Slight Update :-)

Hello everybody! Welcome to our world of waiting! :-) Although, believe it or not - it's peaceful here! Nate and I have been presented with an opportunity and we're just waiting patiently to hear from the Lord in which direction we should proceed.
There hasn't been any new information, but we do know that in the middle of December there will be a final investigation where these two children are concerned. We are so thankful that our agency works with professionals in Uganda who want to be ethical and above reproach! Therefore, they will be making sure all paperwork is in place, all the right people have been interviewed and these children are true orphans in need of a family. Once the investigation is complete, we will need to make a decision.
Please be praying for us in this. We desire to do exactly what God has called us to do, and we are aware that sometimes His calling is not what we thought it would be, but we just need clear direction.
A friend of ours recently described a time in her life when she was asking God to speak to her. She desperately wanted to hear from the Lord and to know that He was speaking, so she asked Him to be very loud in His response, no whispers or little hints. This is exactly what we're praying for now (I like to call it the "neon sign"!) :-) Please pray with us in the next few weeks that we will hear God clearly. That we will know exactly what to say when the next call comes.
Thank you so much! It is such a blessing to know that we don't walk this alone. We know there are people all over that are walking us through in prayer. I believe that is where the peace comes from, only God's peace, asked for from God's people! Thank you Thank you Thank you!!

Now for some Totally Random...fun pictures! :-)

Happy November!

Hello Everyone! I have been absent for awhile now... but that's mainly because I feel that "waiting" is not that interesting a topic to write about! :-) We've still been pretty busy, the adoption fundraising has slowed a bit, but that's ok - the Lord is letting us catch our breath!

So.. what's been happening....?

Well, the girls and I are in full force with school, like everyone else, but we won't be taking much of a break this year. We'll do school through the holidays, because school will probably slack some when we have 2 more little bodies in the house!

We've been learning a lot about serving others, giving of ourselves and what it means to "go and make disciples." Nate and I are especially excited about doing more with the latter...

At the end of October Nate and I (along with my parents and some of our friends) traveled to D.C. so the husbands could participate in the Marine Corps Marathon - yep, that's right... my man ran 26.2 miles....AT. ONE. TIME! Barf, if you ask me... I tackled the Marine Corps 10K (that's 6.2 for those of you counting!) with my sweet friend Jenn... which is much more my speed! It was a beautiful day for a run though.. even though there was a hurricane about to come through!

We got home on October 31, just in time for Nate to have drill weekend, and leave for a week long training in Jacksonville.

Many of you might know that at the beginning of October, Madelyn felt like this adoption process was taking too long and she wanted to ask God for "The Call" to come by the end of October. (Mind you, we began this process 6 short months ago) :-) Oh and "The Call" is the Referral Call, when we hear from our agency that there are specific children in Uganda waiting for parents.

Well, October came and went with no call - I really hadn't thought much of it (because the girls had already changed their prayers to "and I pray that we would receive "The Call" before the end of November!) lol persistence :-)

Well, wouldn't you know it - out of the blue on November 2 - my phone rang with such a call! We were told about two children in Uganda that might be available for adoption soon! As of right now, the courts are closing over there - so there is nothing more for us to do but learn more about these kids, pray for God's direction and peace.... and wait. Courts should open again in late January and we will make a decision and know more around that time.

If you will, please remember us in prayer these next few months - that we will be open to God's leading, that we will hear Him clearly and that whatever the direction, we will move with boldness and peace.
Also keep in mind the families that are currently in country trying to bring their children home - it can be a crazy and very stressful situation all around. Please pray that God's Will will be done!

Thank you for reading and praying us through this journey! I have said it before, and will say it again - there is no way we could do this without you and your support, we are so humbled and grateful! 

Now... what's a blog post without some pics...?

 Doing a little science at home...

 Learning about rain clouds

 looking for tadpoles and other wildlife at Circle B

 these magnifiers are awesome!! (look at Maddie's face!)

 Both girls are teaching themselves how to draw!

 A Fun Break with Friends!

 Ab got her license early! :-)

 Cars and boating...apparently! :-)

Learning all about different kinds of shells

 Putting the treasure in the bottle

Garage Sale Pics

A few t-shirts and giraffes sold

There was never a dull moment!

Help from friends, selling drinks and snacks (and their moms organized and haggled with customers!)

