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