Hang onto your hats, people!

It’s been 61 days since we last updated this blog.  Have no fear; you didn’t miss much, at least not on the adoption front.  I’m sure you all were as busy as we were (if not more so) with Thanksgiving and Christmas and what not.  We were fortunate enough to spend Thanksgiving (and Christmas evening) with some dear friends that also weren’t traveling out of town and didn’t have family in the area.  It was so nice fellowshipping with our brothers and sisters in Christ.  We hope your holiday was equally enjoyable.

This is Nate by the way, not Julie, if you couldn’t tell already.  She’s making me write this one.  Anyway, we have some pretty big news to share this time!

The first tidbit is the opportunity to be a featured family on the give1save1 blog.   Here’s the deal, Steph, the author of the blog, features 1 family for an entire week.  The family creates an adoption video with the goal of securing $1 donations from people that want to help them save one orphan.  One family raised $15,000!!  Check out the blog and go ahead and donate $1 to the featured family this week.  It’ll be good practice if/when we get featured and they could use the help. ;)  Anyway, we decided to give it a go and asked our very talented cousins, Adam and Squeeze Willis to help us with the video (click here for a link to Squeeze’s photography business or here to see some of the video work Adam does).  They drove all the way up here a week or so ago and we got tons of cool footage for our video.  To say we are STOKED about the finished product would be a minor major understatement!!!

Would you all believe me if I told you that wasn’t even the best part of this update?!  NOT. EVEN. CLOSE.

If you’ve been following our journey so far, you know that on 2 November we received a call about two children, a boy (3) and a girl (almost 4).  On 21 December we received the packet with all the details about the children; where they came from, why they’re at the orphanage, the whole nine yards.  On Christmas Eve, our attorney in Uganda made one last attempt at identifying family willing to take these children in.  At that point it was another 30 days before we had to give an answer.  If you have your calendar out, you’ve already figured out that today is the 30^th day! SOOOOO after much prayer and seeking wise counsel and more prayer and more wise counsel we decided to say YES!!!!  This feels so weird to say, but as of today, our children, Malachi and Macy (like their names?), have been removed from their orphanage and placed in a foster home where they will receive additional medical screenings and more personalized care (due to a significantly lower child to caregiver ratio).  The caregivers will be speaking to them in English and will have pictures of us very shortly to begin helping them associate our faces with “mommy” and “daddy”.  I’ve been telling people that I have a feeling our lives are going to go from “pause” to “fast forward” very soon.  I was right; after saying yes this morning we’ve been inundated with things we need to do to prepare for our trip (we’ll probably be traveling in March sometime), overwhelming to say the least.

You may have noticed my comment about their names; Malachi and Macy are not their birth names.  We discussed keeping their birth names but in the end we decided to change them, partly because we liked Malachi and Macy better but more importantly we were reminded of the many occasions in which God chose to change a person’s name in the Bible to signify life changing events (Jacob to Israel, Abram to Abraham, Saul to Paul, you get the point).  I think it’s safe to assume their adoption will be a life-changing event.  Come to think of it, maybe Julie and I should change our names too! J

I know what you’re thinking, “this is awesome news; how can I help?”  I’m glad you asked. J 

First and foremost, we desperately covet your prayers.  Please pray for a peaceful process, that it will go smoothly and quickly (maybe a nice balance of both, actually).  Pray that Malachi and Macy will attach to us once we are united, that they will accept us as their primary caregivers and transition quickly to becoming a part of our family.  Pray that Abigail and Madelyn will accept these children into our home and love them like they do each other (they are pumped by the way, but it’s hard to explain to them that it won’t always be fun).  Pray that Julie and I will adapt well to doubling the children in our home overnight (woah!) and make the transition from man-to-man to zone defense well. J  Pray for travel mercies, a hedge of protection around Malachi and Macy, that the time between now and being united with them will go fast.  Pray for PEACE through this whole situation.

Second, we have been overwhelmingly blessed by the generosity of our friends and family.  You all have freely donated your time, talents and treasure to help us get to this point.  Whether that’s volunteering to sew giraffes, helping with the garage sale, offering your photo (and video) skills or opening your wallets to support us financially, we are so humbled by your generosity.   We are SO CLOSE to our fund raising goal!  If (and only if) you feel led to contribute financially here are a few opportunities to do so right now;

1. We still have plenty of giraffe taggie blankets to sell (if you don’t know what these are, ask your wife, if she doesn’t know, google it, cuz I’m still not sure I know what they are). $10 buys one for you and sends one with us to give to an orphan in Uganda.  Our goal is to take 250 of them with us (which means selling 250).

2. We still have (some) puzzle pieces to sell.  $5 gets your name on the back of a puzzle piece.  Once all the pieces are sold we will assemble the puzzle and hang it in the kids’ room so they can turn it over to see all the people that helped bring them home. (pretty cool, huh?)

And  two opportunities for later (hopefully):

1. We have plans for a fund-raising dinner of some sort.  Depending on interest level, we would serve dinner and tell everyone a little about our adoption story, what we know about Malachi and Macy and answer any questions you may have.  If you’d like to attend or help out, let us know cuz we’re going to need it.

2. Finally, assuming we are featured on the give1save1 blog (you can pray for that too, btw), we need you all to help make the video “go viral”.  The more views we can get the more likely people will be to donate $1 to our cause.  I’ll be asking for commitments from you to share the video EVERY DAY of the week we are featured.  Too easy, right?

Ok, that’s it!  We hope you all are as excited as we are (not likely).  Hang on tight and try to keep up, we’ll do our best to keep you all in the loop.  We love you and can NOT thank you enough for your support.

Your adopted brother and sister in Christ,

Nate and Julie

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