More boys needing families...

So, I have gotten a couple of email replies, one from Jalia and one from Eileen. Jalia writes:

Dear Rebecca,

Thanks for the good heart of wanting to adopt from Uganda. Yes, Kato is available and i can get you another boy.

I will pray about it and let you know soon. What age would you like???

Blessings...Jalia

I wrote back to her that we are interested in adopting two older boys, so maybe between the ages of 11 or 12 and 16. When I wrote to her before, I had told her that our family is quite musical, so if she had some boys that love music, they might be a good fit for our family; but that more than anything, we want the boys that God has chosen for our family.

I heard from Eileen today, and she sent me a picture of two older boys from Kolfe Boys Orphanage that really want a family. She said:

Here is the photo of Binyam Older about 15-16 and Efrim about 13-14. These guys were so sweet. I paid tuition for Binyam to go to school this fall. He did not pass the 10th grade national exam and he needs to get more tutoring. The director of Kolfe asked if I could help him get two boys into school and so we paid for it right there. He was so grateful and humble when Johannas told him I paid for it. He hugged and kissed me and told me he will work very hard and study. Efrim's nickname is China because he has Asian-looking eyes. They both have a beautiful smile and seem to be quite happy in spite of their circumstances. They asked me to please find them a family. I will be getting more info soon. There were 120 boys talking to me and asking me to help them and I just couldn’t get all the info I wanted then.

Please pray with us that God will give us clear direction about where to adopt from, and whom to adopt; I know He will.

I am slowly gathering all of our documents together – certified copies of birth & marriage certificates, medical reports, etc – and also trying to gather together the amount we need to get the home study started, about $2000 total. Right now I’ve been trying to sell some of the kids’ old toys on Craigslist, their old drumset, things like that. Also, we are blessed to be able to host a sweet couple from our church’s school of ministry in our home for two months, and they are paying some for food and utilities; I’m putting that into the adoption fund too. :) I know God will multiply it and provide what we need.

Loaves and Fishes

(Notes from Crazy Love by Francis Chan)

Jesus gave the loaves to his disciples and then the disciples passed them out to the crowd. Imagine if the disciples had simply held onto the food Jesus gave them, continually thanking Him for providing lunch for them…

But that is exactly what we do when we fail to give freely and joyfully. We are loaded down with too many good things, more than we could ever need, while others are desperate for a small loaf. The good things we cling to our more than money: we hoard our resources, our gifts, our time, our families…

“What are you doing right now that requires faith?”

That question affected me deeply because at the time I could think of nothing in my life that required faith…

God doesn’t call us to be comfortable. He calls us to trust Him so completely that we are unafraid to put ourselves in situations where we will be in trouble if He doesn’t come through…

“If you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.” (Isaiah 58:10)

We are each given different gifts and talents by our Master. The thing that matters most is how we use what we have been given, not how much we make or do compared to others. What matters is that we spend ourselves.

Uganda or Ethiopia?

This past week, four of the boys from the African Children’s Choir stayed at our house for two days. They are from Uganda, and are between 9 and 11, so it was interesting being around them, thinking, we could have boys like this in our family within the next year. Here they are, listening to one of their chaperones tell them a bedtime story:

And here they are with Alex and Trevor:

Then today, I got two emails. One was from Jodi; she sent me the link to a video of some older boys, taken at Royal School and Orphanage in Uganda, the place where she is adopting her kids and where Kato Fred is. This is the link - http://www.vimeo.com/5425469; you have to click play and wait for it to load (I don’t know how to embed videos, sorry – need to take the time to figure it out). As I watched it, especially seeing the boys who loved music, I thought -– I could totally see some of these boys in our family. (This is another great video from the orphanage, of Jalia, the lady who started it and runs it -- http://vimeo.com/5478551).

Later I got this email from Eileen, who just got back from Ethiopia:

I just got home last night and I am so excited to tell you I have several boys to recommend for adoption. I was thinking of you the entire time I was there and so many of them asked me to please find them a family. I have to get all my photos together and videos that I will be posting soon. There are two boys that are specifically special to my cousin Georgie that he asked me to tell you about. Do you have an age range in mind?? I have several older and younger... I can't wait to tell you about them!

I’m waiting to hear back from Eileen, and I’m also going to email Jalia in Uganda to ask her about another possible boy to adopt with Kato Fred, or maybe two brothers. So, please pray and agree with us that God would lead us to the specific children he has for our family. Obviously, there are so many in need, it can be overwhelming.