God is sooo good. Sarah is home and settling in wonderfully. Praise the LORD!
Monday, February 22, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Wonderful news!
"Hi everyone,
This is actually Court (so please excuse the drop off in writing style). I just talked to Amy and the US Embassy has given Sarah her entrance VISA!
They should be getting on a plane at 10:55 pm tonight, Uganda time ( 2:55 pm here in Atlanta)"
This is actually Court (so please excuse the drop off in writing style). I just talked to Amy and the US Embassy has given Sarah her entrance VISA!
They should be getting on a plane at 10:55 pm tonight, Uganda time ( 2:55 pm here in Atlanta)"
Amy and Court have been allowed to adopt Sarah with a waiver of the 3 year residency requirement due to her health concerns. They are headed home today, will land in Atlanta on Thursday midday.
God works miracles!
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
Update from our dear friends in Uganda - no more calls please!
We had another awesome day today. We got some things done that we need for the "big day" on Friday. Doors that were closed before suddenly opened today. It was a super great day.
Sarah kissed Court today. Ahhh..... Daddy leaves tomorrow and both his girls will be sad to see him go. We're believing that our great big God will reunite us soon.
Thank you so much to everyone who made calls on our behalf. We feel so loved. All of the Ugandan offices and the US Embassy offices are doing everything they can to help us at this point. If I could be so bold as to ask that they don't get any more calls, I hope you'd understand. It's not coming from a place of ungratefulness. I am SO thankful for the amazing support we have received. Now, we just need those offices to be able to work on our case instead of answering calls and messages. :) The work is done, now we can all let go and let God.
I'd love for you to continue to support us in prayer.
*We need to enter every situation with humility, calmness, and utmost respect. We're so tired and our brains aren't working normally so we've been saying and doing things we might not normally do. We're asking God to be Lord of our hearts and mouths.
* Praises for Sarah's continued health improvements. She no longer has anything contagious like infections or parasites. She doesn't have anymore yucky diapers! That is so awesome. She is no longer a danger to others, now others are a danger to her with her low immunity. We are praying that the plane ride home will not expose her to anything that will be dangerous for her.
*Praise for healing of the skin in her diaper area.
*Prayer for the painful throat condition that is not getting better. It's difficult to see her in such pain. She makes a noise when she breathes in and out. When she cries, it is difficult for her to catch her breath and she sounds like a seal barking. She cries with pain often so it's a vicious cycle. Praying for relief from pain.
* When I'm carrying her, I often think my phone is vibrating but it's just Sarah's tummy. If you place your hand on her abdomen, there is a constant rumbling at all times. Praying for healing of her digestive system.
*Praises for Sarah's appetite. She loves potato soup, any soup really, and spaghetti. She'll eat a little rice and chicken if she's in the mood. She also loves ketchup. She drinks juice and water. But that's about it, we're praying that she'll eat whatever is available on the plane. Her body really can't endure 2 days without food.
*Of course, still praying for all things to come together in our favor on Friday.
Sarah kissed Court today. Ahhh..... Daddy leaves tomorrow and both his girls will be sad to see him go. We're believing that our great big God will reunite us soon.
Thank you so much to everyone who made calls on our behalf. We feel so loved. All of the Ugandan offices and the US Embassy offices are doing everything they can to help us at this point. If I could be so bold as to ask that they don't get any more calls, I hope you'd understand. It's not coming from a place of ungratefulness. I am SO thankful for the amazing support we have received. Now, we just need those offices to be able to work on our case instead of answering calls and messages. :) The work is done, now we can all let go and let God.
I'd love for you to continue to support us in prayer.
*We need to enter every situation with humility, calmness, and utmost respect. We're so tired and our brains aren't working normally so we've been saying and doing things we might not normally do. We're asking God to be Lord of our hearts and mouths.
* Praises for Sarah's continued health improvements. She no longer has anything contagious like infections or parasites. She doesn't have anymore yucky diapers! That is so awesome. She is no longer a danger to others, now others are a danger to her with her low immunity. We are praying that the plane ride home will not expose her to anything that will be dangerous for her.