We could not have worked this huge sale by ourselves! We are so thankful for those that came to help!

Ab got a math lesson after all - counting and sorting!!

We're still here.. :-)

I haven't forgotten about you - there hasn't been much to report these days.
We are in full swing in the "waiting game." All of our paperwork is in Uganda and we have received word that our immigration paperwork was approved (so now we are ready to travel.) But, now we wait. We are waiting for our "referral call" - the one that says there are two little boys who need a family and the voice on the other end asks if we would like to be that family! The call could come today or in 6 months.... of this, we have no control.
However... we have been studying The Circle Maker at church and Nate and I have been encouraged to pray boldly for things only God could do, (and by "things" I don't mean "stuff" - just clarifying!) :-) Although, we have enjoyed the study - we had not told the girls about it, yet we continue to pray with them every night as they ask the Lord to protect their brothers and keep them safe until they can be home with us. Well, at the beginning of October, Maddie (our 5 yr old) began expressing her frustration over having to wait so long for her brothers (which is cute in kid terms - but it really hasn't been that long!) :-) So, that night during her prayer time she decided that she was going to ask God to "give us the 'call' by the end of the month" so we would know who the boys were and the next process would begin.
Nate and I knew that this was something that we could join in with her and pray boldly for - it's definitely the "thing" that only God can do! So, that's what we have been doing - we plead for the boys everyday, for their safety, their health, that someone will love them and care for them until we can, and now we are praying, boldly, that we will be made known of who they are by the end of October! It's kind of an awkward prayer, because we know full well that God has this under control and that He alone knows what is best for the boys and for our family - so, we of course want His best for us. We also continue to pray that His Will, will be done in our lives - so if He chooses not to honor this request, we will not falter in trusting, serving or loving Him as Lord of our lives.
How wonderful would it be though, if it all began with the prayers of a 5 year old!?!?! :-) I'm just sayin... :-)
If you feel so led, we would love for you to join in praying boldly with us and I will be sure to update the blog when "The Call" has been received! :-)
I'm off to enjoy this beautiful weather that is finally here - if even for the short morning hours! :-)

Oh! I will post garage sale pics, etc... soon :-)

The Garage Sale is 6 days away!!!!

Hello Friends! Next week is the big garage sale!!! I will post some pictures of what our house and garage are beginning to look like! We're running out of walking space.... I love it!!! Thank you so much to everyone who has donated - I am expecting God to do great things!!! :-)

Along those lines... how would you feel about helping out? There are many way to be a part....
1) Come over Thursday night to help us make signs and put them around town AND do some sorting of all the goodies.
2) Help set up Friday at 6am (We might need help setting up on Saturday also, but Friday will be the big day with the most stuff)
3) Help tear down both days and possibly be willing to load the remaining goods up for charities

4) Help us work the garage sale - We will have a table to sell giraffes and our t-shirts also and that will need constant attention, and then of course just helping anyone who comes up!

Please let me know if you're available to help and in what area! Thank you again for all your support - we couldn't do any of this without such loving and faithful friends and family - we are so appreciative of each one of you!!

Today is a good day!!!

Guess what we did today...???

Oh, Ok... I will tell you... We mailed all 65 (or so) pages documenting our lives off to Uganda!! The nice folks at FedEx said the package should be there by this Tuesday (which I think is warp speed coming from someone who has mailed packages to Afghanistan, Kuwait and Sudan... of course, I didn't pay for those what I paid today... but still...) :-)

So... we no longer have any control over how the process will continue (not that we had much control to begin with...) but it's that feeling when you know you have done everything that was asked of you and now the rest will be by divine appointment. So, the next step is to (patiently) wait for a call about the boys God has ordained to be part of our family! So exciting!!!

In the mean time we are continuing to raise funds for our trip and stay in Uganda (so we can pick the boys up!)
We are still sewing and selling giraffes - learn more about that here and here.

