Introducing Our Girl

We've been home about a month now and I think it's high time she makes her debut.  Please forgive us for the delay.  My "type A" on-top-of-it personality apparently got left behind in Uganda.

Introducing the newest member of our family, sweet and playful 

Vero!

As you may be able to tell by the picture, she has a bit of a sassy side too.  

Hmm, sassy & sweet?  She just may be a little like her Momma.  

Here is a timeline of where we've been and the steps God faithfully 

guided us through to bring her home to us.  

Fall of 2011 - Seriously begin considering adoption for our family.  This involved lots of prayer and the use of a little thing we call Google.  

January 4, 2012 - feel a nudge from the Lord that there is a 4 year old girl out there waiting to join our family

March 12 - First home study visit - a home study is a report written by a social worker stating whether or not they can recommend the family for adoption.  This just happened to correspond with demo on our bathroom.  "Hello, welcome to our home.  Don't mind the dust or the fact that we haven't showered." Yep, bad planning.  

Adoption paperwork is now my full time job.

May 24 - After three in person visits, more paperwork and lots of training our home study is complete!  

May 25 - Applications to Good Shepherd's Fold and USCIS turned in and mailed off - 

we didn't waste any time!

July 8 - Biometrics at USCIS in the Twin Cities

July & August - Lots and lots of fundraising and prayers for God to make this possible.  Read more about it here and here.  

August 31 - Interview with Jimmy from GSF

September 1 - Meet with a whole group of families who have served at and adopted from GSF.  Seeing this community of believers with their little ones was an amazing experience for us and now more than ever we were hoping and praying that this was the direction the Lord would have for us.

September 14 - Found out we were approved to adopt by the Leadership Team at GSF.  YAY! 

October 1  - Received our referral for Vero, 5 years old at the time.  I look at her birthday and realize the Lord was whispering to me about her when she was 4 years old!

"Soon to the be the proud Momma of 4: 3 homegrown & 1 heart grown!"

November 11 - Meet up with some GSF adoptive families and some past and current missionaries serving there.  

November 20 - Phone call from Claudia.  Seeing all those extra numbers on the caller ID sure made my heart beat!  We have a court date - Dec. 18!

December 12 - Leave for Uganda.  

December 13  - Meet Vero in the Entebbe airport!  I wish we would have taken a picture but it was like 1:00 AM and we were all so very tired (plus the vain side of myself really did not want documentation of how disgusting I look after 30+ hours of travel, thank you very much.)  Here is a picture of her all dressed up the next day. 

December 14 - First court date

December 17 - Second court date

December 20 - Legal Guardianship granted!

December 21 - Went to the passport office to turn in paperwork.  Trying to rush things through before the holidays, we ended up getting our passport by the end of the day.  

Being in Uganda in December definitely had its perks!

December 22 - Medical Exam at IOM

December 24 - Official theme song for our journey to the Pearl of Africa declared: 

10, 000 Reasons

OK, that didn't really happen.  But we were blessed to walk this road with a family who live just down the highway from us in Minneapolis.  As God would have it, they were in UG the same time we were - we went through court dates, embassy appointments, many hours of waiting at the coffee shop across the street from the attorney's office, and the passport office together. Ryan leads worship at a church in the Twin Cities and he led worship a few times at GSF.  This song was always on the list.  

December 25 - Celebrate Christmas in Uganda!

December 27 - Turn in paperwork at the Embassy in Kampala

January 2, 2013 - Interview at the Embassy

January 3 - Pick up the visa from the Embassy 

January 6 - After some panic at the airport in Entebbe, we made our flight, flew to London, then Chicago, and then...

January 7 - Arrived at Home!

Look at all these great people who welcomed us!

If you haven't heard me say it before, thank you to everyone who helped us bring this precious child home.  I am overwhelmed by how many people God has used throughout this process and the variety of ways they've been a blessing.  We will never know this side of heaven just how many people offered prayers on our behalf but we are truly grateful.  We are grateful for every prayer, every word of encouragement, every dollar given, every act of kindness, and every person who walked this road beside us.  

From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you!