*Praise for healing of the skin in her diaper area.
*Prayer for the painful throat condition that is not getting better. It's difficult to see her in such pain. She makes a noise when she breathes in and out. When she cries, it is difficult for her to catch her breath and she sounds like a seal barking. She cries with pain often so it's a vicious cycle. Praying for relief from pain.
* When I'm carrying her, I often think my phone is vibrating but it's just Sarah's tummy. If you place your hand on her abdomen, there is a constant rumbling at all times. Praying for healing of her digestive system.
*Praises for Sarah's appetite. She loves potato soup, any soup really, and spaghetti. She'll eat a little rice and chicken if she's in the mood. She also loves ketchup. She drinks juice and water. But that's about it, we're praying that she'll eat whatever is available on the plane. Her body really can't endure 2 days without food.
*Of course, still praying for all things to come together in our favor on Friday.
Sarah helping me update the blog. (Yep, she's holding a syringe. That's our life now.) I normally wouldn't post a picture that makes me look so ummm... "well-fed" but Godfrey assures me that fat woman are very beautiful here. :)
Sarah spends a ton of time in her high chair. She eats very slowly (as a result of her throat condition) so she'll sit there for 2 hours, play for 1 hour and then she's ready to eat again. While she sits there, I like to paint her toenails. I have 3 boys so I'm so excited to be able to do these things. I couldn't get her to pose her feet so I'm not sure if you can see her "Strawberry Electric" toenails.
I'm sorry to repeat myself but I can't thank you all enough for the support and prayer.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Please pray!
Amy and Court have been denied a visa to bring their daughter home.
The US Embassy called me and said that they will NOT EVER issue a visa for us. They want the judge to completely rewrite the court order, which is highly offensive. I don't see that happening. There are many, many, many American families here and many waiting to come and NONE of us will receive visas.
This is a death sentence for Sarah. We will have to find someone in Uganda willing to take a girl in her condition (unheard of) and leave her with a stranger. She has severe failure to thrive. She has finally attached to me and now I would have to leave her.
The pain is unimaginable. My boys... what do I tell my boys?
Here is a letter we sent to our congressman tonight...
We had a terrible thing happen today. As we were finalizing the last step in getting our daughter home, the unthinkable happened. We were informed by Sarah that the embassy has changed its stance on Ugandan guardianship and WILL NOT issue her a VISA. Yesterday all the were waiting on was the medical signature and today she is never coming home with us.
I arrived in Uganda an hour ago and was greeted with this news. Basically we are now legally responsible for this girl per a Ugandan court order, but we can not take her out of the country. We can not stay here much longer, I can not be gone from work and we have 3 other boys to take care of at home and visitor VISA are only good here for 2 months, but if we leave we are breaking Ugandan law.
If they made this decision moving forward I would understand, but to be this far along in the process, literally we would have been issued a VISA yesterday, but the doctor was too busy to sign a paper.
Yesterday our paperwork was OK. Today it is unacceptable.
The embassy vice-consular says that they have contacted their lawyers in Washington DC and they said we cannot have a Visa.
The embassy wants the judge to rewrite the entire court order saying that she is allowed to be adopted in the US instead of "allowed to immigrate to the US" and allowed to be a US citizen instead of "will remain a Ugandan citizen." This last part is meant that she would be allowed dual citizenship of both US and Uganda but the US Embassy wants the order to specifically say that she can be a US citizen. This is silly as Ugandan judges cannot rule that anyone be a US citizen.
Ugandan judges are extremely offended at being asked to change something they have been doing for a long time. Many children went home to the US from Uganda with the same wording and now suddenly it is a problem.
We are devastated.
We are meeting with our lawyer in the morning along with about 20 other American and Canadian families.
For those of you from our church, would you please forward this. Would you please send it to our Children's Minister and our Rector. Please ask for prayer.
I don't know how to close this.... I'm on my knees begging for mercy. Begging for my daughter's life. Begging for our family and the other families. Begging for the children who think they are finally free from a life of an orphan and have been told they are going home and will now be dumped by their new parents and left here as orphans again. This IS NOT RIGHT!!!!