We are also selling t-shirts now... the pictures are not the best, they are from my cell phone, taken by a 6 yr old after a long day at the pool... that's just how it goes... you get the gist! :-)

They read: Uganda - 2.5 Million - Minus Two "I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you." John 14:18
If you are interested in purchasing... the adults shirts are grey and are $12 - the kid shirts are baby blue and are $10 (if you need it shipped please add $4, Thank you.) We have sm, med, and lrg in adult sizes and xs (which my girls wear) sm, and med in kid sizes. I will let you know when we sell out and have to order more!
(We are currently out of Adult Small t-shirts, but we are taking pre-orders for smalls and XL, or any other size you desire!) :-)

If you would like to learn more about other fundraising options please see the page above, and as always feel free to contact us through the blog, facebook, or email (juliebadams9204(at)gmail(dot)com)

Thank you so much for your support - we are so blessed to be walking this journey with so much love and encouragement around us

Quick Update

I have been meaning to update the blog for awhile now, but with my girls in Ohio for the last 10 days, I made myself rather busy with creating the play room into the girl's room and the girl's room into the boy's room! I've also been working on giraffes like mad! :-) I'm not the only one though, I have friends and family out there sewing giraffes, others collecting fabric, and still others selling them off for us! It's definitely a village working to bring these boys home, and we are so thankful for all of them! :-)
A quick update before I head off to our next adventure...
- Our paperwork for the adoption is nearly complete, we need to get some forms notarized and then approval from our agency and then it will go in the mail to Uganda! This should all happen in the next week or so! Yes, that is incredibly fast - at least quicker than what we were expecting, so please continue to pray for us as we ride this unpredictable roller coaster, and expectantly wait upon the Lord's provision!
- We have over 600 of the puzzle pieces sponsored already! We are so incredibly humbled when we look at the names on the back of all the pieces. I can't wait to see it put together and placed on the boy's wall! It is the most tangible way for them to see who has been praying them home before we ever knew them... I love it! If you've been meaning to get your name on a puzzle piece, please still do. There are plenty left and we would love to be able to tell our boys about each person's name that we read on the back!
- As of today, we have 46 giraffes going to Uganda!! They are sewn and in the box ready to go! It has been such an incredible few weeks watching our friends and family come together in support of this idea. They are helping us move things along and get the giraffes made and ready for an orphan! It's an overwhelming task and my dining room is showing the effects.. but it is temporary. Thank you to everyone who has purchased a giraffe, the funds are certainly helping us in this process, but more importantly than that, you have provided something small that will show an orphan someone loves him/her and is praying for them - thank you for being that person in their lives!
- Some of you may know that we're planning to have a garage sale in September to raise funds for the trip to Africa... more on that to come... but if you feel so inclined and want to help with that, we would certainly appreciate any donations you would be willing to part with! We'll talk more about that when it gets closer.

Thank you all for your prayers and support! Nate and I are growing so much in this process. We are constantly learning to rely only on God and allowing Him to lead the way. He has proven himself faithful over and over again - we are blessed by a God that created this world and everything in it and yet cares about the small details of our lives! That's pretty humbling...

More soon....

News Clip

Hey Friends, I don't know who reads this blog, but friends are still asking about the news clip that Fox 13 did on our family. So, I will post it here, if you're patient enough, there's a video that goes along with the article. :-)

http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/story/18997748/2012/07/11/family-raising-money-to-adopt-in-uganda

"So... What Does it cost to adopt Internationally?"

Many people ask us what it is going to cost to adopt from Uganda and what we are paying for. We are a little bit vague when answering this question b/c it's pretty in depth. But in this post, I will give it a shot to help those understand a little better. Note to all those who might stumble on this blog, this is for our agency at this particular time, and can change at any moment.. just FYI :-)
Adoption Fees:
Application Fee - $250
Home Study - $1,300
3 Post Adoption Reports - $750
Professional Service Fee - $4,000
Humanitarian Aid/Orphanage Donation - $400
Uganda Foreign Fee - $4,500
Child's Birth Cert. and Passport - $550
Foster Care Fees - $2,000
In-Country travel fee (for court) - $500
USCIS & fingeringprinting - $975
Adoption Parent Education - $150
Fedex Documents to Uganda - $400
Wire transfer fees - $100
Medical Exam for visa - $110
Child's Visa - $400
Attorney in US to finalize adoption - $2,000
Passports for parents - $270
Airfare - 2 adults - $4,000
Airfare child 0-2yrs - $250
Entrance Visa - $100
Meals and Supplies in country - $1,600
Immunizations - $600
Lodging (4 weeks) - $1,200
Transportation - $1,200 + gas
These fees total over $27,000 - some are approximates that will occur in country, and others will be doubled if there is a brother involved. All fees are based on 1 adopted child.
So, some of those titles will be confusing - but that is a little more insight into what we are looking at...
Thanks for asking, and for reading! :-)

So... I told you I would tell more....

