Update on Completing the Process

Hi Friends and Family!

We’ve had some people asking recently about where we are at in our adoption process and how much more money we need to raise to complete the process so we thought we would give a quick update on what is going on!

We became Jonah’s legal guardians in Uganda but have to officially adopt him in the US. We have already sent all of our paperwork to our lawyer who will help us complete this process.

As far as funds go, we still need to raise around $3000 over the next couple of months, which includes lawyer fees and the cost for completing the citizenship process.

If you are interested in donating towards our adoption cause, you can click donate now on the right side of our blog to use a credit card or paypal or please contact me if you would like me to give information on giving through Lifesong for tax purposes.

Thank you all! We have been overwhelmed by people’s generosity in giving of their time, energy, finances, and prayers to help us in this process! We are blessed with so many amazing people around us!

Here are pictures of some of the beads I am selling! Contact me if you are interested in ordering! I can ship for around $3 extra!

Cuff bracelets $8 

Solid color bracelets $5

Neckalces (wrap 2 or 3 times around neck) $10

Multi-colored bracelets $5

Earrings $5

Triple wrap bracelets $10

He's Home!!!

Hi Friends and family!

We wanted to give everyone an update on our adoption process! There is so much to be said, but I will give some of the highlights. Jonah arrived home on Monday, October 7^th from Uganda, and it has been an incredible 3 weeks so far with him! 

Here are a few pics from his arrival!

Before they walked through the doors!

Silas meeting Jonah for the first time!

Cheryl Sargent and her husband Gary started The Suubi Project where we adopted Jonah from. These are all the children that have been adopted out of the orphanage so far and all live in our area! So amazing to see them together in the US!

All of us with Gary and Cheryl Sargent! 

It is amazing to see how God shaped all the different personalities in our family and how they come together. Jonah has been doing remarkably well for the extreme transition from a 3^rd world country to the U.S.  When he first walked into our house, he asked if the bathtub was where he would sleep because he had never seen a bathtub before! We have slowly been introducing him to all of the machines in our house and watch his amazement at things that I’ve never lived without. The first time Jonah seemed a little bored, I asked him what he wanted to do and he said “mommy, may I please use the machine?” I was so curious to hear what he thought THE MACHINE was. He led me to the hall closet where our vacuum was.  I told him he could use it anytime he wanted :o)

Jonah has always lived around many different ages of children in one house, so getting to know Silas, and Noah, and Ellie came easily.  Jonah is a humble leader with his younger two brothers, and so gentle and sweet with Ellie. When he can see that Ellie wants attention from me in the middle of cooking, he will say “come Hellie” and will chase her around the house (her favorite game). The boys have so much fun doing everything from nerf gun wars, to soccer games, board games, and jumping on the trampoline, and their favorite activity—riding bikes. I love listening to their conversations, especially when Silas starts speaking in a really strange accent to Jonah that he thinks sounds Ugandan, but it is more Japanese-sounding than anything :o)

I began homeschooling Jonah this week while the boys are at school.  We have spent some really good quiet hours getting to know each.  Our time has been much needed since Brad was the one who spent 8 weeks in Africa with him. We’ve had some really good conversations, and I have loved watching him learn so many new things. Jonah is my little side-kick now and I have him do just about everything with me. I am teaching him how to cook a few things and he loves it. A few days ago, he told me he was going to cook something special. The end result of this special cooking experiment was pan-fried bananas on top of scrambled eggs and onions. He loved it! Let me tell you…my boys can eat! Cooking for 4 big boys and 2 girls is quite the change around here!

Some of my personal favorite things that Jonah says are: “daddy why are you cackling?” (instead of laughing), “mommy please remove the lights,” when he gets hurt by something like stubbing his foot on a chair, he says “why is this chair abusing me?” He calls his personal space and things “his kingdom” and the other day, his bed had crumbs in it and he said “mommy I don’t know why everything in my kingdom is having messes!”

