick, Lucas and Foster- and Peace) would be doing during the day, while Matt is at work. How the two of them would fit into our family. The bunk beds the boys could share, how Foster would become a big brother and love on his little sister. How Noah would be the "leader of the pack" and how much fun he would have teach Derrick about loving to read and drive and play board games. How much fun they would have chasing each other through the house and around the yard. The games our first two would learn from Derrick and Peace and their way of life in Uganda. How I could tell them stories about them being rescued because they have a Father in Heaven that cares more about them than anyone on this earth ever could and how their birth mom also, obviously, loved them. And how she loved Jesus too, and that they would get to see her again someday. I can imagine the stories we would read and learn about Uganda and I can also imagine taking them back to Uganda to visit their roots. And to know that even though we live half way around the world, there will always be a part of them there and that they should feel special for that. But most of all, I can imagine holding all my babies, and having them squeeze into my lap, to read a book or pile in the hammock for some cuddles. I know those are super romanticized dreams...and most days wouldn't be so serene. Our lives would be crazy and there would be really hard days. But, I figure when you are family as long as you have each other, you really have everything. You can see Derrick and Peace here. I hope you will take the time to look at their beautiful faces and pray for them and for us. And for the staff at Okoa, no matter what children we end up adopting!

????

So, I know I am so inconsistent in posting. I do have pics etc that I want to upload. In fact, here are a few...

Foster eating his apple...I think this was his first whole apple experience and as you can tell, he loved it!

The boys playing in the leaves with the neigbors.

Which brings me to this pic...This was our gift from Pam and Dave for Christmas! SO perfect!

We had our first adoption interview yesterday!!! Here are a few more details about how it went...

Our interview went well, but much has changed in the last 24 hours that I wanted to update everyone. Last night I could not sleep. It was like the night before that big exam, or presentation in school, and you have the jitters and all you can think about is tomorrow and your mind won’t rest -or the night before Christmas- or a trip to Disney World. You are so excited thinking about the things that are to come that you can’t stop thinking about tomorrow. Or maybe I am the only one who that ever happens to… Anyway, I was having a hard time sleeping when I happened upon my sister’s friend’s blog. I read the most recent post about her son. Take a minute to read her post here. Go ahead, I’ll wait. My heart broke when I read about Liv’s son and knowing there are so many orphans here on this earth, that are going through this life without a mommy or a daddy. Without a family to call their own. I couldn’t get his beautiful smile out of my head.

Because I was so moved, naturally I read the next post. Again, go read it. I can wait... Since Matt was sleeping in the bed next to me, I didn’t watch the video posted at the end because I didn’t want to wake him. My heart was hurting for orphans. I went to my bible reading and the first verse I read was “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” Romans 8:28 NLT. Wow…really? Did I just read what I think I just read?

With the lights out, I laid in bed and still could not get Gideon’s huge smile out of my head. I think many of us would have thought of Gideon as “unadoptable” given his “condition.” But I think God was using Gideon to get to me. The next morning, I couldn’t get my words out before the tears started to flow. We were rushing to get ready but I told Matt that I wasn’t sure we would be adopting a “perfect” little infant like we had planned. I told him how I came across Liv’s blog. Gave him a quick synopsis so he would know where I was coming from, then told him I wanted to watch the video. We watched it. I hope you watch(ed) it. It changed our lives. It changed our perspective. We rushed around a bit more before hopping into the car and heading off to our interview. Matt reminded me on the way that we didn’t have to know exactly what we were doing and that is why we were going to the interview. Our interview went well. I cried some more… but you know what? That is ok. God is breaking my heart for children who are already born, living out their lives without knowing the love of a family. And hopefully, we will hear God’s call, according to his purpose for us, and everything will work together for our family’s good. Please lift us up as we ask and seek what his purpose is for us in adoption! You can visit our adoption page here. Please share the page with your friends, coworkers, neighbors, anyone you know!