Let me start off by saying that if I was handwriting this, we might be in a bit of trouble, because as K. Hanshaw says, "You haven't really sewn until you've sewn with Julie Adams!" Or maybe, it's more like, "you haven't really sewn until you've watched Julie sew her finger to her machine!" :-) So... typing is a bit slow today and handwriting looks like chicken scratch, but I press on! :-)
This weekend has been awesome!!! (Minus the finger sewing.) The last two days have been one blessing after another. Nate and I have been really blessed by our Sunday School class (but of course we don't call it that... it's a "Connect Group"... a much more "hip" name!) :-) This is a group of people who have been known to step it up and make things happen. Nate and I have been so proud to serve along side these couples! We asked them to sponsor one family for Thanksgiving, and they showed up with enough food to bless three instead!! We asked them to support a local Easter Egg hunt and lunch for 300 kids, and not only did they show up for that event, but they came back a week later after the first egg hunt was rained out! These folks are the real deal and we love learning and growing with them!

I tell you about this awesomeness because I want you to know the kind of people God has put in our lives. Not one of the things we have asked of the class has been for personal gain. Nate and I were the ministry coordinators for our class, and that's what we did, we coordinated ministry opportunities so our class (and families) could get involved and serve our community. But, here we are, in a situation that requires us to ask others for help, which at times feels like it's for personal gain. Nate and I know full well that we cannot walk through this adoption process on our own, and we're learning that we weren't intended to. God is stretching us to accept help and support from those around us, to allow those that care for us to come along side of us and walk this journey together. It is so humbling, to say the least. Almost daily, I am blessed by someone offering to help in any way possible, praying for us, or just asking questions to better understand... I am loving all changes this has created in my heart, although it is at times a difficult and painful stretch! :-)

OK.. so thanks for reading about how wonderful our friends are, now to tell you about the really neat fundraising/ministry opportunity that I mentioned a few weeks ago...
Last night some fabulous ladies came over and gave nearly 6 hours of their Saturday night to help us sew giraffes! Yes, you read that right, we were sewing our fingers, oh no, that was just me... we were cutting, pinning and sewing giraffes into the dark hours of the night... or dare we call it nearly morning??
The giraffes are a neat brainchild of many different people... there were many ideas and suggestions and finally God showed us the direction we should go.
The giraffes are taggie blankets and are multi-purpose 1) to help us remember that there are 147 million orphans in the world and we need to be praying for them, specifically for good health, proper care, and someone to love them and to teach them about Jesus. 2) for every giraffe that is purchased here in the States, Nate and I will take 1 with us to Uganda to place in the hands of an orphan who will sleep in an orphanage tonight. We are praying that these simple giraffe blankets will be a small bright spot in their world. We are also praying over these giraffes and the orphans who will one day hold them in Uganda.
So, for $10 a person will receive 1 blanket as a reminder to pray and 1 will travel to Uganda.
We believe that God has challenged us with making 500 giraffe blankets... which means 250 orphans will be able to have one!! 500 seems super overwhelming to me, but this is where our friends have stepped up once again. With our "sweat shop" last night, we cranked out 34 completed blankets and have 63 more ready to sew. We have friends making plans to work on them on their own, and offering up their mothers, in-laws and friends to cut and sew giraffes! :-) I am touched and completely blessed by others jumping in to help. I could have sworn that I heard God wrong... because there is no way that I would be able to make 500 blankets on my own... but once again He has proven that He will not leave us to walk this path alone!
If you are interested in purchasing a taggie blanket for yourself and an orphan you can contact me through, Facebook, Email (juliebadams9204@gmail.com) or this blog. Send me your name and if you have a preference on a boy or girl giraffe.
(If you need the giraffe mailed to you, please include your address and an extra $2.) If you already have a Paypal account, you can send funds very simply through the button on this page, or you can send us a check, or pay when I see you around town. :-)
If you're unable to sponsor giraffes at this time, we ask for your continued prayers. We know that God is listening and is honoring your requests on our behalf. We appreciate you! Thanks for reading this week's ramblings! :-)

The first group (minus J. Chevalier... I need to photoshop you in! :-) including Ab and Mad

 Part group 1 and shift 2

 Sorry for this pic... but it was true... a needle straight through my finger... thanks to E. Hunt for capturing the moment! :-)

 Hard at work around 11pm! Nate spent the day rangling kids, working on his car, loading and unloading mulch, spreading it, swimming, a little first aide, putting kids to bed, and then wrapped up his evening with a little cut and pin action! What a guy! :-)

A sampling of the finished product!