Jonah is a constant reminder of God’s grace and that we have so much excess that we don’t even know about. Yesterday when we were eating lunch together, he was telling me how in Nansololo (the village where he grew up), if they ate dinner one night, they would not get to eat the next day—they would have to skip a day and eat again 2 nights later. I can’t imagine telling me kids every other day “sorry there is no food today.”  I really used to think we had so little compared to so many people! I am so thankful for all of the stories and reminders that all we have is God’s and we always have so much more to give than we realize!

Jonah really is a miracle. He is a picture of God’s grace in our lives and it is a miracle that he is here with us as it was never our plan to adopt a 9 year old boy, and as the process unfolded, it seemed impossible that we would ever get approval to bring him home! We are so blessed that God moved our hearts to adopt him.  He moved mountains for him to come home!

We are still in the process of adopting him as we became his legal guardians in Uganda but still have to complete the adoption process here in the US! I will do another blog update about this part of the process in the next day or two to give everyone a break from reading :o)

Thank you all for being a part of bringing our son home!!!

Jonah is Coming Home!

Friends and family,

Most of you all know that we have received the approval for Jonah’s visa this week!  Charise called me on Wednesday morning to let me know that she received the email from the US Embassy in Nairobi saying he has been a approved.  I could barely understand what she was saying through her sobs.  I initially thought it was bad news and my heart sunk.  I said, “’did’ or ‘did not’ receive it?”  When I heard her say “we DID receive it.” I couldn’t comprehend it. 

We have been working toward this for almost a year and a half.  At one point our attorney told us that our chances are very slim to ever have Jonah and we need to be prepared that this will probably not happen.  Our faith has been stretched like never before and we have had many days where we felt nothing but had to cling to a numb, emotionless faith.

God once again proves that He cares deeply for orphans.  He is also proving to us that He and He alone is the rescuer of the weak and the oppressed.  His glory is put on display when the impossible becomes possible; our story is just another example of the millions that have preceeded! 

This week there has been a family in Texas and a boy in Africa that have been full of joy, laughter, and an incredible relief.  The support that we have felt from all of you has blown us away!  This endeavor has revealed the Body of Christ to us deeper than anything else we have experienced.  To say “Thank you” feels cheap and stupid and a “holy kiss” would probably cross the line.  Please just know that in a couple weeks a boy will be coming home to a family that will give him 3 meals a day, care for his health, tuck him into a bed at night, educate him, love on him, and instruct him in the truths of the Gospel and while this should all be the norm for a little boy, it will be new for him.  We could not have done this without you!  We are humbled.  Love you all!  OUR BOY IS FINALLY COMING HOME!!!

-Brad

Our Case is Complete!

Hi Friends and Family!

We just wanted to share the good news that the case we have been working on for the last 3 months is finally finished and is on its way the embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. We are very pleased with how it came together and are so thankful for the MANY people who did their part in gathering information for us and helping in various ways through this part of the process. 

Once it arrives in Kenya on September 9th our case worker will read through all of the evidence we have provided to help clarify the issues that arose in our case, and then they will make a decision. They could ask for more evidence at that time, give us an intent to deny (we would have to appeal their decision which would take 1 year), or they could issue us a visa and Brad would fly to Africa to bring our son home.

Please pray with us during this season of waiting to hear the embassy's decision. Please pray for our case worker Sonia as she makes the decision that will affect the rest of our lives. Please pray for peace and patience as we do not know how long it will take to hear their decision (a few weeks to a few months). Please join us in praying that the next step would be sending Brad to Africa to go tell Jonah it is time to get on a plane and come home.

We trust in the Lord's timing, in his goodness, and in his sovereignty in our lives and in Jonah's life...something we understand and depend on so much more now than we ever did before we started this adoption.

Thank you all for your support of all different kinds that God has used to encourage us so much, especially on really hard days during this process. We hope to have good news to share soon!

Thank you all!

...and I have no idea why this post has a white background:)

Needing Prayers

I'm back on blogger to ask for everyone's prayers for this difficult season in our adoption process. 

So where have we been since February? We decided right before Brad and I left for our court date in Uganda to make a secret facebook page for adoption updates to keep things more private while we were overseas and our adoption was being completed. While we were there, we still had some issues at that point with privacy in our story so we were forced to shut that down. Now we are picking back up where we left off on this blog. 