 The remaining 60 something ready for sewing...

Let's get creative.... Ways to hang them as prayer reminders:

In the kid's room!

 On the fridge!

Or in the bathroom!

I can't wait for you to tell me where you hung yours!!! :-)

This is where I am....

"With my genuine needs met but so many dollars yet unspent, shopping has become a stronger marker of freedom that voting, and what we spend in the mall matters more than what we're accomplishing together as the church. I am part of the problem, a contributing member of inequality. Every time I buy another shirt I don't need or a seventh pair of shoes for my daughter, I redirect my powerful dollar to the pockets of consumerism, fueling my own greed and widening the gap. Why? Because I like it. Because those are cute. Because I want that.

These thoughts burden me holistically, but the trouble is, I can rationalize them individually. This one pair of shoes? Big Deal. This little outfit? It was on sale. This micro-justification easily translates to nearly every purchase I have made. Alone, each item is reduced to an easy explanation, a harmless transaction. But all together, we've spent enough to irrevocably change the lives of a HUNDRED THOUSAND PEOPLE. What did I get for that budgeting displacement? Closets full of clothes we barely wear and enough luxuries to outfit twenty families.

This is hard to process, so it helps to imagine standing in front of the families of my Ethiopian children, who were too poor and sick to raise their own beloved babies. As I gaze upon their hopelessness, I imagine them calculating what I've spent on clothing alone, realizing that same amount would've kept their family fed and healthy for thirty years.

What if all my silly little individual purchases do matter? What if I joined a different movement, one that was less enticed by luxuries and more interested in justice? What if I believed every dollar spent is vital, a potential soldier in the war on inequality?

The average human gets around twenty-five thousand days on this earth, and most of us in the United States of America will get a few more. That's it. This life is a breath.... We have this one life to offer; there is no second chance, no Plan B for the good news. We get one shot at living to expand the kingdom, fighting for injustice. We'll stand before Jesus once, and none of our luxuries will accompany us. We'll have one moment to say, "This is how I lived."

More than thirteen thousand of those days are over for me. I'm determined to make the rest count."

This is from a book titled "7" by Jen Hatmaker. A book that I put down a few weeks ago so I could finish "Kisses from Katie" (which I was enthralled with.) I opened "7" up tonight, and although I was supposed to be sleeping an hour ago, I continued to read.... God is changing me, claiming my heart, and my focus. I know that I am not where He wants me, but I know I am on the journey. What am I really willing to do, to give up, to sacrifice? What does God have in store? Jen Hatmaker's few paragraphs capture what my spirit is screaming, but my flesh can't understand....
What I budget for my groceries for 2 weeks would send over 600 children in Uganda to a Christian school, complete with supplies, uniforms, basic medical care and 3 meals a day... OVER 600!!! Seriously? And what's even crazier is that my family could be sustained for those 2 weeks on what we have in our kitchen right now!             
God strip me of the excess. Help me to see it for what it really is and to not believe the lies. Silence Satan, so I can only be moved by you. Break my heart for what breaks yours, and use me in any and every way to expand your kingdom.
http://www.amazima.org/sponsor.html

God's Not Dead...!

"God's not dead, He's surely alive! He's livin on the inside, roaring like a lion..."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_OTz-lpDjw&feature=related
We love this song in our house, if you're anywhere near us on the road, you might notice that we crank up the radio and go bouncing down the street singing this song at the top of our lungs! It certainly has a fun, catchy beat, but what we love the most are the words.... "God's not dead, He's surely alive!" It is so powerful to be proclaiming these words!
Truthfully, it's probably because we are seeing God moving in our lives on a daily basis - and we're trying our best to remember and chronicle every movement we see, (and I plan to make a post of all the God Sightings along the way.) But, I can tell you of one such movement that had to do with money....
On Tuesday (June 19th), Nate and I had to write our first check to the adoption agency, as of Friday the week before we did not have the full amount in our adoption fun. I wasn't sure where we would pull the money from, but I knew we were on the right track, so God would provide. On Monday, we checked the account and the rest of the money had come in from unexpected places, wanting puzzle pieces, or just a donation. Nate and I laugh and think that this is how God just might handle this whole adoption process... holding out until the last moment! :-) That's ok, we believe He called us to Uganda, so He will provide the way... truthfully, I'm so thankful He does, and I don't have to worry about it. I just need to learn to accept the help and support and continue to say Thank You!!
I tell you what, say, "yes" to God, to whatever He wants, and you will see God moving in real, tangable and powerful ways... we're calling them God Sightings! :-)

HERE WE GO!

OK, let me give a little background....

From the moment we said "Yes!" to God about adoption, He has been directing our steps. We researched all kinds of agencies and were introduced to a smaller one out of Sarasota. We met some families from Lakeland that had recently adopted from Uganda (or are currently walking through the process) and it turns out that they also used this same agency. We met with the director and really felt like God had led us in their direction. However, because this is a small agency, they choose to only work with four families at a time (one thing I really like about them!) When we met with them in May they already had 4 families they were working with but 2 of them were in Uganda waiting to bring their children home.

At this point, Nate and I decided that our path was clear to work with this agency and we would wait until they had an opening instead of going with another agency.

While we waited, we completed our online adoption training, and applied for certified copies of all of our birth certificates and marriage licence.

Two weeks ago, I contacted the agency to ask where we were at in the process, if there was anything else we could do while we waited and to ask about a neat fundraising/ministry opportunity that we had been thinking about (more on that to come soon!) We were told that hopefully we would receive a phone call by June 15th with the "go ahead" to move forward with getting our homestudy and dossier (all the paperwork) completed.

It was a long two weeks while we waited, but we were busy with Classical Conversations Practicum and VBS, so there wasn't much we could do anyway. I joked with Nate that I "put the fleece out" for God (Judges 6:39) in regards to the agency we should go with. That if we received the call from our agency on the 15th, then that would be one more thing to make it perfectly clear what we should do. (I'm a little thick headed sometimes) :-)

Well, as amazing as our God is, we did indeed receive a call on the 15th from our agency! They are ready to take us on and help us get all of our paperwork ready, etc. We are ready to go AND we have our first homestudy visit THIS Tuesday!

As if God had not made it clear enough already we were recently introduced to a family that has adopted from Uganda (via e-mail through my brother-in-law.)  Upon learning about this sweet couple it turns out they had a hand in establishing the very agency that we are working with!

We're excited to finally "start" the process and so humbled by God's orchestration of events up to this point.  Many have offered their love, prayers and support and asked how they can help.  

First and foremost, we covet prayer, that the process will go exactly as God intends, that we will be patient through it all and learn all that He has to teach us through the process and ultimately that we will bring glory to God at every turn in the journey!  Secondly, as you probably know, overseas adoptions are not cheap; we've added a fundraising image on the blog to show where we are at in the process financially.  As you can see, we have already been blessed beyond words by the generosity of our friends and family but there is still a long way to go.  It's not in our nature to ask for help (one of the many lessons God is already teaching us) but frankly, we can not do this alone.  If the Lord is leading you to help financially, we'd love to add you as a "piece of our puzzle" (see previous blog post).  We will also be selling some items to help offset the cost of the adoption as well (Julie is working on that now).  

Thank you in advance. We so appreciate you!

Some Fun Facts about Uganda

Uganda is a safe and friendly land-locked country in East Africa. It has a well-developed tourist infrastructure with excellent national parks that showcase Uganda's wide variety of wildlife including mountain gorillas, chimpanzees and over 600 species of birds.

Uganda is slightly smaller than Oregon with just over 30 million people living there.
The DRC lies to the east and Kenya to the west, see map below
The captial of Uganda is Kampala (most likely where we will fly into to pick up our boys)
Language: English (official national language), but other languages are mostly spoken, such as, Ganda or Luganda, Nilo-Saharan languages, Swahili, and Arabic. (English being the national language is very good for the adoption process because our documents will not have to be translated into another language)
Religion: Roman Catholic 33%, Protestant 33%, Muslim 16%, indigenous beliefs 18%.
Climate: The climate is tropical; generally rainy with two dry seasons (December to February, June to August). Average daily temperatures rarely exceed 84 F.
Currency: Uganda Shilling - as of today: 1 US Dollar = 2,509.44 Uganda Shilling  - thank goodness Nate and his accounting skills are coming with us! :-)

Stay tuned for more FUN FACTS and some less FUN ones as well...http://goafrica.about.com/od/uganda/a/ugandafacts.htm

What's New?