I am going to do a “brief” overview of what happened over the last few months in our adoption process. It has been a ride we never could have imagined when we began this process! Brad and I left our 3 kids with family to fly to Uganda at the beginning of March for our court date. It was so good to reconnect with Martin who we hadn’t seen for almost a year since our Missions trip to Uganda in June of 2012 when we met him. We were so ready to ask him a million questions, but had to take it slow because of the language barrier.

Our court date was scheduled for March 6^th, but was rescheduled for March 14^th. I had to fly home before our rescheduled court date to be with our 3 kids at home and I said a very teary goodbye to our husband and son in Uganda, praying that I would be seeing them both at our Dallas airport in 4 weeks or so.

Here is a picture of Jonah and I before I left walking together at Suubi.

Here is Jonah doing his favorite thing EVER! We asked him how he learned to play soccer and he said that when he was a little boy he would tie banana plants together into a ball shape and he taught himself to play--WOW. He's pretty incredible at it too.

Court went very well on March 14^th and Brad moved out of the orphanage, into Kampala with Martin when we received a favorable verbal ruling from the judge. At Martin’s last night at the orphanage, he was able to celebrate the first birthday he has ever celebrated when he turned 9 years old. That night Martin told Brad he did not want to be called Martin Marvine (understandable) and so they were discussing a new name to give him. Brad asked him about the name Jonah, and he loved it. He read the children in the orphanage that night the story about Jonah, a story God has already used greatly in our lives. So our son's full name is Obwara Martin Jonah Marvine. When Brad moved into the city, we were able to use facetime to see each others faces almost on a daily basis. It became our favorite time of the day. I got to walk around the house using our ipad and show Jonah the various rooms of our house and he quickly got to know the quirky personalities of Silas, Noah, and Ellie here at home.

 This picture was taken at the nicest hotel in Kampala where we would go and eat sometimes. Jonah was amazed! I'm telling you these are two of the most incredible men that exist and I'm so thankful for them! One of these days I'll have Brad hop on here and tell you some amazing stories of their adventures together in Africa.

We received legal guardianship of Jonah on April 4^th and Brad was prepared for the final step of our process which was an interview at the US embassy to attain Jonah’s visa so he could come home. On June 8^th Brad went in for the visa interview and the embassy requested to schedule another interview with Jonah’s biological parents to be present for the second interview. Two days later we brought Jonah’s parents in for the interview, which Brad was not a part of.

On April 22^nd, Brad received a phone call from the US embassy telling him that our case was “not clearly approvable” and would be sent to the embassy in Nairobi, Kenya for further investigation. It was devastating to get the call from Brad that he would not be bringing Jonah home after being in Uganda for almost 2 months.  Brad had to say a very difficult goodbye to Jonah, which they called "see you later" after spending 7 and a half weeks with him by his side every second of the day and night.  Jonah recorded a video on Brad’s phone for each of our kids and I.  He told me to “stop crying mommy! I will be home soon!”…not that I had been crying or anything :o) Jonah is staying at The Suubi Project where he had been living and where he will be taken care of until we see him again. We’ve even been able to talk to him over the phone on and off while other families who are adopting are staying at the orphanage to tell him that we are fighting for him and love him and pray for him every day.

On April 4^th we received our “Request for more Evidence” from the embassy in Kenya that contained some pretty concerning issues. We will have around 3 months to clear up the problems with our case. We decided to hire a lawyer in the US to help us with this part of the process. After we turn in our evidence the embassy could request more evidence, give us an intent to deny, or approve us for a visa so we could bring Jonah home.

Brad and I have absolutely never come close to going through something so painful and yet we feel God doing an incredibly deep and good work in us through this waiting and all of the unknowns.

Please pray for us as we fight to bring our son home. It has been an emotional and overwhelming process that we know God is using in us and Jonah. We are asking for prayer for Jonah as it is so difficult to describe to him what is going on and why we can’t just fly over there and bring him home. Please pray that Brad and I would keep our eyes on the Lord and not put our hope in circumstances, or people, or paperwork, but only Him. Please also pray that God would make a way for Jonah to come home quickly!

Thank you all!