Not a whole lot! :-) Actually, that's not really true. God has been showing up big time, and we are seeing it in all the people around us! Our friends and family have been so supportive and literally jumping on board with slogan ideas, encouraging words and fundraising plans. Speaking of which, the puzzle pieces are selling so well, almost every day I've been writing names on the back of the puzzle! It's so exciting, I can't wait to see it all come together! If you haven't had an opportunity to get your puzzle piece yet, there are plenty left and we added a new "Donate" button to the blog to make it easier. So you can go through PayPal if you like, don't forget to let me know the names of everyone you're getting a piece for, so I can add their name on the back!
Also, I want to tell you about something SOO exciting!!!
Our sweet friends, Nate and Ida Mundell have a photography business (which is just packed with amazing talent!) and they have offered to do a special set of mini-sessions to help support our adoption process. I will let them explain the details. However, you want in this - move quickly b/c the slots are filling up fast!
Thanks again, Nate and Ida, you guys are such a blessing to us!!!


"It's time for another round of mini-sessions and these ones are very dear to our family. In honor of Father's Day, we will be offering 10 sessions titled "The 68.5 Sessions". Why 68.5? Psalm 68:5 tells us "Father to the fatherless, defender of widows—this is God, whose dwelling is holy." Today, there are MILLIONS of children without a father, so this Father's Day we are partnering with our dear friends, Nate and Julie Adams, as they are adding to their family through adoption from Uganda! 100% of your mini-session cost will be given to the family to help meet the financial need associated with the adoption. We can make a difference! We can help give a father to the fatherless! Sessions will be in June. Dates to be released next week. Cost: $68.50. Your mini-session will include: a 45 minute, downtown session (multiple locations downtown), a disc containing 20 edited images and a print release form allowing you to print as many photos as you'd like, from wherever you'd like. Our mini-sessions ALWAYS book fast, so if you're interested please leave a comment with your e-mail address and we will e-mail you with dates before we release them to everyone. Thank you for partnering with us! (And please spread the word!)"

Nate Mundell Photography http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nate-Mundell-Photography/104262359605640

Pretty Cool, huh!?!?!?! Good Peeps!

Becoming a Piece of our Puzzle

As most of you know we have gone through Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University and we strive to stay debt free. When we started the adoption process we made a promise to ourselves to do it without going into debt. Unfortunately, it is tough to do since international adoption can be rather costly. But with the help of the internet, we are finding many creative ways to raise the money without having to borrow! One of these ways is through a puzzle fundraiser! The girls love to do puzzles, so this is going to be so fun for us (and you too)!

Here's how it works:

For $5 per piece, you can sponsor a piece of our adoption puzzle.
We will write your name on the back of your piece(s) and add it to the puzzle.
Once all of the pieces have sponsors, we'll glue the pieces together and hang it in our son's room. We will hang it in a clear frame so he can see the 1000 people who loved and prayed for him before he was even here!

I know there are so many needs all around us, and Nate and I are thankful for your prayers and help in meeting the financial aspect of our adoption. We have already been so blessed and humbled by the excitement and prayers surrounding this journey. We can't thank you enough!


If you are interested in sponsoring a little piece of our puzzle, just email me, or you can go directly to PayPal and send to juliebadams9204@gmail.com. Thank you in advance!

New Beginnings

Welcome to our new blog! :-) For most of you this will be new information! :-)

In April of this year, Nate and I decided that we would add to our family again, only this time we plan to bring home a little boy, or two! :-)
It's not every day that you can control the gender of your children... but through international adoption, gender selection is possible! :-)
It has been an amazing journey this far, and we both believe that God has called us to bring home our boys from Uganda some time in the near future. He has already been guiding our steps, leading us to the people who have gone before, some that are on the same journey, and those that will walk along side of us. We are excited to see what waits for us along this path, and meet the boys we will call our sons!

Please pray with us for continued guidance, and wisdom and of course, peace and faith regarding the financial obstacles.
I plan to keep this updated along the way with new pieces of the journey and some ways in which you can be involved, if you would like... so , stay tuned! :-)